Coldbloods (Hotbloods #2)

Lazar shook his head. “It’s just Navan I need to speak to,” he insisted, a note of apology in his voice.

I went into the room, wanting to pause by the door and eavesdrop, but knowing I shouldn’t. Frustrated, I walked over to the window and gazed out into the Vysanthean night, my eyes drawn to the pale crimson moon gleaming above. What were they talking about out there? I had the unsettling feeling that it wasn’t anything good.

Navan strode back into the room ten minutes later, a perplexed expression on his face. He walked straight over to me, taking my face in his hands and leaning his forehead against mine. He was breathing heavily, his manner strange.

“I need you to promise me something,” he whispered, planting a delicate kiss on my face.

“Huh, what?”

“I need you to promise that, when the time comes, you will do what is best for your survival and trust me. As much as I love how headstrong you are, I need you to not be stubborn about this—I need you to just do what I say, when I say it, okay?” he explained rapidly, kissing me over and over, in between words.

“What? Wait, wait,” I spluttered, pushing him back so I could look him in the eyes. “Navan, what is this? What’s going on?” I asked, feeling a prickle of alarm. Navan’s fa?ade of calm had fallen, and it scared me.

“I’ve got a plan to get us all out of Vysanthe safely,” he went on, his words hardly any less cryptic, “but it requires complete trust in what I say. When things begin to snowball, I need you to go along with it.”

“What do you mean? What did Lazar say to you?”

Navan sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Orion has given us permission to leave Vysanthe soon,” he said. “Lazar wanted to discuss our departure, and while I was with him, I came up with a plan. I don’t want you to worry about it now—you’ve got enough on your plate.” His eyes dropped worriedly to my neck. “Honestly, I don’t know when the moment will come for you to leave, or the exact circumstances, but I’m going to be on the lookout for it. When the moment arrives, it should be obvious, and I need you to promise me that you’ll take the chance."

Worry and confusion still gripped me—I had no idea what he meant by “take the chance”—but after the strain of the day, I found I didn’t have it in me to argue or push him further. I just nodded, and hoped whatever Navan had planned wouldn’t end up putting my safety before his.





Chapter Twenty-Nine





I awoke the following morning with a throbbing pain along my neck, the dull ache running all the way down my shoulder. Still, it was nothing I couldn’t handle after the agony of the night before. No doubt it was just my body getting rid of whatever traces the chip had left behind.

I rolled over in the bed to find Navan gone. My first instinct was to panic, and I sat up and looked around, just in time to see him come through the front door of the chambers. He smiled as he saw me, coming to sit at the edge of the bed.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” he said softly. “How are you feeling?”

I let out a sigh and leaned back. “Groggy.”

“Any pain?”

“Just a few aches, nothing I can’t cope with,” I replied. After the secret discussion with Lazar the previous evening, I was curious to know where he had been. “What have you been up to?”

“I went to pick up the disc from the guys at the palace,” he said casually, taking a seat in a chair.

I was about to ask him further questions about last night, but, realizing I desperately needed to pee, I got up to go to the bathroom. On reemerging a few minutes later, I found Navan’s chair empty.

I glanced toward the front door to see him standing there, in the middle of closing it. He turned to face me with a grim look.

“That was a messenger—the queen has invited us to breakfast,” he said sourly.

“I’m guessing we have to go? I mean, it’s not as if I can eat anything,” I muttered.

He sighed. “Be rude not to.”

Fearful of what the queen might want us for, I dressed quickly, and we left the room, all other thoughts evaporating into the ether. Taking the Snapper across the familiar route, we headed for the palace. After parking, we hurried through the palace in the direction of the throne room, where Queen Gianne was waiting for us.

A circular table covered in a cloth of deep plum velvet had been positioned in front of the silver throne, and there were plates laid out at every seat, with an assortment of vials placed on top. At one seat, however, was a very surprising sight—a bowl full of fruit had been set out, the colors vivid. I didn’t recognize any of the fruit pieces, but my mouth was watering regardless. I couldn’t wait to devour something that wasn’t from a plastic packet.

Nestor, Cristo, Lazar, and the two shifters, morphed back into their Carokian forms, were already sitting at the table, their eyes flickering toward us as we approached. Queen Gianne was speaking with some guards on the far side of the room, but as she saw us take our seats, she swept across the floor to join us. She was dressed in a flowing gown of pure white, with an opaleine brooch clasped to the neckline.

With a flourish, she sat down at the table, removing the stopper from one of the vials in front of her and downing the contents. A trickle of something silver ran out of the corner of her mouth, before being hastily brushed away. Taking it as a signal, we all began to eat—or drink, in everyone else’s case. I descended upon the fruit bowl, a burst of flavor exploding in my mouth, the sugar rushing straight to my head. Some flavors were familiar, but most were brand new, exciting my senses. I hadn’t realized until that moment just how much I missed real food.

“You’re probably wondering why I’ve brought you all together this morning,” Queen Gianne began, after finishing off a second vial.

As a group, we looked up from what we were consuming and let our collective gaze rest on her. I thought she looked paler than the last time I’d seen her, with dark circles under her eyes, almost hidden by deftly applied makeup.

“It was a surprise, Your Highness,” Navan said first, the silence having stretched on a moment too long.

“No doubt I frightened you?” she prompted, giving a slightly manic laugh.

“Not at all, Your Highness,” Navan replied, though I detected a note of unease in his voice.

Queen Gianne looked disappointed by this news. “Well, never mind. I’ve got you here now. You see, I thought we might take a moment to discuss the rebels. That is, after all, why you were permitted to remain in my queendom,” she continued. “I wish to know what you know, since intelligence was your bartering chip.”

Another silence stretched across the table, though it was Nestor who broke it this time. “What would you care to know, Your Highness? We can tell you everything we have at our disposal,” he said calmly.

“Where is the rebel base?” she asked, diving straight in with the big question.