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Even through the mask, I can hear a rasp in his voice. “Yeah. It’s not the punch—memory-wiping takes a lot out of me. But I expected that.”
If Drey faints or worse before we’re done here, we’ll be screwed.
“You should let yourself turn visible again,” I say. “It takes more energy keeping the effect in place, right?”
“Good point. I guess it doesn’t matter if these guys see me now.”
The haze shudders again, and Andreas’s body swims into view, gradually turning more solid amid the haze. The bow of his shoulders still looks weary to me.
I look over at Griffin again. “Do you think we should clear the gas? Give Drey more air? Rollick said that once the effect took hold, it should last at least an hour.”
Griffin hesitates as he thinks it over. “If I switch the flow, the fans will just suck it all back in. We can always dose them again if we need to.”
He must flick the switch, because there’s a hitch to the faint whir that lingered in the air. The billows of gas start to fade, wafting toward the vents they poured out of.
As the air clears, I study each of the slumped bodies carefully. No one so much as twitches. They’re all out cold for the moment.
But if I catch any sign of movement, I want to intervene before it becomes a real problem.
Another shudder ripples across the floor, with aboomloud enough that it resonates faintly even through the thick walls. My stomach lurches.
A waft of frustration prickles through my chest from the mark that connects me to Riva. Whatever the shadowbloods they tried to trap are doing, it isn’t going smoothly.
I start to pace the room and force myself to stop. Acting anxious is only going to unsettle my friends.
I really can’t see Griffin now, but I know what he’s doing when one of the boxes opens and he retrieves the supplies we stashed inside. He kneels down next to Devon and fixes the bindings into place around his wrists and ankles.
We have to be careful, just in case our test didn’t totally separate out the shadowbloods who can be rehabilitated from the ones too far gone to adjust to normal life even with their memories wiped. If they’re like the boy back at the hotel, we won’t have to leave the restraints on for very long.
Keith’s been doing well over the past day he’s been with us in his memory-wiped state. I found him laughing with Ajax while they dug into leftover takeout this morning before we left.
Bethany… well, we’re not totally sure what to do with her yet. She’s still lashing out any time Lull lets her wake up.
It’s a lot harder to imagine killing a person you’ve already subdued, but eventually she’ll make the decision for us. She hasn’t eaten at all since we brought her in—hasn’t settled down enough to even think about being hungry, let alone try to consume anything.
I shake off the uneasiness of that idea and focus on my observations of Keith’s progress. Every shadowblood in this room could end up like him—maybe confused, but finding new happiness, rebuilding a life that can be about what they want rather than what the guardians inflicted on them.
The other guys switch places, Andreas moving to Omar and Griffin to the man Drey just finished with. Andreas adjusts his mask and then pulls it right off to take a deep gulp of the refreshed air.
“Okay,” he murmurs, and sets his hand against Omar’s temple.
Restless and hopped up on the energy whirling inside me, I walk over to the door, but the guardians built their facilities carefully. No further hint of sound travels through the frame or the walls around me.
Have Riva and Sorsha finished with their attack now? I have no idea how it’s playing out.
They might have taken out all the other shadowbloods already and now they’re waiting for us. Or they could be fighting for their lives.
The floor hitches beneath my feet, suggesting the latter is more likely. But there’s no way of knowing whether they’re facing a few remaining opponents or the whole mass of them.
A lump fills my throat. I turn back toward the room and scan the shadowbloodsI’mresponsible for.
Andreas’s copper-brown face glints with a thickening sheen of sweat. His mouth tightens as he works, digging deep creases into the corners.
“Hey,” I venture, taking another step toward him. “I can give you a power-up to help you through the process—like I did when Jake shook the whole mountain. I’ve got lots to spare, and—”
Drey waves me off with his free hand. “It’s fine. You did your part. I should be able to do mine.”
I consider him with a frown. I should have thought to offer him the extra energy I gathered right after the fact. If I need more life to help the rogues recover once they wake up from the drug, we can handle that outside in the forest where I’ve got lots of plants to draw from.
