Heart of Iron (Heart of Iron #1)(94)

He’d never longed for such an open expanse before in his whole life.

“So, let me get this straight. You read my mother’s stars?” Robb asked as they bobbed through the crowd. “See anything exciting? Torturing poor citizens? Erik becoming Emperor? Sucking human blood?”

Jax wasn’t in the joking mood. “I didn’t see anything I wanted to,” he replied gruffly, and his tongue felt heavier and heavier, the almost-lie tasting like iron. So much blood—a crown covered in it.

He hoped Ana was at the docks. He couldn’t wait to see her again—golden-brown eyes and a smile that curled with trouble. He missed his best friend.

But when they arrived at the docks, no one was there.

“Aren’t they supposed to be here?” he asked as a cold knot of dread curled in his stomach.

“Yeah. There’s the skysailer Riggs left. . . .” Robb moved toward the Dossier’s skysailer. It was a sight for sore eyes. “Maybe they’re running late—”

A loud bleep filled the docks. Screaming. Coming from the square. Speeding toward them as fast as the little bot could was E0S.

It dove into Jax’s arms.

“Please say this is part of your plan,” he said to Robb, who was quickly paling.

“I don’t—I mean, I don’t think—”

From the square, Messier voices rose up over the chanteys sung by the merrymaking crowd, asking them to kindly move. Jax would bet his left ear they were heading for the docks. Ana, he realized, wasn’t coming.

Jax held the bot tightly. He was foolish to think he could change anyone’s stars—that the stars were theirs to change. He resigned himself to it until the Ironblood turned back to him, fire in his eyes.

“You need to leave,” Robb said, “before the moonbay exit codes expire. I’ll stay and distract them—they can’t do much to me. I’m a Valerio.”

“You’re lying,” he replied. “I can tell now when you do.”

“I’ll be fine—”

In the square, the Messiers broke through the crowd, making their way toward the moonbay, marching in unison, blue eyes blazing.

“—Please, Jax,” Robb pleaded. “You have to go—you’ll be fine. If your visions are right, then Ana is still in trouble. Go find help. I’ll distract them and you can—”

Jax took Robb by the face, fingers spreading into his hair, dark curls wrapping around his fingers, snarling them, so Robb could look at no one else. He memorized the constellation of freckles crossing Robb’s nose, peppering his sun-kissed cheeks. The way the human boy looked at him made a strange, burning feeling turn in his stomach. He wanted to kiss off the freckles and place them in the sky as guiding stars.

Closer, closer the Messiers came. Down the ramp, past the first ships

“The Solani have a saying,” he said, his voice soft. “Al gat ha astri ke’eto. It means something like ‘Until the next star shines on you’—until we meet again. So, Al gat ha astri ke’eto, ma’alor.”

Robb grinned despite his fear—Goddess’s fiery spark, Jax hated that grin, arrogant and insufferable and now he could think of little else. “What does ma’alor mean?”

“Stop,” one of the Messiers said, drawing its Metroid. “Please step away from the ship.”

“I’ll save you,” Jax said.

And Robb replied, “I know.”

Then he shoved Jax into the skysailer, kicked the ropes holding it, and pushed it off from the dock. It rocked away, and the curly-haired boy gave a last nod before he turned back to greet the Messiers.

Jax scrambled to sit up, reaching back toward Robb desperately, but the words he needed sat lodged in his throat.

The guards were one hundred feet away, closing in, and without knowing what else to do, he started the skysailer. Its golden wings fanned out as the engine gave off a sweet, faint hum, and E0S sent out the exit codes to leave the moonbay.

Goddess, give us new stars, he prayed as the skysailer lifted into the starry night, and out into the darkness of space, watching Robb’s shadow grow smaller and smaller until it was nothing at all.

Or give us the power to change ours.





Robb


The Messiers led him out into the moon garden.

He was wondering if there was some prison below the garden he didn’t know about when he caught sight of a lone shadow sitting on a bench where roses bloomed. His mother inclined her head as he approached, her face lit by the steady glow of the candles shining out of the Iron Shrine. She dismissed the Messiers.

“Come,” said his mother, and patted the bench beside her once they were gone. Hesitantly, he sat, wondering what sort of trap this was. “You let the Solani go. I am honestly surprised it took you so long.”

He shifted uncomfortably, noticing the open voxcollar in her hand. Erik must have gotten out of the wardrobe and come running to their mother. Typical.

“Is he gone?” she asked.

“Yes, Mother.”

“Then why did you not leave, too?”

“Because I want to see Ana on the throne.”

She raised an eyebrow, more amused than angry. “You truly are your father’s child.”

“I hope so.”

Her grip on the voxcollar tightened. She’d yet to look at him, only at the Iron Shrine, as if he wasn’t worthy anymore. “You care too little about legacy, about the Valerio name. Toriean el agh Lothorne—Glory in the Pursuit, but you never cared for glory. You never went to pursue it, not like your brother. Erik is ravenous for it. He is strong; he will carve our name across the galaxy for the glory of it all.”