Hotbloods 5: Traitors

The toilet flushed, and the door opened again. I made a face—Sarrask hadn’t even bothered to wash his hands. Then again, I wasn’t familiar with Vysanthean bathroom habits. Maybe their pee was super sterile, or it wasn’t as big of a deal here.

Twenty minutes later, all spent freaking out that someone else might wander in, I heard the door open again. Tentative footsteps entered, moving toward the shower cubicle.

“Riley?” Mort whispered.

I crept up to the edge of the black glass and peered around to see Mort standing awkwardly in the middle of the bathroom, morphed into the guise of Doctor Ulani. He looked flustered, his eyes darting nervously behind him, to the now-closed doorway.

“You took your time!” I hissed, slipping past him to bolt the lock. Moving over to the expansive tub, I ran the hot water, and steam began rising.

“Ooh, you didn’t say this was going to be that kind of conversation,” Mort purred. “You want me to strip down, make sure I’m not wearing a wire?”

I glared at him. “No, this is to cover the sound of our voices, idiot! Why else would I pick a bathroom?”

He almost looked disappointed. “I suppose I’m glad you’re not trying to cover our voices with something else.” He tilted his head toward the toilet. “Although, I should warn you, I’m starting to get sweat in my folds from all that steam. If you’re not careful, I’ll have to shake off old Ulani.”

I shuddered at the thought. “Do you have news for me or not?”

“As it happens, I do—both kinds. Which do you want first, the good or the bad?” Mort asked brightly, though there was a lingering hint of tension in his voice.

“Good news first.”

“Excellent choice. So, I managed to get in contact with your bloodsucker boyfriend. He tells me everyone else is fine, and he’s on his way. He got delayed, but he should be arriving today, in fact.”

I frowned. As much as I wanted to believe every word of what Mort was saying, it didn’t change the fact that my climpet had stopped flashing. Was Mort just telling me what I wanted to hear so I’d hold up my end of the bargain?

“You really spoke to him?”

Mort nodded. “I really did. I was shocked too, but he’s definitely coming.”

“Today?”

“Today,” Mort repeated.

“And the bad news?”

He grimaced. “He’s not the only one coming here. There’s another visitor due here soon. A way less welcome one.”

“Who?” A grip of panic tightened in my chest.

“I was at a palace soirée last night, and I overheard someone saying that Queen Gianne wanted to make a surprise visit to the Idrax house to check in on Lorela. I don’t think she was expecting this sickness to keep Lorela away from her socialite duties for as long as it has, and she wants to make sure everything is legit,” he explained, his tone anxious. “She’s already doubting people who’ve been loyal to her for years, and I think Jareth is next on the list to be tested.”

“Does Jareth know?”

Mort shook his head. “She’s keeping it a secret so he can’t hide anything from her. My guess is, she’s using the visit as an excuse to get a tour of his personal alchemy lab. She’s paranoid that Jareth is withholding information, and it’s a pretty open secret that Jareth has his own lab here at the house. Most alchemists do.”

The irony was almost painful. Jareth was hiding something from the queen, and it was a secret so incendiary that it could threaten the safety of everyone with the Idrax surname and anyone connected with the family. If Gianne discovered the truth, that Jareth was planning to overthrow her with Aurelius, it would be game over.

“I’m guessing you’ve read the information you took from Jareth’s comm device?” I asked.

Mort nodded.

“Did you understand it?”

“What, that Jareth and some other dude are planning to stage a coup?”

“That ‘dude’ is Aurelius. Have you met him?”

Mort looked thoughtful for a moment. “The wormy dude with serious delusions of grandeur, and a fake wing to make up for the one he’s missing?”

“That’s the one.”

Mort whistled. “Jareth has terrible taste in leaders. It’s almost as bad as your taste in men.” Seeing my disapproving look, the pleased grin faded from his face. “Anyway, your dashing Navan will be here soon enough. Although, he did have a bit of a mishap involving a landmine.”

I gasped. “What?! Is he okay?”

“Look, all you need to know is, he’s fine. Not even a landmine can stop your grayskin brute. More’s the pity,” he muttered. “So I suggest you go and hide, pronto. You need to keep out of harm’s way until he gets here.”

“Why do I need to hide?”

“Just do it, Riley! You don’t want to be here when Gianne arrives. Don’t get caught in those crosshairs, because if you do, you’re not getting out alive.”

I raised my hands in surrender. “Fine, I’ll hide. What are you going to do?”

He grinned. “Don’t worry about me. Gianne is still my best bud; I’m nowhere near the top of her list.”

“Can’t you get in touch with Navan and warn him not to come?”

Mort sighed apologetically. “No can do. His transmission cut out just as we were finishing up our chat. I tried calling back, but the signal was down.”

“Then how do you know he’s okay?”

“Because he told me he was fine. He said his transmission might cut out because Gianne had satellites whizzing around the plateau, listening for defectors and traitors,” he explained. “I imagine he cut off the signal to stop her from eavesdropping.”

Feeling troubled, I turned off the taps and walked Mort to the door. He was visibly sweating, with sections of his true form poking through the fa?ade of Doctor Ulani. I grimaced at the unpleasant sight of his flesh pooling through holes in his disguise.

“I suggest you fix your coldbloodness before you leave.”

He glanced down at a melting patch on his arm and let out a weary sigh. “Being a shifter is so exhausting sometimes. It would be nice to just kick off my fake skin and chill out for a while, you know?”

“I have no idea.”

“Well, enjoy your bath. Pity I can’t stick around and join you.” He waggled his slipping eyebrows.

I yanked open the bathroom door and peered out into the corridor beyond, checking that the coast was clear. “I’m not actually having a bath, Mort. According to you, I need to go and hide.”

With him flashing me a filthy grin, and readjusting the camouflage of his coldblood form, he set off down the hallway without me, leaving me to my imminent panic attack. I waited for a few minutes on the threshold of the bathroom, steeling myself for what was to come. If Gianne was on her way, and Navan was, too, then there was nothing I could do to stop them from arriving at the same time. If they did, all hell would break loose, and I had no way of warning Navan about what he might be walking into.

With terror bristling through my nerves, I fished out the silver box device that I’d wedged at the top of the tank and tucked it in my waistband, before darting out of the bathroom and heading downstairs to the kitchen to retrieve Ronad. We needed to find a place to hide, and fast. He knew the house better than I did; there had to be somewhere we could go, where nobody would find us.

Sarrask was nowhere to be seen as I stepped into the kitchen. It was just Ronad, alone at the island, still reading the book he’d been buried in earlier. He looked up as I approached, his face morphing into a mask of worry as I got closer.

“We need to go, now!” I whispered to Ronad, grasping him by the arm and pulling him toward the kitchen door.

“What? Why?”

“Gianne is coming, and Navan is coming, and we need to be well out of sight before that happens!”