Heart of Iron (Heart of Iron #1)(81)
“That is usually what happens when you mess up,” replied the redhead. “Now excuse me—”
Robb caught him by the forearm. “Wait. When my father left the palace, he took the Tsarina for a reason. He helped you save Ana, right? Do you know who set the fire? What set the fire?”
“I cannot remember.”
“Think, D09—”
“Di,” he absently corrected, shrugging off Robb’s hand, “and I cannot remember.”
“Try a little harder!”
A muscle in the Metal’s jaw fluttered. Oh, good Goddess, this was too human for him. “I said I cannot—”
A floating metal box screeched around a corner, pursued by a Messier.
Robb’s jaw went slack. “Is that . . . ?”
“Yes,” Di deadpanned.
E0S beeped and slammed into Di’s chest, cowering into his arms. Di wrapped his arms around the bot protectively, as if it was his pet.
The Messier came to a stop in front of them. It lowered its blazing blue gaze to the bot. “Thank you. Will you please hand over—”
Di punched his free hand into the Messier’s chest, twisted, and pulled back. Its memory core came out with a sigh of wires and optics. He crushed it in his grip, and the Messier’s eyes dulled. It slumped to the floor.
“Goddess.” Robb gave the Metal an incredulous look. “Remind me not to piss you off.”
Di shook his free hand as if the impact had actually hurt. “It was chasing my can opener.”
The small bot bleeped in agreement and flew out of Di’s arm, swirling around him.
Di cocked his head. “Other Messiers are coming. Ten, perhaps twelve.” He narrowed a glare at the bot. “You got into trouble. I told you to find the exit code for the moonbay, not trouble.”
It bleeped sadly in reply.
Robb hoped he had heard right. “Moonbay codes? So you have a way out?”
“Of course. Riggs parked a skysailer at the docks. Why?”
“Because Jax is here in the palace, and I need to get him out before my mother does something terrible. I didn’t have a way to do that until you. You’re here for Ana, right?”
Di looked annoyed. “No, I am here to tour the palace.”
“Sarcasm, not the time.”
“Sorry, the literary device is still new to me. I need to get Ana out of here—tonight. The malware is here. I can hear it—I just saw it.”
“You what?”
“It was terrifying,” he said, and turned his attention down the long hallway. Robb could hear the Messiers coming now, their boots clomping on the marble floor in striking precision. He stepped over the smashed Messier and followed Di down the hallway. The bot swirled around them, as if it was happy.
Di glanced over to him. “I will meet you at the docks in three hours and twenty-seven minutes, unless something goes wrong.”
“Why three hours and twenty-seven minutes?”
“Because that is when the moonbay resets its docking permissions,” he replied as they came to an intersecting hallway. They stopped. Di was to go one way to Ana’s room, and he the other.
“How do you know that?” Robb asked.
“The bot told me.”
“. . . Right. Three hours and twenty-seven minutes, and if you’re not there?”
“Leave without me.”
He didn’t like the idea, but he nodded anyway. Di could find his own way out—he’d found his own way in, after all.
Robb started for his mother’s room—where he hoped Jax was being kept—when he heard his name called. He looked over his shoulder.
The redhead smiled, and it was such a human moment, Robb faltered. “Thank you, Robb.”
“For what?”
“Saving me.”
Then Ana’s Metal turned the corner and was gone.
Jax
These four walls were going to drive him mad.
He tried another combination on the keypad, but it blinked red again. He kicked the door—and the Valerio guard on the other side kicked back. Ana could be dying right now for all he knew. By Erik’s knuckle-ringed hand.
And here he was, locked up in Lady Valerio’s private chambers like a pet! Oh, if his father was alive, he would’ve had a field day with Jax’s predicament now.
This is what happens when you try to defy your stars, he would say.
The doorknob rattled, and he quickly retreated, raising his hands to fight.
But it was the lady herself, followed by three of her private guards. “I hear you’ve been trying to escape,” she chided, taking a seat on the floral fainting couch. “Is my hospitality not good enough for you?”
One of the Valerio guards waved a small remote beside Jax’s collar, and the incessant humming quieted.
Jax rubbed his throat above the collar. “I don’t like being locked places,” he replied, his voice brittle and hoarse. It hurt to talk.
“I doubt many do,” she replied, and dismissed the guards. They left him alone in the room with this madwoman.
Jax shifted his weight from one foot to the other, growing anxious because there was only one reason why she’d come back from the gala.
“So, you want me to read your stars?” Jax asked, trying to keep his voice level.