Renegades (Hotbloods #3)

It was something I’d been thinking about a lot. We’d long since passed the date we were supposed to be back from our summer excursion, and we still had no foreseeable way of returning home. That moment had come and gone—our faces would likely be all over the late-night news on Earth. We’d be the three girls who disappeared one day and never came home. It hurt like hell to think Jean and Roger were out there grieving over me because I ran off and never came back. No matter how tempting the opportunities might be, we had to find a way off this planet, before we lost ourselves in these new lives. We owed our parents that.

“You didn’t tell us you’d seen Seamus before we left,” I murmured, changing the subject.

She shrugged. “I didn’t tell you guys about it because… Well, I was upset, and I didn’t want to ruin our last month together. Plus, it didn’t matter anyway; nothing was ever going to come of it. Especially not now.”

“I guess things have taken a bit of a detour, haven’t they?” I said, flashing an apologetic glance at my two friends. “I mean, you were heading to Stanford, I was supposed to be off to Michigan, and Angie was going to Paris. Now look at us.”

Lauren smiled, her mood shifting. “There might be a missed opportunity back home, but to be honest, I wouldn’t change this opportunity for the world. Who else gets to travel to another planet like this? I get to study cultures nobody on Earth has ever seen or heard of. I get to read books about things that would blow anyone’s mind. I get to do things I would’ve never had the chance to do, if I’d stayed, safe and small, at home,” she said, but the sentiment was bittersweet. It was hard to think about the lives and dreams we might have had, and how we had let them go to step into the unknown. But Lauren was right—who else got to do what we did? Who else got to live a life of adventure, in the far reaches of the universe?

Angie nodded firmly. “I know Paris would’ve been amazing, but Lauren is right. We’re doing something special here. Even when we have to go back, we’ll have our memories, and that is worth everything we’ve given up to be here. Earth is good, but Vysanthe has its perks too.”

“What, you mean Bashrik?” I teased.

“No, not Bashrik.” Angie scoffed. “I mean, learning something new, being on a different planet.”

Lauren smirked. “Come on, Ang, we know you like him. It’s obvious to literally everyone but the pair of you.”

“I don’t like him, but I just wish the queen would leave him alone. I mean, he’s not interested, for God’s sake, but she keeps coming after him.” Angie sighed. “Take this whole party, for example. What person in their right mind announces their love for someone who clearly has no interest, in front of a load of people? It’s because she knows she’s queen, and he can’t say no to her, and that bugs me,” she muttered.

“Do you want him to say no?” I prodded.

Angie looked at Lauren and me, then took a deep breath. “Okay, yes… I want him to say no, okay? There, I said it! I guess I do like him a bit—in a really weird way—and I… I don’t want him to go off with the queen. Not that he even has a choice, so it’s pointless talking about it.”

With that, she sealed her lips and turned her back on us, clearly intending to reveal no more on the subject.

I exchanged a discreet glance with Lauren, who looked concerned. We moved over to the floor where Angie sat and put our arms around her. She fought us for a moment, before letting us hold her.

“What would I do without you guys?” she murmured, pulling us close.

I sighed. I, for one, had no idea what I’d do without them.





Chapter Thirteen





With our dresses on, our makeup done, our hair styled, and our heels hugging our feet, we left the apartment and headed down to the party.

An elegant stairwell led down to the foyer, where guests were being shepherded toward the gardens, their excited chatter drifting up to us. We paused on the landing, taking one last good look at each other to make sure nothing was out of place.

“You know, there’s something that’s been bugging me,” Angie muttered as I tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear. The chatter continued to flow around us. "Do Vysantheans have a translator installed in their heads, or what? They speak English like freakin' natives!"

That was kind of what I had been assuming. Well, either tech, or some natural, inconceivably advanced language ability. Though, I knew Navan could genuinely speak our language—he’d spent a fair amount of time in the US and Canada, and coldbloods’ learning skills were off the charts in terms of speed. I suspected Bashrik and Ronad were the same, too.

Lauren smirked. “Surprised you didn’t ask sooner. I read up on that, and yeah, actually, it’s because of a small device they have implanted in their brains. Obviously, coldbloods have a penchant for interplanetary travel and colonization. They’re always coming into contact with other species, which means they need a way to efficiently communicate with them. This brain chip… Well, I couldn’t begin to tell you how it works. We might as well call it magic. But apparently coldbloods aren’t the only aliens to develop such tech. Others have, too.”

“How on earth could any piece of tech be capable of that?” Angie frowned. “When a coldblood speaks to us, we hear our language, while other coldbloods hear… their native language? And how do they understand us? That’s insane.”

Lauren shrugged. “Well, we don’t know what we don’t know, right? I mean, three hundred years ago, would we have ever thought the internet was possible? Smart phones? They would have basically been magic, right?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Angie mumbled, still looking bewildered as we descended the stairs.

In the entrance hall, my heart fluttered as I saw Navan standing there, waiting for us. He turned, his face morphing into a mask of amazement as his eyes locked with mine. Bashrik, standing beside him, only had eyes for Angie, his mouth open in shock. They didn’t look too shabby either, with Bashrik dressed in a deep scarlet suit with a high collar and a cream shirt beneath, a peculiar maroon cravat at his neck. Navan wore something similar, though he was dressed in a suit of dark gray that highlighted the color of his eyes.

Looking around, I noticed that nobody else was wearing a suit in the same color as Bashrik, and I wondered if the queen had arranged it herself, so everyone would know who her love was, when the moment came. Poor guy.

“I can’t put into words how amazing you look,” Navan whispered, taking my hand and placing a gentle kiss on my cheek.

Bashrik looked as though he was about to offer his hand to Angie, but thought better of it. Part of me was glad, seeing that Lauren didn’t have a partner, but I still felt sorry for Angie. I imagined she was wishing Bashrik would make a move. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. If she hadn’t been so damn passive aggressive with him till now, he probably would have. She needed to work on her flirting skills.

“Shall we?” I suggested, gesturing toward the garden exit, where everyone was being ushered.