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Only the briefest flicker of surprise passes through Griffin’s light blue eyes. Then he nods. “I did. But only because of the history between us. I’ve never evenseenBalthazar in person. I don’t have a strong enough sense of him that I could home in on his location.”
Zian lets out a growl of frustration. I slump in my seat, the momentary sense of hope deflating.
Jacob turns toward his twin. “You couldtry.”
Griffin pauses. “No. I can already tell it wouldn’t work. But…”
His gaze slides to me, intent and a little sad. Enough that I tense up before he even starts to speak.
“Riva, you share his DNA. You’ve seen him, using Zian’s power. If you borrowed that talent of mine, you might be able to find him.”
Three
Griffin
Rollick lays out the world map on the pale floorboards of one of his mansion’s common rooms. The paper surface is big, a good six feet across and four high, so he’s pushed the furniture to the sides of the room to make space. But even so, the imagery printed across the surface only offers a little detail, working on that scale.
The demon tsks his tongue. “You’re lucky I could dig up actual physical maps this quickly. Everyone’s all about the digital versions these days.”
Next to me, Riva rubs her arms and then forces her hands to her sides. Tense anticipation wavers off her into my awareness.
“So I start with the whole world and then narrow it down once we see what I come up with?” she says.
I nod. “After you get down to a smaller area like a city, we can switch to screens for that. But I always found it much easier to get a clear impression when I had a larger concrete map for the initial seeking.”
The other guys and a handful of shadowkind have been watching from a loose ring around us. Jacob steps forward to tap my arm. “Are yousureyou can’t do this? I mean, since you have the experience with how to work the power effectively. The procedures Balthazar had that asshole Matteo put us through expanded all of our talents.”
I shoot my brother a tight smile. “Not all of ours. At least, not in any way we figured out. Matteo pushed me to locate strangers using names and photographs—even inanimate objects—but none of that ever worked.”
Riva glances at me in surprise. “Wait—the procedures didn’t affect your powers even a little?”
I can understand why she’d be startled. Jacob’s right that the rest of them saw major boosts to their abilities. It was only the younger shadowbloods, whose talents were much smaller to begin with, who didn’t show any effects.
Well, them and me.
I give a casual shrug that I hope conveys that I’m not bothered by it. “I wondered if the guardians’ conditioning and the way that affected my own emotions might have interfered with any progress I’d have made.”
Part of me thinks that’s a good thing. I’m not sure I’d want to know what horrifying new dimensions I could have discovered to my powers if Balthazar had gotten his way. My friends haven’t exactly been thrilled with every new development they’ve experienced.
But on the other hand, as I wait for Riva to borrow this one power of mine, a prickle of frustration runs through my chest. Followed by a different sort of jab as my conditioning clicks in, sending pain after the emotion.
I breathe slowly and deeply, not letting the discomfort show. I can’t tell whether the lingering effects of the guardians’ manipulations are fading or I’m simply getting better at enduring them, but I suppose it doesn’t make a lot of difference either way.
I wish I could take this task on instead of heaping one more responsibility on Riva’s shoulders. I wish I’d gotten a clearer sense of Balthazar during the weeks we spent confined to his villa.
All I have is a vague, jumbled impression of the tumultuous feelings I picked up on from a distance. I can’t even say for sure that every one of those impressions was definitely from him and not a nearby employee.
The best I can do is guide Riva. “You’ll want to focus on your memories of him, bringing them as vividly as you can to the front of your mind. And then push the image toward the map, like your memories are a magnet and you’re searching for a surface they’ll attach to. If it works, your finger will be drawn right to the spot where he currently is.”
Riva nods and squares her shoulders. We don’t need to touch to exchange powers, but she rests her fingers on my wrist for a moment as she tugs the ability out of me with a light jitter of my nerves.
She closes her eyes, her face tensing with concentration. As much as I hate that I’m leaving her to do the real work here, I can’t help admiring the determination she brings to this task like every other, etched across her beautiful features.
This is my woman. The woman I’d follow to the farthest, deadliest corners of the earth, as long as she wants me with her.
I’m never letting myself lose sight of what really matters again.
Quivers of skepticism niggle me from the watching shadowkind, most of whom have never seen us trade powers before. If Riva has any sense that part of her audience isn’t sure what to make of her, she doesn’t let it distract her. She steps toward the edge of the map and holds out her hand.
