Hotbloods (Hotbloods #1)(28)

I shuddered as I recalled Navan’s description of his homeland; I felt sure he had good reasons for wanting coldbloods to remain a secret from humans. Besides, nobody would believe us anyway. The police would think we had lost our minds, and we didn’t even have the wing anymore for them to analyze. We had never even thought to take a picture of it.

We ate lunch quickly and then set about our chores for the day. We began with the garden, doing some general maintenance, and then swept and mopped around the patio where the dogs spent most of their time.

There wasn’t much we could talk about as we worked, since we were so close to the house. All the windows were open, and the Churnleys could hear us. But when Mrs. Churnley sent us to the overgrown blackberry bushes at the border of their land, near the woods, we eased up a little.

“A part of me still thinks it was a dream,” Angie said, bending down to pluck a cluster of plump blackberries by her knees.

“I’m past that,” I replied, dropping a handful of berries into my plastic bowl.

“Me too,” Lauren said. “It doesn’t feel any less weird though.”

I nodded, sighing. My head was still reeling, and the consequences of last night were beginning to hit me. We would have to spend the rest of our lives with this incident living in our brains. With our minds expanded and blown open, in a way nobody else’s on the planet was. It would almost feel like we were living in a different reality to the rest of Earth’s population, everything seeming suddenly so… terribly mundane.

You should have taken the Elysium, a small, nagging voice whispered in my head. Then you could have simply resumed your life, carefree and normal.

I couldn’t entirely dismiss the voice, because it held a note of truth. Sometimes ignorance was bliss. And yet, even now, in hindsight, I still couldn’t bring myself to regret our decision to throw the vials away. Yes, ignorance could be bliss, but sometimes the truth was simply too illuminating to let go of, in spite of the consequences.

At least I had Angie and Lauren for company. Without them, I probably would have been a lot more worried. Maybe a silver lining existed in all of this—maybe this incident would turn out to be the thing that kept us close in our adult years, even if physical distance tore us apart. That was the only comfort I could cling to as the aftermath of last night overwhelmed my brain.

We let ourselves fall into silence and focused on picking, and the steady, rhythmic activity helped to soothe me. Physical activity almost always did.

As I neared the edge of the bushes, however, I heard a noise coming from the woods. It sounded like voices—male voices.

I placed my bowl on the ground and waved my hands to get Angie and Lauren’s attention. When they looked, I put a finger to my lips and gestured that they follow me. Together we crept to the edge of the bush and peered around it as much as we dared.

It was hard to find them amongst all the trees, but my eyes finally settled on two tall, dark, winged figures, standing on a thick branch, about seven feet off the ground. I couldn’t make out their faces, because their backs were to us, but as I listened more closely, I realized it was Jethro and Ianthan. They had come some way from their enclosure, as the beginning of their fence was at least a ten-minute walk from here… well, probably only a few seconds of flying at their speed. But I wondered what they were doing out here, away from their plot of land.

If we weren’t in the middle of nowhere, I wouldn’t have been able to hear them from this distance, but the almost deafeningly quiet atmosphere worked to my advantage. I could just decipher their words, and from the tone of their voices, it sounded like they were having an argument.

“—didn’t think it through,” Ianthan said.

“You had plenty of time to think this through!” Jethro retorted.

“You pressured me, Father. And things seemed different when we were back home, with distance between the plan and its actual execution. I’m telling you now, I don’t…I can’t go through with this. Navan is my best friend! I’d rather face the consequences than betray him.”

“Fool boy! Navan will get caught sooner or later for deceiving Queen Gianne, regardless of our actions. You really think he can keep up this charade forever? Besides, we don’t even have to blow the whistle on him. All we need to do is follow the blood sample back to Queen Brisha—if all goes to plan, we won’t need to see the face of Queen Gianne ever again. Queen Brisha will grant us immunity from her sister’s wrath and—”

“Wha—What do you mean follow the blood sample?”

“I extracted a blood sample from one of the girls last night—hardly difficult to do while I was flying her back to their house—and sent off the sample in a pod, early this morning before Navan woke up. It’s on its way to Vysanthe now, waiting for us to follow in the ship—”

“What? That wasn’t part of the plan!”

“No, it wasn’t. But neither was those girls barging into the house. It was the perfect opportunity to get a sample on its way discreetly.”

“But—”

“Look, Ianthan. I’m sick of arguing with you. Vysanthe will discover humans at some point, whether we’re involved or not—it’s only a matter of time before they figure out how to build a ship like Navan’s. We might as well derive some benefit from Earth’s discovery. Think of your future, of your wife and children… Which side would you prefer to be on, when it all goes down? Brisha’s or Gianne’s? If you possess half a brain you’ll answer Brisha, because she will become Empress. She will be the first to bring war to Gianne’s gate, and she will be the one to unite Vysanthe. You will thank me for getting us on Brisha’s side when that happens, mark my words.”