Heart of Iron (Heart of Iron #1)(88)

He lightly tapped the circuit board with his omnitool, and the collar gave a jolt. Jax bit his tongue, squeezing his eyes closed against the pain.

“Goddess’s spark,” Robb hissed, sucking on his burned fingertips. The chip in his wrist throbbed. Could it be overloaded?

Too late to find out, he thought, and lowered the omnitool against the circuitry again—when Jax caught his wrist.

“What? I never said I wouldn’t barbecue us both,” he began to laugh—but Jax’s face widened with horror.

At something behind him.

The bedroom door slammed shut.

Robb whirled around. To his brother, knuckle rings glinting in the soft night-lights around the room. Erik looked like a feral animal in the low light, a creature of shadow with marble-like eyes. His tongue rubbed between his canine and incisor. “You’re trying to free him, aren’t you?”

“Free who?” Robb asked, playing dumb, knowing his brother hated it.

“You are,” Erik snarled. There was a horrible glint in his blue eyes. Robb had learned to be wary of that look. To run as fast as he could the other way. “Mother was right about you. You’re a piss-poor Valerio. You ruin everything.”

Robb stood, putting himself between Erik and Jax.

“At least you won’t be on the throne—”

Erik shoved him. He stumbled and fell backward over the side table. The omnitool went skittering out of his grip. He tried to reach for it, but his brother grabbed him by the collar and pulled a fist back, knuckle rings ready.

“I will be Emperor,” Erik seethed, and slammed his fist into Robb’s jaw.

Pain sliced across his face, bursting out like an explosion. His vision swam. He’d almost forgotten what this felt like.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jax grabbing the omnitool and trying to get the collar off by himself.

Don’t, he thought. Don’t—you’ll kill yourself.

He tried to struggle out from underneath his brother, but Erik punched him again. His vision filled with white. Then red. The room melted and swirled together.

“But you know what? I’ll let the star-kisser tell you I’ll be Emperor, once he reads my fate.”

“What?” Robb slurred.

“Oh, you didn’t know? It’s quite a show, I hear.”

Robb thought of what a fool he was, actually, not to have realized it sooner. That answer in the infirmary—

Please don’t ask, Jax had pleaded.

A curl had slipped from Erik’s greased pompadour, his snarl eating up half of his face. Behind him, creeping up like a shadow, was a silver-haired ghost with the voxcollar in his hands.

“I’ll have him read my fate,” Erik went on, “and I’ll let you watch while I slice his face up. What do you say?”

“I think you won’t get the chance,” Robb replied, and with a hard kick, he forced his brother backward into the waiting Solani, who fastened the voxcollar around his neck.

“What the—” Erik barely got the words out before fifty thousand volts of electricity sparked through the nodes in the voxcollar, sending him convulsing onto the floor. He gasped, spittle oozing out of his mouth, and clawed at the collar.

Jax stepped over Erik and took the lightsword from the bed. There was a burn from the voxcollar on the side of Jax’s neck like a spiderweb, almost black against his pale skin. He twirled the sword in his grip and let the blade come to rest at Robb’s throat.

“You’re joking,” Robb said.

“Look me in the eye, Robb Valerio,” the Solani rasped, “and tell me the truth: Did you have four queens?”

His eyebrows furrowed. “What?”

“During the Wicked Luck game on the Dossier,” Jax clarified. “Did you really have four queens?”

“Goddess no, no one’s that lucky.”

Jax studied him for a moment, then sheathed the blade. “Good, then I would have won.”

They locked Erik in the wardrobe in the corner of the room and set a chair under the door handle to make sure he wouldn’t be escaping anytime soon. It would give them a few minutes, at least. And it wasn’t like Erik could yell for help.

“So,” Robb said, wiping his bloody lip on the arm of his coat, “you can read the stars?”

The silver-haired boy tugged at his gloves. “If you’re looking for a free fortune, I already gave it.”

Robb’s eyebrows jerked up. “When we kissed?”

Jax nodded. “It’s why I don’t touch people without gloves on,” the Solani went on. “That’s why I’m here. Because I saw something in your stars about Ana and— What are you doing?”

Robb bowed, as far as he could go. “I’m sorry. That I hurt you. When we kissed, I should have asked. I’m sorry.” He was afraid to stand from his bow, waiting for Jax’s response.

The seconds felt like eons.

“Stop making a fool of yourself—and stop bowing to me, stars above,” Jax added exasperatedly, and waited for Robb to stand again. “I’m not worth that much groveling.”

“But you are.”

Jax sighed, and held out his hand. “Come on—Di and Ana are waiting.”

Robb hesitated. “Well? Don’t you want to take a dashing boy’s hand?” Oh—oh did he.