Page 258 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

She lets out a nervous giggle and tugs at the hem of her T-shirt—neon green, a hue she gravitated toward automatically without any guidance from me. “As ready as I’m going to be, I guess. It still seems so weird, that I could do anything like that…”

I tap her arm to motion her down the hall toward the front door. “You’ll get used to using your skills. It’s a pretty amazing talent.”

Nadia’s mouth twists with a hint of a grimace. “A little scary too, though. I almost burned you yesterday.”

“Hey, I’m fine.” I hold up my hands to show the perfectly healthy skin. “We all had to learn control before we could feel comfortable with our abilities. By practicing, you’re making sure that if you’re taken by surprise, you won’t do anything you’ll regret.”

She glances over me with a haunted cast to her eyes. “I did before, didn’t I? Do things I’d regret if I could remember?”

I swallow thickly and touch her arm again, this time with a reassuring squeeze.

I’m not going to lie to her. “We all did. But no one here blames you. We’re glad you and the others are getting to start over in a better place.

It’s scary, sure, but we’re also special.

There’s no one else like us in the whole world.

” I shoot her a grin. “And you can light up the darkness like no one else at all.”

A soft smile returns to Nadia’s face. “I guess that is pretty cool.”

We step out into the cool air. Over by the garage, Sorsha and her shadowkind men are standing around their RV, the phoenix motioning to what looks like a trombone protruding from the side that I don’t recall being there before.

Her balance is still a little off, but her vertigo has faded a lot more since the battle in the facility.

She turns to face us with only a slight sway, not needing any overt support from her companions.

“We’re heading back home for the time being, although I bet we’ll be back to check up on all of you again.

We’ll see how the Everymobile handles another jaunt through the shadow realm. ”

“It’s always interesting, at least,” Ruse points out with a smirk.

A pang hits me as if Sorsha is already gone. It’s been a relief having someone around who has more experience at the whole hybrid thing than the rest of us—and who takes so many things easily in stride.

“You’ll be missed,” I say awkwardly, not wanting to make too big a deal of it.

The phoenix’s expression softens. “You shadowbloods can always come visit us if you want. There’s more than enough room for a bunch of guests in our big Victorian.”

It’s hard for me to think about what I’ll be doing even a week from now, but I appreciate the invitation. I dip my head. “I’d like that. I guess we’ll see where we end up.”

As they clamber on board the RV, the rustle of footsteps draws my attention in the other direction. My guys are heading across the lawn to join me, the trio of teen shadowbloods they were helping in their midst.

The teens head inside, murmuring to each other with hushed delight about whatever new aspects of their talents they tried out. Andreas jabs his thumb toward the house after them. “Should I go get Devon and Ajax too?”

I hesitate. “I don’t know—they seemed pretty cozy. I hate to interrupt them. Maybe you could see if?—”

At the clearing of a throat, I stop in mid-sentence.

Rollick is strolling over from the gardens too, with Pearl and Toni trailing behind him, hand-in-hand, though Toni lets go when she sees us.

The flush of her cheeks suggests that she’s still a little uncertain of whatever relationship she and the succubus have started to form.

The demon surveys our group with an approving air. “All of the Firsts in one place and not otherwise occupied. Perfect. We had an idea we wanted to present to you.”

My eyebrows rise. “What kind of an idea?”

“I’ll get into that.” He nods to Nadia. “Would you give us a few minutes to ourselves, my shiny friend?”

Nadia lets out a giggle that sounds less strained. “I’ll go grab a snack. I should have anyway—practicing always makes me hungry.”

Rollick motions for the rest of us to walk with him. As we amble toward the trees beyond the lawn and garden, Pearl and Toni keep pace.

Pearl claps her hands together, the energy to her strides revealing her excitement. “Tell them already! It’s going to be great.”

Jacob gives both of the shadowkind a skeptical look. “What’s going to be great?”

Rollick’s lips curl with a hint of a smirk.

“I’ve been giving our current situation a lot of thought.

Between our latest acquisitions and the kids you rescued before, we have nearly twenty shadowbloods who need training and supervision, at least for a while.

And between this adventure and one I got caught up in recently, I’m thinking that some of my fellow shadowkind might benefit from a certain amount of instruction as well. ”

I knit my brow. “They already know how to use their talents just fine.”

Pearl bounces on her feet. “Yeah, but a lot of us would like to get better at the mortal side of things. How to mix with humans and enjoy your world without hurting anyone—or getting hurt ourselves.”

Dominic cocks his head. “I guess that’ll be more of a concern now that Balthazar has primed a whole lot of people to be on the lookout for ‘monsters.’”

Rollick inclines his head. “Yes. And I think it would also benefit more of us to develop a healthy respect for the strengths mortals do possess, even if those are different from our own.”

Zian lets out a rough guffaw. “I can agree with that. Well, except for you, of course. You’ve obviously been great to us.”

The demon shoots him an amused glance. “No offense taken. What I’m thinking is that I could found a sort of training center.

Have more structured classes and other learning opportunities, a schedule of increasingly intensive forays into regular society as each student is ready for it…

Basically, become a lot more orderly about this whole process—and then have a method in place for anyone who needs it later. ”

I blink. “Like… a school for shadowbloods? And shadowkind.”

I have trouble picturing what that would look like, but trying to sends a flicker of my own excitement through me. It would be better for the younger shadowbloods—and the two former inmates in our midst—to have more stability and order in their lives after the confusion we’ve left them with.

“You should bring in a counselor too,” Griffin suggests. “Or someone who has the experience and skills to act as one even if they aren’t officially. There are a lot of emotions to work through, and I’m only good at identifying those—and changing them in the moment if I absolutely have to.”

Toni makes an approving sound. “That sounds like a good idea.”

Pearl nudges her. “You can be our human-shadowkind liaison—on the human side, of course.”

The other woman’s smile turns crooked. “I do have access to a lot of Balthazar’s accounts. He didn’t have any legal next of kin, so no one’s going to come calling for those funds.”

“I don’t think we’ll have any financial worries,” Rollick says wryly. “But part of that comment reminds me…”

He stops and swivels to face us. “You six have taken on an awful lot of responsibility considering how much you’ve had to deal with across your entire lives.

I don’t expect you to shoulder even more.

You’d be welcome at this school of sorts, but just as much as students as teachers.

And if you’d rather go off and enjoy your hard-won freedom on your own, I don’t think any of my colleagues have further concerns about you posing a threat to us. ”

A strange airy feeling bubbles up in my chest.

Freedom. We really do have that now, don’t we?

As I glance over at my men, the demon lets out a chuckle. “I’ll give the six of you some time to discuss that. Whatever you decide you’d like to do, I’m sure Balthazar’s legacy can pay for it.”

“Absolutely,” Toni agrees.

While the three of them meander back toward the house, I struggle to gather my thoughts. The guys close in around me, Andreas pressing a kiss to the side of my head and Jacob grasping my shoulder.

Dominic catches my gaze. “Now you could have that cabin in the woods you used to dream about.”

I sputter a laugh. “After our experience at Engel’s, it doesn’t really appeal the same way anymore.”

Then I pause, feeling out the whirl of emotions inside me.

Thinking about everything Rollick said. “You know, I’m not sure that I really want to be off somewhere apart from the rest of the world after all.

The guardians kept us shut away like that our whole lives.

It might be nice to actually get to interact with people like we’re normal for a change. ”

Andreas’s eyes glint with amusement. “In a big city would be best for that, I think. We’ll stand a better chance of passing for normal when there’s a wider range of humanity around.”

Zian rubs his hands together with sudden eagerness. “Someplace with good restaurants.”

“But maybe not right downtown,” Dominic puts in. “I’d like a garden. And if we’re close to a park, Jacob will be able to go for his runs without dodging pedestrians.”

Jacob tugs me a little closer. “I’ll be happy as long as Riva’s happy.”

Griffin considers me with a serene air. “Is there anywhere you’ve particularly liked the atmosphere of?”

It seems like a difficult question, but as soon as I take it in, the answer pops into my head.

I pause, testing out the impression before saying it out loud.

“You know, there was that one time years ago when I was on a mission in San Francisco—I saw this building there that just felt… welcoming. Like it was meant for me, or it understood what I was. I know that doesn’t make much sense?—”

Andreas gives my braid an affectionate tug. “It doesn’t have to make perfect sense. Let’s go there and see what we can make of it.”