Hotbloods 5: Traitors

She frowned. “Haven’t you asked enough, creature?”

“There’s one more thing, Your Majesty,” I pressed. “Do you think it might be possible for Lorela to be taken to one of the royal hospitals, for further treatment? I’m sure she’d be better off there, under the care of your expert doctors, rather than here at home.” I neglected to mention she’d also need to recover from the side effects of nearly being smothered to death.

I flashed a knowing look at Mort, who was as far from expert as it was possible to be. Seeing his cue, he stepped forward and raised a hand.

“I would be happy to take her to one of the royal hospitals, Your Majesty,” he said.

“Doctor Ulani, I didn’t see you there. Why are you lurking in the shadows?”

He smiled. “I was on my way to visit with Lorela. We had an appointment to check how things were progressing with her incendiary gastrointestinal gesundheit. I thought it best to stay out of the way, with so many soldiers wandering around the place.”

“Her what?” Queen Gianne looked appalled.

“An ailment of the stomach, Your Majesty. A side effect of her brain-eating virus,” he tried again. My heart sank.

“Her what?”

“It’s best I just remove her, Your Majesty, in case she happens to be contagious. I would hate for you to catch something. In fact, had I known you were headed here, I would have sought to curtail your arrival—or at least made you wear a surgical mask,” he said apologetically.

Queen Gianne nodded, stumbling away from the bedside. “Yes, get her out of here!”

“Could one of you help me carry her downstairs?” Mort asked the soldiers. One of them stepped forward, tentatively reaching down for Lorela. He evidently thought he might catch something, too. It was the first time I’d seen her without a thick duvet covering her body, and the sight was horrifying. In the soldier’s arms, she looked like a skeleton. She’d lost so much weight, her limbs barely more than bones, her vertebrae protruding from her thin nightgown in uniform lumps.

Jareth watched her go, reaching out to grasp her hand for a moment, before Mort and the soldier took her from the bedroom, disappearing down the hallway to the shifter’s waiting vehicle.

“Might I go after my wife, Your Majesty? She really is very sick. She’ll worry if she wakes up and I’m not there,” he insisted. I wanted to call him out. Yes, he cared for his wife and spent time with her, but he wasn’t the one who’d been at her bedside every single day, calming her nightmares and easing her fever.

The queen shook her head slowly. “We are not finished yet.”

“Did you want me to show you the lab after all, Your Majesty?”

She smiled strangely. “Not quite.”

“Then what is it, Your Majesty? What more can I do to prove to you that I’m loyal?”

She turned to Aurelius. “Arrest Jareth Idrax for treason.”





Chapter Twenty-One





A flicker of concern passed across Aurelius’s face. He hesitated a moment too long, confirming my suspicion that they were working together. Gianne, however, missed the expression, her focus fixed on Jareth. Evidently realizing that she’d notice if he stayed frozen to the spot, Aurelius moved forward, removing two slender bracelets from a soldier’s holster and clapping them on Jareth’s wrists. A spark jolted between the metal bands as a magnetic pull drew his hands together, a sliver of blue light running up his arms, completing the circuit across his neck. I didn’t want to see what would happen if he tried to break free.

“Your Majesty, what is the meaning of this? I am no traitor! What act of treason have I committed?” Jareth pleaded. “I will take you to the lab. I will show you anything you wish to see. Let me prove my loyalty!”

“You told me, to my face, that you had nothing to hide. Yet you hid this creature from me, intending to use it to lure your son back,” she spat. “Did you not think that was something I should be aware of, as it is I who holds the power to pardon him? There is something amiss here, and I do not like the bitter taste it’s leaving in my mouth. I must surround myself with those who are loyal without exception—those who do not lie, and those who do not deceive.”

“Please, Your Majesty. Can you not show forgiveness for this small indiscretion? I hid her for your sake. I didn’t wish to bother you in times of great stress.”

Gianne was having none of it. “Even if I could forgive your lie, I cannot forgive the knowledge that you have been experimenting with the elixir here, away from the palace. Why would you do that unless you wanted to discover something by yourself, where word could not reach me?”

“I did not work on the elixir here, Your Majesty. My lab was here long before I began work on it—it is a relic, as I said.”

“We shall soon find out if that is the truth,” she retorted. “I will be sending researchers to deconstruct your lab. If there is anything amiss, we will discover it.”

Jareth hung his head in despair. “What do you plan to do with me, Your Majesty?”

“You will be thrown in prison, for the time being,” she replied. “Later, if anything is found in your lab that I do not like the sound of, you will be executed. I will make an example of you.”

He nodded. “As you wish, Your Majesty. You will find me to be innocent.”

She ignored his remark as she turned to Aurelius. “Nobody is to know that Jareth Idrax has been arrested. Do I make myself clear? I do not want any gossip leaking out. If my queendom discovers that my greatest, most-valued advisor has betrayed me, the people will begin to doubt me. There can be no cracks in my rule, do you understand? It makes me look weak and disordered. I will not have that image projected to my subjects, not when I am so close to succeeding.”

Aurelius gave a low, awkward bow. “Of course, Your Majesty. I will ensure these soldiers understand what is at stake, too. No word of this will leave this room.”

“Good. Now, take him away!” The queen glowered at her former advisor, hatred bubbling behind her strange eyes.

The soldiers were just about to drag Jareth out of the room when he put down his heels, slowing the progress of his exit. With his mouth set in a grim line, he leveled his gaze at the queen. “You should be careful when you set foot in my lab, Your Majesty. There are some highly flammable liquids in there. If you push one wrong button, or pull one wrong lever, you might end up setting the whole house on fire.”

She snorted. “Believe me, I will not be setting foot in that place! Now, get out of my sight.”

As the soldiers took him away, he cast a conspiratorial glance in my direction. An image popped into my head—a strange lever, beneath the trapdoor to Jareth’s lab. It had stuck out to me the first time Ronad and I had explored the underground tunnels. But was I understanding him correctly? Did he really want me to destroy his lab and burn down his home, just to hide whatever evidence his lab held? It was gutsy, I had to give him that, not to mention ridiculously smart. If he razed everything to the ground, stopping Gianne from gaining access to whatever secrets he was hiding inside, she’d have to keep him alive just to preserve those secrets. He’d be the only one who knew them.

As much as I hated the idea of doing anything that might let Jareth off the hook, especially given his ties to Aurelius, it made sense to burn the evidence. If we didn’t, there was every chance that Gianne might change her mind and go after the rest of the Idrax family too. I wasn’t sure she would, but I wasn’t willing to take that risk, either.