Yin’s stance and his inner state relax more. “That’s a goal we can all agree on, even if we have some differences of opinion about the methods.” His gaze darts to the cabin’s small window and back to me. “You know we have to look after our own. We can’t place the needs of whatever exactly you are over humankind.”
“Of course not.” I smile at him. “But I do hope we can at least cooperate so we’re all better off.”
A hint of his own smile touches his lips. “I’d like that too, Periwinkle. I’m doingmybest to see that we get there, for all our sakes.”
At the rap of knuckles on the door, he stiffens again. Without needing an order, I duck into the shadows so whoever’s calling on him won’t find me there.
My shadowkind mates and Fen have been watching the whole conversation. I drift with them back into the center of the camp. Around us, other shadowkind are moving toward Rollick’s trailer for the meeting he’s called.
“What are you going to do?” Fen asks.
Hail lets out a humph. “One human who isn’t totally awful isn’t much in the grand scheme of things.”
No, it’s not. But when I think about Major Yin and the way he accepted my presence, his curiosity about my methods and his willingness to show his appreciation, the worries that’ve been jabbing at me soften.
It isn’t just Yin. There are dozens of people who’ve spoken up for us right here in the camp. Who knows how many have all around the world?
How can we risk a full-out human-shadowkind war when there are still so many reasons to hope?
We enter the trailer to find Sorsha and her men as well as all six of the shadowbloods already there. A large assortment of Rollick’s other shadowkind allies lurk around them, mostly sticking to the darkness.
Jonah comes through the door right after we arrive, and we materialize to stand around him. He shoots me a grateful smile. “I was starting to wonder how far you’d wandered off.”
I squeeze his hand. “I had a chat with Rollick. And… someone else.”
Rollick himself emerges from the shadows at the head of the table and claps his hands for attention. “All right, people. Let’s get down to business. If we’re going to attempt to return to our previous state of secrecy?—”
I don’t see any point in letting him go on. “No.”
Rollick’s gaze snaps to me. His tone turns dry. “You have an objection already, Peri?”
I lift my chin. “I got scared today, but that’s on me. I don’t want to take back what I’ve done, not unless we absolutely have to, and I don’t think we’re there yet. If we try, we could create a way bigger problem. We have humans hunting us, but we also have lots of them cheering us on. Aren’t we just as bad as them if we dismiss them all because of a few horrible ones? Don’t you criticize them for doing that to us?”
Rollick’s glower makes me want to crawl back inside my skin. Have I driven my point home a little too hard?
But the words felt even more right coming out of my mouth than they did in my head. If we want humans to be better than they are, we have to show them how.
Before he can speak, Sorsha’s tall, slim mate with the bright curls nods and speaks in an equally bright voice. “That sounds right to me. I have seen a lot of kind behavior from some of the humans around the camp.”
Sorsha shoots him an affectionate glance. “You see the good in everyone almost as much as Peri does, Snap. But you do have a point.” She turns to Rollick. “We’ve got to tread carefully. I don’t see any reason to pull out the big guns yet.”
Murmurs of agreement pass around the trailer.
Rollick’s mouth twists. Before he can say anything else, another shadowkind bursts into physical form right by the door she must have ducked under.
“That bunch of hunters who’ve settled in outside of the camp,” she says breathlessly. “They’ve captured a human! Because she came here asking to talk to the shadowkind—to talk to Peri. I think she said her name is Gracie.”
20
Periwinkle
At the name “Gracie,” my heart skips a beat. Memories flood my head of the girl who used to slip into her dad’s basement to talk to me through the bars of my cage.
I haven’t seen Gracie in years. Not since she defied her sorcerer father and arranged to free all his captive shadowkind from their cages. Mylastmemory of her is hearing David Blaver ranting at her as I raced off through the shadows.
It has to be her, doesn’t it? Who else with the same name would be asking for me?
Even as my heart squeezes tight at the thought, I push closer to the being who just popped into the trailer. “Are you sure that’s her name? Why would the hunters capture a human?”
