Renegades (Hotbloods #3)

“There’s no time for that now,” I replied quickly.

My mind turned to the cascading water in the building above. With the crackles and sparks exploding from the screens, perhaps it would cover the cause of the imminent explosion as some sort of electrical fault. I clung to that hope as I grasped Navan’s hand and pulled him in the opposite direction to the ledge, where Commander Korbin and the others would be expecting us.

“What’s going on?” Navan demanded, as I struggled to drag him along.

I paused, letting out an exasperated sigh. “Seraphina pulled it off. She managed to get the civilians out without raising any kind of alarm. A stroke of genius!” I said, taking his hand again. “But, right now, we need to make a little side trip. Seraphina heard about something important that Queen Gianne is building in the underground hangar, and I figured we should take a good look before we head for the North. It might be just the thing to get us back in Brisha’s good books,” I explained with a wink, leaving out the part about him returning to the South fulltime. That conversation could wait.

He frowned. “What is she building, exactly?”

“That’s what we need to find out,” I said, pulling him along. This time, he didn’t resist me, allowing me to drag him along in the shadow of the slippery rockface. I paused in the darkness for a moment, casting a glance back at the ledge where the commander had dropped us. From here, I could see him yelling into the face of one of our comrades, who was trying to attach a bomb that refused to stick.

It was now or never. We needed to move before he realized we’d gone. Clinging to the shadows, allowing them to swallow us up like camouflage, we headed for the underground hangar.



My memory was a little hazy where the city layout was concerned, but Navan took the lead when I began to flounder. I took another small sip of the wing serum on the way, to keep them from fading, while we kept to the outskirts for as long as possible, sticking to the shadows. On the way, I encouraged Navan to unbuckle his explosives belt, and we dropped mine and his into a deep pool of melted ice that glinted on the mountainside. I didn’t want anything to do with them now that the evacuation was underway, and it seemed Navan didn’t either.

“Was it really this far out?” I asked dubiously, following Navan past the perimeter of Regium.

“They keep it outside the city on purpose,” he said, leading us downward toward an inconspicuous-looking patch of frozen grass, the earth hard-packed beneath my feet as we touched down.

I looked around, partially recognizing the wall of stone that rose up ahead of us. Then again, I was pretty sure most mountain ranges looked the same. Turning my head this way and that, as if inspiration would suddenly come, I noticed Navan giving me a strange look.

“What are you doing?” he asked, half amused.

“Figuring out where the hangar is,” I retorted.

He chuckled. “It’s this way,” he said, gesturing toward a section of the mountainside.

“You’re in good shape, Navan, but I doubt you can tear through solid rock,” I muttered, hurrying after him. Wherever he was headed, he seemed determined.

As we neared the spot he was gesturing to, I swallowed my words. There, in the mountainside, was a crack about the size of two people standing side by side, though nature had camouflaged it with a tangled mass of vines and brambles that crisscrossed over the opening, hiding it from plain sight.

“This isn’t the way we came in when we first arrived on Vysanthe,” I said, utterly confused. Part of me wondered if Navan had hit his head while I wasn’t looking.

He smiled, a knowing look on his face. “It’s not, but I know this place well from my younger days. Me and my brothers used to sneak around these parts all the time, watching the engineers and making notes on each exploration ship that left the hangar. It’s what made me want to be an Explorer, watching those ships leave. Well, that and wanting to get the hell out of Vysanthe.” A curious smile pulled at the corners of his lips. “Over the years, I’ve discovered a few hidden treasures, where the guards don’t go. This is an old air vent, though it doesn’t look like it’s been doing much lately,” he said, chuckling to himself. He began to tear away the tangled roots and crumbled rocks that kept the opening so well hidden.

“Wait, we’re going through a sketchy gap in the wall of a massive mountain?” I raised an eyebrow in disbelief, fearing it would all tumble down around us the moment we set foot inside.

“There’s a ventilation shaft inside. It’s not just rock,” he said as he pulled away the last of the twisting vines and stamped them down on the floor of the fissure, covering his tracks. This place wouldn’t stay secret for long if someone came by and discovered a pile of torn-away weeds.

Still dubious about the structural safety of the crevice, I let Navan lead the way, holding on to his hand as he led me through the darkness beyond. Using my free hand to cling to the walls, I shuddered each time something fell around me, stone clattering to the ground. However, after a moment or two, the ground became more solid, the shadows lightening to a barely discernible dimness. Just as he’d said, the rock gave way to a secure, square tunnel of sheet metal. Our footsteps echoed as we walked along. It was tall enough to walk through in a standing position with my shoulders a little bit hunched, but Navan was bent over.

“Did Seraphina say anything else?” he asked as we moved on through the ventilation shaft.

I contemplated telling him about her request, but I couldn’t get the words to come out. It was like my heart was reaching up and grabbing at them, pulling them back down into my voice box, leaving them unspoken. I had to tell him, but now didn’t feel like the right time. I was still processing what she’d said myself.

“She told me she’d trigger the evacuation, and that Gianne was building a weapon of some kind,” I replied, even as I felt bad for delaying Seraphina’s request. The more I thought about it, the more I understood her perspective. She wasn’t asking to be cruel to me. She was asking because she feared for her own happiness. And, if I were being forced to marry a man like Aurelius, I’d probably be desperate for any other option, too.

Navan’s head snapped back to look at me. “You didn’t say it was a weapon!” he whispered sharply.

“Didn’t I?” I murmured, realizing I should have mentioned it. “I guess I thought it would have been obvious. I mean, what else is a queen going to build after she’s obliterated her sister’s prized possession? She’s got to expect payback of some sort. I presume she’s preparing for it.”

“You really have to tell me these things, Riley.” He sighed.