Monstrous Power (Shadowblood Souls Book 2) by Eva Chase

Author:Eva Chase [Chase, Eva]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ink Spark Press
Published: 2022-12-27T18:30:00+00:00

Twenty

Andreas

Rollick motions to the glasses in front of us. “All right, drink up!”

Across the small, glossy table from me, Riva studies the amber liquid. Her mouth slants at an uncertain angle.

I can’t help remembering the only other time she’s drunk anything alcoholic since we got out of the facility: that night at the dance club when a single cocktail went haywire with the poison Jacob had inflicted on her.

That was the night she pointed out her scars to me and told me how often she’d taken comfort in knowing we were still out there. When she asked me to dance and looked so downcast when I refused.

When she pulled me into a hug I couldn’t resist, and I got to experience the full, unrestrained bliss of her embrace.

I should have known for sure then. Hell, I should have known from the start that she was telling the truth.

But instead I treated her like an enemy, schemed against her, and now here we are. Even if we didn’t have a table standing between us, there’d be an invisible wall dividing us that I can’t climb over.

I curl my fingers around my own glass. “It’s weak stuff, right?”

Rollick chuckles. “It wouldn’t be a very effective solution to have you stumbling around drunk. I just want to see if having a little interference with your normal mental state might disrupt the connection.”

I raise the glass to my lips and gulp it down. The mix of sweet and sour flavors coat my tongue and send a pang through my gut.

Riva hesitates a few moments longer and then downs her own drink.

Only a faint tingle in the back of my skull suggests that I’ve got anything like a buzz. I could definitely handle operating on this incredibly mild level of tipsy for a while if it meant the guardians couldn’t track us.

“You know the drill,” Rollick says. “Riva, you leave this time. Andreas, you see if you can find her.”

Riva rises from her seat and slips out of the room without a word—or a glance at me. My throat constricts.

But I can already tell that the alcohol hasn’t dulled the bond between us even slightly. Her presence nibbles at my awareness from the spot on my sternum.

She’s turned left down the hall. She’s heading through a doorway into another room—I think that far down, it’d be the observation lounge.

I can sense her existence from under my skin, but I can’t touch her. Not anymore.

“It isn’t working,” I say without even bothering to get up. “I can feel her just as well as ever.”

Rollick rubs his chin. “I still think these marks and the connection between them could be the key. They’re something that’s specific to you shadowbloods.”

He gets up. “Well, let’s go collect her. Maybe I’ll think of another tactic to try along the way.”

The chef bustles out of the kitchen just then and sets a platter on the buffet table along the dining room wall. He seems to emerge every hour or two during the day with snacks, just in case anyone’s hungry.

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