AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jacob scowls. “From what I’ve seen of them, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“They are… very, very angry,” Griffin puts in quietly.
The newscast has switched to a different story. Dominic picks up the remote and turns off the TV. Then he glances at me. “We obviously can’t leave them out there still on their rampage. What are you thinking, Riva?”
I finally allow myself to close my eyes, ducking my head and rubbing the back of my neck. Feeling the fine chain of my necklace shift beneath my fingers. The symbol of family and connection Griffin gave me all those years ago.
Yes, we have to do something about our fellow shadowbloods. We can’t let them keep wreaking havoc wherever they go, killing dozens upon dozens of people out of pure spite, for who knows how long.
It’s not even just the already awful threat to all those innocents. We have no idea what the Highest beings Rollick mentioned might do if they feel they need to intervene.
I’ve been the one calling the shots when it comes to the younger shadowbloods, demanding that we give them a chance to stand down. Which means if that was a mistake, I need to be the one to say so.
It all comes down to me.
A wave of loneliness sweeps over me, absurd when the five men I’m closer to than anyone in the world are standing right there.
My thoughts must be louder than I realize, because another familiar figure slips past the bedroom door and approaches. Ajax offers me a soft smile and a voice inside my head.Whatever you decide, I’ll help you do it. You’ve tried so hard. We all know that.
Suddenly, tears are pricking at my eyes again. Griffin eases his arm around my waist, and Andreas strokes my cheek with the back of his fingers.
Dominic studies my expression with his usual pensive air. “We’ll talk it through. We’ll figure it out. We still have options.”
Not many. But the sense of their solidarity pulls me out of my momentary despair.
We are blood. We are family. So are the shadowbloods carving a path of destruction across the country… but that doesn’t mean they can’t be wrong.
What does it say about the rampaging rogues that they’ve made mistake after vicious mistake, and all they want to do is keep at it?
They’re our blood, yes. That doesn’t just mean we should save them if we can, but also that we have a responsibility to stop the damage they’re doing.
We don’t owe them infinite patience when they’re leaving bodies of other people who deserved to live just as much in their wake. We’re the only ones who have a hope of ending the devastation.
I glance toward the room where Sorsha and Pearl are recovering. All those shadowkind are waiting for my answer too. Trusting me to lead them.
“I want to save everyone,” I say quietly. “But what… what if we can’t?”
Jacob’s mouth twists. “If anyone could figure out how, it’d be you, Wildcat. But even superheroes can’t win every battle.”
If I even am a superhero by any definition. What would I do if I was?
That answer is shockingly easy. I gird myself before I say the words. “Then we have to do what’s best for the most possible people. What’ll save the most lives.”
Even if I hate it.
Rollick doesn’t ask me to spell out what I mean. He simply cocks his head with a glint of sympathy in his eyes. “Any preferences for how we get started on that?”
I think about the past battles—how the other shadowbloods defied us, struck back at us, escaped from us. The injuries and losses we’ve taken.
What are our best chances at ending this once and for all without another mistake?
I raise my chin. “Sorsha and I can take them out the fastest from a distance. But Sorsha can’t be moving around right now. And we don’t want to leave the rogues any avenues for escape.”
Dominic’s gaze goes distant in contemplation. “Trying to pen them in with just our powers hasn’t worked out all that well. If we could get them into an enclosed space where you and Sorsha could focus on them all at once and they couldn’t attack anyone else in the process…”
The idea comes to me with a queasy lurch of my stomach, but I can’t deny how perfect it is.
A shaky laugh spills out of me. “I think I know just the place.”
