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Riva catches up with me after a few steps, grabbing my arm. Her voice is raw with frustration. “There’s nothing else we can do. We’ve got to get out of here.”
“What happened to the other shadowbloods?” I ask as we scramble into the back of the SUV, the others clambering in around us.
Dominic crashes into the seat just in front of us and peers past it as whoever grabbed the driver’s seat guns the engine. “The other shadowbloods stole some cars farther down the street. A couple of them must have talents that let them hotwire the things easily.”
“And one of the vans took off before we could get to it.” Riva sighs and slumps in her seat, deflated. “Jacob managed to shatter one of the new shadowblood’s skulls, and Sorsha torched at least one. I think the other shadowkind killed a couple of the criminals. But I don’t know if it’ll make any difference. The rest of them are going to be even more pissed off at us.”
As the van lurches around, I debate with myself. But I don’t want to keep any more secrets from the woman I love or the brother I nearly lost.
“I don’t know if we should want all of the criminal shadowbloods dead either,” I say quietly. “The one guy who ran my way—he said something, he wasfeelingsomething…”
Jacob raises his eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”
I grimace. “I think he had a personal reason to want to attack the hunters here. I think he’d actually seen that at least one of them had hurt a lot of people in the past—not monsters, only troubled kids. He wanted to protect everyone from that guy, not just kill for the sake of killing. I don’t know about all of the inmates Balthazar picked out, but they’re still human. They’re not only out to do evil.”
Jake scoffs. “That one wasn’t, maybe.”
But Riva’s brow has knit. “We really don’t know about any of them—what they’ve been through, what they’d really want if they thought they had a real choice.” She tips her head back against the seat. “Fuck!”
I scoot closer to her and slip my arm around her waist. She leans her head against my shoulder. “I wish it wasn’t so complicated,” she murmurs.
I kiss her forehead, reveling in the ease with which she relaxes into my embrace. “People are complicated. We’re trying. At least we gave them something to think about tonight. Maybe some of them will decide to back off once the things we said sink in.”
“Maybe.” Riva sounds as doubtful as I have to admit I feel too. She tucks her head right against the crook of my neck. “Stay right there. Don’t let me go.”
A lump rises in my throat, all affection and agony for the woman I love. “Never.”
After a while, with the rumble of the engine and the gentle rocking once we get onto the highway, Riva’s breaths slow into a doze. I think Jacob drifts off too where he’s leaned his head against the window. Next to him, Andreas leans forward to carry out a hushed conversation with Zian up front.
My own eyelids are sinking when Billy emerges from the shadows, perched on the seat next to me.
He peers at me and Riva with his wide eyes and scratches at his head just below one of his horns. His voice comes out in a whisper. “You two are very close.”
I can tell he’s not just talking about our current physical position. The corner of my lips curls upward. “Yeah. All six of us are.”
“I mean… You told her something that upset her. But she still wanted to be near you.”
I blink, considering the implicit question. “She knew it wasn’t my fault—I was just passing on information. And being with each other makes us feel better.”
The faun cocks his head, studying Riva’s face again. His mouth forms a smile that looks pained. “I don’t know what that’s like. I have friends, but it isn’t normal with shadowkind—most don’t really get attached like that.”
Curiosity shines in his eyes. The offer comes out of me automatically. “Do you want to see what it feels like?”
Billy stares at me for a second before his lips part in understanding. “You can do that. Your talent. I— If you wouldn’t mind…”
“Of course not.”
I focus on the warm emotion that glows inside me when I’ve got Riva in my arms, the tenderness and the adoration and the sense of shock that I’ve managed to earn a love like this at all. A few of the more passionate impulses, I edit out of the feelings I convey, but the rest I let flow through me into the slim shadowkind man.
He sits very still as if soaking in the impressions I’ve passed on. Then his gaze darts to meet mine again with an almost giddy cast to his features.
“That is… That is something that shouldn’t ever be lost. I’m glad I’ve been helping you, even if there isn’t much I can do. I won’t let anyone ruin what you’ve found with each other.”
The conviction in his words brings an ache into my chest, even after he’s slipped back into the shadows. I tip my head against Riva’s and shut my eyes against the tears that prick at the backs of them.
There’s sadness in those tears—for the problems we’re still facing, for the complications we don’t know how to handle yet. But there’s sweetness too.
I might not have a talent that can win a skirmish for us, but my powers can do more than manipulate. I can learn and reveal and teach, make things clearer not just for my friends but everyone else we want on our side too.
