Coldbloods (Hotbloods #2)

It was only half an hour before we reached the imposing, glacial fa?ade of the palace. Hurrying out, we headed for the vast silver doors that served as the palace entrance. Immediately, guards swarmed around us, demanding to know what our business was.

“Queen Gianne is expecting us,” Navan announced, and we were ushered inside.

The palace interior was as impressive as the exterior. Cavernous halls chimed with a thousand dangling crystals, icy chandeliers lining the route, with statues scattered about the place, looking like coldbloods frozen in time. Tapestries hung from the walls, depicting great scenes of war and the beautiful Queen Gianne standing in various poses, usually dominating a conquered species. Beside every single door that branched off from the main hallway, a guard stood, wielding a crackling staff.

A moment later, we were taken through another set of huge double doors, into a grand room with a throne at the very end. Queen Gianne was sitting atop it, an angry look on her striking face. She eyed us with tangible annoyance.

“And where the hell have you been?” she snapped, as soon as we were brought in front of the throne.

“Getting reacquainted, Your Highness,” Navan replied coolly. “I visited some old haunts.”

Queen Gianne glowered in his direction. “While I did tell you to explore, I didn’t mean you could just go wherever you pleased, for as long as you wished,” she growled. “I’m of two minds about whether I want to throw this celebration in your honor now.”

“My apologies, Your Highness, I should have known to return sooner,” Navan groveled—a disturbing sight to see.

“You were spotted near the boundary dividing the queendoms,” she remarked. “When my advisors informed me of this unfortunate news, I have to say, I feared the worst.”

Navan looked up at her. “I would never cross the boundary, Your Highness. There were friends in a nearby border town I wished to visit. That is all,” he assured her.

I frowned, wondering when we had reached this invisible boundary. I didn’t remember seeing it. Although, now that I thought about it, there was something strange about the location of the fighting pits. They had been so far from any other settlement—perhaps that was where the boundary lay, just beyond the pits? I reminded myself to ask Navan later… if Queen Gianne allowed us a later.

The queen’s eyes narrowed to two furious, burning slits. She approached Navan, lifting his chin roughly with her hand so he was forced to look her straight in the face. Rage poured off her in waves.

“Perhaps my first suspicion of you was correct, Navan Idrax,” she snarled, her beautiful face twisting into something ugly. “Perhaps you mean to betray me to Queen Brisha, like Jethro and Ianthan wanted to? Maybe they were the true followers, and you are the traitor.”

It was clear that news of those two men’s betrayal had crept into the deepest parts of her paranoid mind. And I wasn’t sure that I could blame her—being a queen must be tough, especially when everyone wanted you dethroned, or worse. After all, Jethro had been high up in her esteem, once upon a time, offering his engineering wisdom. She had clearly trusted him as a close associate, and now… Well, it would be enough to make anyone paranoid. Distrust lingered in the air.

Navan shook his head. “No, Your Highness. You are the one true queen—you have always been my queen. I would never betray you.”

“My sister sends messages, you know, telling me there are spies in my midst,” she hissed. “That changeling witch wants to frighten me. She wants me to doubt everything so she can swoop in and take my throne. She thinks she’s better than me, but she has no idea. I know her better than she knows herself. She will not get to make the first move—you can be assured of that! I will kill everyone I have to before I let her take what is mine,” she roared, shoving Navan’s face away violently. I could see small marks where her nails had dug into his flesh.

“Your Highness, we were just exploring,” Navan insisted. “I am no traitor.”

Slowly, the queen’s chest stopped heaving, and she calmed down, brushing an elegant hand through her copper locks. Striding back up to her throne, she turned to glance back at us. A glimmer of cold amusement passed across her features.

“Good,” she remarked. “Because, if you betray me, I won’t stop at just killing you.”

Her eyes flickered to me, and in that moment, I knew I was in trouble.





Chapter Twenty-Two





“You!” she barked, looking right at me.

I lifted my head, trying to look innocent. “Yes, Your Highness?”

“You see that water in the fountain over there,” she said, gesturing toward a gem-encrusted water fountain a short distance away.

I nodded. “Yes, Your Highness.”

“Fetch a dish of it, and bathe my feet,” she instructed. “They are sore from my morning endeavors, and I would like them soaked and refreshed.”

I went to stand, but Navan’s hand shot out and grasped me by the wrist. Torn, I crouched, half sitting, half standing, not knowing what to do. I couldn’t very well disobey a direct order, not if I wanted to live.

The queen’s eyes narrowed. “I said, fetch a dish of water and bathe my feet, you vile creature,” she spat.

Again, I went to stand, but Navan’s hand pulled me back down. I could see the bemusement on the queen’s face, and longed to break free of Navan’s grasp—for his sake, as well as my own. I didn’t mind doing something degrading if it meant we could get out in one piece.

“Navan? Explain yourself,” Queen Gianne bellowed, her face a mask of fury.

“She is weak, Your Highness,” he replied. “The temperature of the water will freeze her hands.”

A surprised laugh rippled from the back of her throat. “Why should you care if she hurts her pathetic hands?”

“She is my servant—there are things I wish her to do, and for that I require her hands,” he countered, his cheeks flushing a pale shade of pink beneath the ashen surface. In any other situation, I would have giggled, but right now, I didn’t think I’d ever have the courage to laugh again.

For a moment, Queen Gianne said nothing. My heart was thundering in my chest, and I was expecting her to lash out at his flagrant defiance of her wishes. I didn’t mind bathing her feet, but I couldn’t turn to Navan and tell him that without revealing our true relationship. In the world of these coldbloods, I got the feeling that servants never talked back to their superiors.