Coldbloods (Hotbloods #2)

I turned as I heard the queen’s voice shouting above everyone else’s. She was dressed in black military fatigues, her hair swept back in a bun, her silver eyes moving between the enormous screens that hung from the ceiling of the cavern. Although she spoke with authority and intense volume, her voice was calm, her manner even more so. Every movement she made, and every word she spoke, was carefully deliberated—I could see it in her face. I had never seen a woman more powerful and awe-inspiring, staring at her where she stood giving orders atop a marble plinth. Even Pandora paled in comparison, and I had just watched her kick a wall down.

“Evacuate Lyceum, Vergar, and Nocta to the community bunkers!” she boomed, her mighty voice carrying across the length and breadth of the enormous underground chamber. “Rygel, Horvat, and Scahva can follow. Get every civilian out, now! Send the cargo ships to pick up any remaining civilians in the villages and hamlets surrounding the cities. Take anyone who is left and get them to the nearest bunkers!”

Up on the screens, I watched as a fleet of military ships took off from various hangars dotted around Northern Vysanthe. In other images, I saw soldiers and pilots sprinting around loading bays, gearing up their vessels for the fight ahead. Enormous troops of infantry marched into the bellies of gigantic gunships, where they strapped themselves in, the metal doors left open. In a moment of panic, I wondered how they would get down to the ground to fight… and then I remembered. They had wings. Perhaps they didn’t even fight on the ground at all.

Beside the large blue screens that were hanging down from the ceiling was another large screen, though this one was tinted red. On it, I could see the approach of Queen Gianne’s ships, her colors—black and red—streaked onto the outside of the vessels. They swarmed like a great metal mob, coming forward in seemingly endless numbers, with more ever-present on the southern horizon.

Palace staff were being ushered through several doors that branched out from the main command center, before being herded toward a large section at the back of the cavern, which held rows upon rows of small wooden huts.

It seemed like Queen Brisha had been preparing for this moment for a long time. But, although she was moving around her post with a calm demeanor, it was evident that this move had taken her by surprise. Even so, she was proving herself a worthy queen by getting her subjects out before the worst of the assault hit. Somehow, I doubted Queen Gianne would do the same.

Feeling as though I had just summoned the devil herself, Queen Gianne’s face suddenly appeared on every screen at once, looming large above us. Her expression was a smug one. At the sight of her, Angie and Lauren huddled close to me, while Bashrik and Navan looked up, their faces showing their rage at what she was doing.

“Dear Sister, I’m very sad it has come to this,” she purred coldly, her voice booming through every speaker in the cavern. “Unfortunately, you have only yourself to blame for this attack. I’m afraid you have forced my hand.”

Queen Brisha pressed a button on her wrist, causing a small screen to flicker up with her face on it. “Whatever makes you sleep better at night, Sister, knowing how many innocents you have slaughtered for the sake of your own paranoid delusions,” she retorted bitterly, though she was doing an impressive job of keeping her cool.

Queen Gianne glowered. “This is all on you, Brisha. I could have continued to keep the peace, but then you spurned our species by giving asylum to criminals like Navan Idrax and his little pet. You are not fit to wear a crown, Sister. You have lost your way—you have lost our way of living. What are we, if our race is not the most superior in the universe? If you spoil the blood by mixing species, where are we going to end up? No, Sister, I will not allow it. This is all on you.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Gianne,” Brisha said evenly. “I rule with a fair hand instead of an iron fist, and my people love me for it. Your people wish to dethrone you because they are terrified of you. You’re running scared, and you’re lashing out—you’ve done it all your life. Now, if you would just come to the palace and talk to me, I’m sure we can figure this out without the need for bloodshed.”

But it was clear Queen Gianne was way past that. There was a mania in her eyes that terrified the living daylights out of me.

“I can see them!” Queen Gianne said sharply, her finger jabbing at the screen. “Those traitorous cretins! And… Bashrik Idrax?! The whole family is rotten! See, you let defectors and traitors into your midst! You shelter them. You aren’t fit to be queen!”

I glanced at Navan, feeling panic rise in my throat. Queen Brisha still thought that Navan and I had run to her because of our illicit romance, but if Queen Gianne were to expose us as traitors now, revealing our connection to the rebels, then it would all be over. This war between sisters wouldn’t matter to us, because we wouldn’t be alive to see it. Angie, Lauren, Bashrik… all of us would be doomed.

To my relief, Queen Gianne skipped over the details, choosing to simply call us every expletive under Vysanthe’s sun. She stared straight at us with her enormous eyes, blown up to epic proportions on the screens in front of us, her rage palpable, even though she wasn’t actually in the room.

“You think I’m not fit to be queen?” Queen Brisha scoffed. “Look at yourself. You’re a quivering wreck. You think you can send every ship you have at us and hope to win, but there’s no strategy there—there’s no skill or intellect involved in anything you do. You rush in headfirst, cause a huge mess, then run off with your tail between your legs, leaving everyone else to clean up after you.”

Queen Gianne looked like her head was about to explode. “How dare you,” she breathed. “You’ve never even seen any action, because you don’t take any risks—you’re a coward, with your head always hidden in a book. Even your subjects think you’re a pushover. They don’t like you—they think you’re weak!”

“Better a kind queen than an incompetent, mad one,” Brisha shot back.

“You’ve always thought you were smarter than me, Sister, but we’ll see about that,” Gianne remarked, her eyes narrowing to almost reptilian slits. “You think you’ve got the upper hand when it comes to the immortality elixir, but you’re wrong. It is slipping away from you as we speak. While you have been chatting away, I’ve been busy.” She smirked. “We will see who wins this race, Sister.”

A split second later, the video feed ended, the screens switching back to images of the fleets taking off and the townships that were coming under fire.

“I want security at maximum to prevent any more hacking!” Brisha demanded.

“No!” Navan suddenly bellowed.

Everyone in the cavern whirled to look at the screen his eyes had turned to. In the image, bombs were being dropped on a striking building, and I realized what it was. It was the only place Gianne could bombard that would hit Brisha where it hurt—her alchemy lab.

For a moment, Queen Brisha’s cool, calm fa?ade slipped. An almost innocent look of terror flickered across her face, her eyes burning with a bright rage. She recovered fast, turning to her military personnel.