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Billy shivers where he’s hugging himself off to the side of the crowd around the laptop. “Why did they go back to America to do all this?”
I can understand that motivation too, more than I like. “That’s where we were raised. I think where Balthazar took the criminals from too—the ones I’ve heard talk all sound American. The people back home are the ones who fucked them up or failed them the most.”
Steel spins toward Sorsha with a glint of his metallic scales. “Why didn’t you destroy them all when you had the chance, phoenix? They were right there in front of you.”
Sorsha gives him a firm look. “Between all the powers getting thrown around, I couldn’t see what I was doing. I might have burned up our friends here too.”
Fang lets out a growl, his lips drawing back from his jutting teeth—which I now know belong to his monstrous bear form. “You should have incinerated the helicopter with the maniac and the rest before it even landed.”
“Balthazar had some of the kids on there,” I protest.
Willow the nymph swivels to face me, her thin face tight. “Does it matter? It looks as if the young ones are enjoying the destruction just as much as the grown-ups.”
My stomach churns. I can’t deny that. But… “Theyarekids. They’ve been screwed over their whole lives, and Balthazar’s messed them up even more. It isn’t their fault. We’ve got to help them snap out of it.”
Steel lets out a dismissive huff. “I think it’s gone past that. Who knows what they’ll do or who they’ll target when they’re done with the hunters? Balthazar wanted to kill all ofus.”
Shanty appears from the shadows with a jerk of a nod. “Yes. These hybrids seem to be so fond of him now. They could take up his cause.”
Snap glances around at us from his position next to Sorsha, his green eyes gone wide. “And even if they’re only attacking mortals now, that isn’t okay either. The mortals are only hunting shadowkind because they’re scared—because of what Balthazar told them and did—right?”
Crag’s rocky gargoyle jaw works as if he’s chewing over his thoughts. “Whoever the shadowbloods are hurting, they’ve got to be stopped. It’s bad for everyone.”
Fang nods with a jerk. “We have to do what should have been done to begin with. Find them and blast them all away.”
“Hey!” Booker breaks in with a quaver in his voice but his expression fierce. “Mygirlfriendis one of those shadowbloods you’re talking about. She wouldn’t be doing any of this if Balthazar hadn’t injected her with his crazy serums. A few weeks ago, she was one of the kindest people in the world.”
Beside him, Ajax is still staring at the laptop screen, even though the current video is paused on a muddle of indistinct shapes. His dark eyes look haunted. “I never saw Devon purposefully hurt anyone the whole time I knew him.”
He yanks his gaze away so he can frown at the shadowkind. “This isn’t who they are. It’s like… like they’re sick. You have to give them a chance to get better.”
Shanty throws her hands in the air with a shake of her dark blue locks. “With what cure? We don’t know how to fix them.”
I lift my head. “We have to try. We owe them that much. The criminals—it seems like they were horrible people before Balthazar took them. I’m not saying we try to reason with them. But the kids are victims here just like the people they’re attacking, just like they’ve always been.”
Willow fixes me with her penetrating gaze. “You’ve been saying that all along—that the kids need to be saved. This is where it’s gotten us.” She waves toward the screen. “How much more harm are you going to let them do?”
Jacob pushes forward to glare at her. “None of this is Riva’s fault. We’re all doing the best we can—at least, the six of us have been.”
I grasp his arm to get him to back down. Guilt condenses in my gut.
The nymph isn’t wrong. I’m the one who’s advocated for the younger shadowbloods the most, who’s argued the loudest whenever any of the shadowkind expressed doubts about rescuing them.
If I hadn’t insisted so adamantly that Sorsha be careful and avoid the kids, she probablycouldhave ended this catastrophe yesterday, when it would have been so much less of a disaster. When the dozens of people now dead were still alive.
But I still can’t quite convince myself that it’d be better if the many dead had included Nadia’s charred corpse—and Devon’s and Tegan’s. And all the other kids, some not even in their teens yet, that Balthazar transformed into his greatest weapons.
“We haven’t really tried to fix things,” I say. “Not since we realized how badly Balthazar messed with the younger shadowbloods. We know what we’re dealing with now. There has to be a way to stop them without murdering every shadowblood other than us.”
Fang snorts. “And how do you figure you’re going to find that way? How long are you going to let them keep rampaging around while you think about it?”
I square my shoulders, my heart thudding faster. “We know where they are now. It looks like they’re sticking together—the attacks were all at different times, following a fairly straight path across the country, weren’t they?”
By the computer, Sorsha nods. “It looks like they’re traveling from one place to another as a pack, tracking down the groups of hunters.”
Her expression is tense, but she holds her posture steady, looking ready to leap into action whenIsay how I think we should handle this—regardless of what the shadowkind think.
If we still have her on our side, that’s something.
