Zodiac (Zodiac, #1)(80)
His hair is freshly trimmed, and he’s dressed more elegantly than ever. His court suit is a shade of purple so deep it’s almost black. He grins at the coronet in my hair. “Lovely.” Then he gives me a closer inspection. “You didn’t sleep well.”
“She was ambushed in the street last night by snipers,” says Mathias.
Hysan’s eyes grow wide. “Are you okay? What happened?”
I nod, and Mathias starts describing the attack, but he stops midsentence. At the far end of the hall, students are waving Cancrian banners and chanting my name. Fifty of them at least.
“Rho! Rho! Rho!” They rush toward me, snapping my picture with their Waves and trying to touch me, until Mathias intervenes and hustles me into the ruby stair pipe.
Inside the arenasphere, hundreds of holograms drift overhead, a circus of pixilating colors. Below, the tiered seats are full. Dozens of micro-cameras swarm around us, and we swat them away as we weave through throngs of spectators toward the stage. As usual, Mathias goes first, opening a path.
When Mathias’s back is turned, Hysan’s hand closes around my wrist, and he pulls me away to a secluded corner of the arena.
He turns to me in the shadow of an emergency exit, where no one is close enough to hear. I sneak a glance at the crowd—Mathias is going to worry when he notices I’m missing.
“Rho, I’ve thought it over, and I’m going to address the Plenum today,” says Hysan, speaking loudly over the arena noise. “My ambassador is already getting me a timeslot. I’m going to reveal my true identity.”
My eyes feel like they’re taking up my whole face. “You’re going to what?”
“I’ll tell everyone about the attack on our ship, that way there’s no question about the Psy weapon. Then I’ll let them know I believe you, that Ophiuchus is real, and that House Libra stands with House Cancer.”
I give a kind of flying leap and hug him, and his husky laugh tickles my ear. When we pull apart, I say, “Hysan, there’s going to be a lot of fallout. I mean with your people, after you reveal the truth. You said it the other day, you’ve broken your Guardian’s oath for me—I don’t want to ask you to do more.”
“That’s just it, though. You don’t have to ask.” He sweeps a curl from my face, leaving a line of heat on my skin. “I know you don’t like secrecy, but it’s all I’ve ever known. I’ve never had a role model like you to teach me a better way.” Deep dimples form on his cheeks.
Even though I never would have believed it possible, I’m smiling, too. “I owe you.”
“No, Rho. I owe you.” His expression grows uncharacteristically serious, but his eyes retain all their warmth. “Ambassador Frey told me a mass of Psynergy probed four of our flying cities late last night. If you hadn’t warned me, I wouldn’t have known to shield them.”
It takes me a moment to digest what he just said. “Then . . . we did do some good,” I sputter. “This—all of this hasn’t been for nothing.”
Before I can clear my head, he muddles everything even more by leaning into me and laying two slow kisses on either of my cheeks. The brush of his lips against my skin makes my brain buzz.
“Those cities are home to twelve million people,” he whispers, his mouth now near my ear. “I’m going to tell the whole world what you did. You’ll always have House Libra’s deepest gratitude.”
“Rho!”
I hear Mathias’s voice calling out close by, but he hasn’t found us yet.
“She’s here!” shouts Hysan, leading me to Mathias, while my mind races at the speed of my pulse. Just as the three of us meet, a little girl approaches and pinches my arm. I turn to look and am struck by her otherworldly, childish beauty.
She has skin as pale as the inside of a cantaloupe and curly copper hair, and she looks exactly like her thieving twin brother. “Rubidum?”
“What have you done to Caasy?” she asks, her tunnel-like eyes expanding. “He’s so obsessed with that black opal of yours, he won’t even come out to play.”
“Where is he?” I snap. “I need it back!”
“Then the stars must have put you in my way.” She pulls out the stone from her pocket.
I gasp, unsure if I should reach for it or toss it away. Ochus could use it.
Hysan sees what’s happening, and he swipes it from her hand. “I brought something with me,” he says, pulling out a velvet pouch. “It’s veiled from the Psy,” he explains to me before slipping the stone inside.
“Thanks,” I say, amazed, as he hands me the pouch. Then I look at Rubidum. “Why did he take it?”
“He thought you were on a suicide mission,” she says, shrugging as though that were the most normal kind of mission to be on. “He knew what the stone was, and he was worried you didn’t, so he took it. To protect Cancer. And to play with it himself, of course.” She smiles brightly. “But mostly so it wouldn’t get lost with your bodies.”
I’m not sure if I believe that’s what really happened, but either way, I’m happy Rubidum had the sense to bring the stone back to me. “Where is he?” I growl.
She tilts her head and pouts. “Caasy wouldn’t come with me. I had to answer the summons on my own.”