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My jaw clenches at the memory. It should come with a rush of triumph, but instead all that floats up is the echoes of horror and fury from when I watched the people—even thekids—we came to save complain at us like the maniac we killed was some kind of hero.
It’s been almost a full day since the ambush in the forest. We haven’t had any contact from the other shadowbloods.
Riva has used Griffin’s seeking talent to check the location of the teens she was friendly with a few times, but all that’s told us is they’ve stayed in Europe. They’re roving around, maybe using whatever vehicles Balthazar left behind like that helicopter.
I don’t like the sense of the other shadowbloods prowling across the continent, stewing in the brutal wildness they showed against the guardians—and against us. Especially the assholes who don’t even know what it really means to call yourself a shadowblood.
Riva paws through the desk drawers and the jumble of items left on the shelves before letting out a rough sigh. “Well, there wasn’t much chance we’d find anything helpful here. Even if Balthazar left some clue behind, it’d be about his plans, not theirs.”
I don’t need to ask which “they” she’s talking about. “Maybe they’ll simmer down after they get used to him being gone,” I suggest as we hustle to catch up with the others. “Lay low and just live, the way we wanted anyway. We don’t even know if the stuff Balthazar did to give them powers will wear off after a while.”
Riva shoots me a grim smile. “That’s a nice thought, anyway.”
As we reach Rollick’s helicopter, she falls into a tense silence. I don’t think I’ve seen her relax since we set out to face Balthazar yesterday.
It isn’t the same barely restrained rage that was smoldering inside her for days in Balthazar’s villa. As the chopper flies out to the landing strip where the jet waits for the longer trip back to Spain, she manages to speak gently with Ajax about where we’re heading, and she leans into Andreas’s arms when he offers a quick embrace.
I’m not afraid she’s going to explode with anger like I was back then. But every time I look at the tightness of her jaw, the rigid set of her shoulders, my heart aches.
She wanted Balthazar’s death to be the end of our problems. She wanted this long, awful journey to be over so badly—maybe more than any of the rest of us.
And now we have no way of evenknowingwhen the catastrophe is really over.
Rollick is waiting for us on the jet. He watches Riva without saying much, but I think he can pick up on the same vibe I can.
When we’re getting close to our destination, I motion him to the back of the jet to talk to him quietly. “There’s something I could use…”
When I explain, a small smirk creeps across the demon’s lips. He gives me a quick nod. “I can arrange that.”
The flight leads to a short drive from the local landing strip to Rollick’s estate. Ajax drifts into a doze in the back of the SUV, and Riva glances back at him with a sad smile before shifting restlessly in her seat.
“When we get back, I should check the others’ locations again. Maybe Booker will have thought of something that the other kids or the criminal shadowbloods mentioned that’ll point us in the right direction…”
As we get out of the car outside the mansion, I touch her arm. “Nothing huge is going to change in the next half hour. Meet me in the lounge room with the fireplace?”
Riva knits her brow, but after she meets my hopeful gaze, she nods. I’ve realized one of the benefits of not asking much of her is that she understands how important it must be when I do ask for something.
The other guys glance at me with obvious curiosity, but I put them off with a subtle shake of my head. I don’t think she needs a crowd hovering around her right now.
There are a few things I’ve proven I’m good at with her all on my own.
I take a quick detour to the mansion’s massive kitchen and walk into the lounge carrying a tall stack of sandwich-size plates—with nothing on them. Riva takes one look at me and laughs. “You were so hungry you forgot to add the food?”
I join her by the fireplace, set the plates down in front of us, and give her a gentle nudge with my elbow. “Things have been kind of shitty. I thought you might feel like breaking something.”
Understanding lights in her bright eyes. When she was at her worst in her helpless rage at Balthazar, we flung flowerpots off the side of the hill.
It helped then, and I can already see the idea loosening the tension in her now. She exhales shakily, like a ragged release, and grins at me. “And Rollick won’t mind us destroying his dishes?”
The corner of my mouth crooks upward. “I already got his permission, as long as I clean up the mess afterward. He had this stack set out for us.”
There’s nothing in the broad, stone-lined fireplace right now except for a smattering of ashes left by the last actual fire lit here. I tug the protective grate to the side and heft a plate, but I let Riva take the first shot.
Her fingers clench around the smooth china. She glares at the blackened stones. “That fucking asshole screwed the kids up even more than they already were.”
She flings the plate. It smashes against the stones at the back of the fireplace with a satisfyingcrack.
As the pieces rain down into the ashes, I ready my own. “I wish I could have pummeled him for twice as long while he could still feel it, just for that.”
