Coldbloods (Hotbloods #2)

Navan smiled. “Don’t think it’s reached us yet. Anyway, these rebels do have a cause, and they won’t give any of us up. I promise you. They might be morons, for the most part, but I think they genuinely believe in what they’re doing here. I might not agree with it, but I have to admire their tenacity.”

As Navan dipped his head to kiss me, a loud noise pierced through the quiet. It was coming from the corner of the room, where a blue light was flashing wildly. A moment later, a holographic image of a handsome older couple popped up. One, a brown-haired woman with high cheekbones, grinned prettily, while the other, a muscular man with dark hair, showed only a close-lipped smile. Above them, the words Incoming Call blinked on and off in bold white lettering.

“Navan? It’s your mother and father,” the woman’s voice said.

Breaking away from me, Navan stormed across the room to where the holographic comm device sat, and punched the blue button so hard I thought he might break it. With a whoosh, the holographic image disappeared, leaving only the blank wall behind it. The Idraxes had gone.

He punched another button on the device, every light on the machine sputtering out as he powered it down. Now there was no way for his parents to get through.

I frowned as he returned to me with a face like thunder. What was it about his parents, his father especially, that he hated so much? I knew about his sister, Naya, and the terrible way in which she had died. His father had been responsible for that, after concocting the damaging elixir intended for Ronad that had ended up in Naya’s system, killing her. It was enough to scar any man for life, and keep him at a distance from such a person. But, despite the reasoning behind it, Jareth Idrax had never intended to kill anyone. He had been worried about keeping up appearances, and it had resulted in a tragic accident that had no doubt scarred Jareth and his wife, too.

No, there had to be something more to Navan’s dislike—I could sense it.

“Why do you despise them so much?” I asked.

“I told you about my sister,” he muttered, his eyes flashing with hurt.

“I remember every word,” I promised, “but there must be something else to it. What your father did was wrong and terrible, but it was an accident. An awful accident.”

Navan’s face turned sour. “You’re siding with my father?”

“Of course not!” I said. “I think what he did was awful under any circumstances. He should have let your sister and Ronad be, but that doesn’t change what happened. It’s just that… Well, your hatred for him now seems to be as fresh as if something awful had just happened, and I don’t understand why.”

For a long time, Navan said nothing, just stared at the opposite wall. Finally, he replied, “That man has ruled my life for too long. Throughout my childhood, my adolescence, my adulthood, he has always been there, lording his superiority over me, cracking the whip to make me like him… to make me better, always better. Not long ago, it got to the point where I felt like my life wasn’t my own anymore. I was a puppet, and he was pulling the strings.” He paced in front of me, avoiding looking me in the eyes. I was proud of him for saying this much, given that he wasn’t usually one for big displays of feeling or sharing.

“What did he do?” I asked.

Navan sighed. “My parents have always had ‘ideas’ about us all. Everything has to be set out, planned down to the tiniest thing. In their minds, nothing can be left to chance. After the incident with Ronad and Naya, they went into some sort of crazy parent mode. They didn’t want any of us choosing partners for ourselves, since apparently we could no longer be trusted. It was either do as they say, or stay a bachelor, basically.” He scowled, shaking his head.

I frowned, hoping he hadn’t chosen the former. I’d never heard him mention a girlfriend back home on Vysanthe, but then again, I’d never asked about one either.

No, I told myself, he would have told you if he had a girlfriend here. He wouldn’t have kept that from you. Looking into his earnest eyes, I knew it was true—he wouldn’t deceive me.

“Couldn’t you talk to them, and just… explain?” I asked, wanting to switch my line of thought. If there had been a chance he was seeing someone else, this was the moment he would have come out with it.

Navan exhaled, running a hand down his tired face. “Riley, I’m tired and really don’t want to talk any more about my parents now. I’ve been through enough for one day. Let’s just… enjoy this time we have together.”

“Of course. I’m sorry,” I said, beckoning for him to join me on the bed. There were two of them in the room, but there was no way I was sleeping alone tonight.

He stood in front of me, cupping my face in his hands, my chin tilted upward so our eyes were locked in a steady gaze.

But I could barely focus on his eyes. By the faraway look on his face, I guessed he couldn’t focus on mine either. There was just too much at stake here. One false move and the whole house of cards would come tumbling down.

“What if an interrogator manages to crack one of the guys? Or kills them?” I asked. “Do you think Orion would listen to us, or do you think he’d just activate the implant and take me out of the equation?”

With a sigh, Navan sat down on the bed with me and put his arm around my shoulder, leaning his head against mine. “I don’t know, Riley. I just know I have to do whatever it takes to stop him from activating that thing,” he said bitterly, his fingers tracing the curve of my neck, where Orion had implanted the chip.

“But what can we do?” I mused, thinking about the mission brief. We were supposed to find weaknesses in the queendom and send information back to the rebel base. We were supposed to send her on a wild-goose chase. “When we see the queen again, we can’t leave it up to the rest of the crew. You’re going to have to tell her where the rebel base is.”

Navan looked shocked. “I can’t tell—” he began, but I cut him off, realizing he’d misunderstood.

“The rebel base, a year away from here,” I said, reminding him of the ruse. “If the others haven’t told her yet, then what does it matter if you tell her? She’ll likely go and look at the outpost first, anyway, seeing as that’s only a week or so away. That buys us time. Besides, you can always explain that your rebels have more information she might be interested in—I’m sure they can come up with something juicy,” I said, giving him a knowing look.

A half smile passed across Navan’s lips. “Maybe you’re right. I wouldn’t be surprised if she sent teams to both, to scope out the area. A year is a pretty long time, though,” he said. “Wouldn’t want to be one of the poor bastards who gets that job.”

I nodded. “Maybe you should speak with Aurelius tomorrow, get a better idea of how the others are,” I said, knowing the half-winged advisor might be the perfect source of information, where Queen Gianne and the queendom were concerned.