Hotbloods (Hotbloods #1)(35)

“Um,” I croaked, uncertain of how to start the conversation.

“You’re feeling better?” he asked. His voice was throaty, like he hadn’t spoken in a while, as he raised a brow.

I nodded, wetting my lower lip. “A little, thanks.”

“We still have to get you treated. You’ve undergone a serious ordeal. I don’t think you realize the magnitude of . . . of what you’ve done.” A troubled expression was etched on his face. I could hear the concern in his voice, and it made me nervous. “We’re almost there now.” He averted his gaze to the compass, and then looked straight ahead.

I followed his gaze. In the far distance, I could make out the twinkling of lights spread out over a small area—apparently some kind of village—but other than that, there was nothing but the glistening of icy tundra for miles. The silence was almost deafening, except for the beating of Navan and Ianthan’s wings.

Ianthan was flying about ten feet away, his face a stoic mask. I couldn’t imagine many words had been exchanged between the two as we’d flown. For that matter, I couldn’t imagine what an ordeal Navan was going through, to have had his best friend betray him like that. I couldn’t even conceive of either of my best friends betraying me. I trusted them with everything I had. It would devastate me to discover one of them scheming behind my back.

“Hey,” I said, shaking away the thought. “I’m sorry I tricked you.” I gave him a meaningful look as he glanced back down at me.

“I seem to be getting betrayed an awful lot lately,” he said and shook his head, exhaling, his cool breath touching my face. “I used to think I was a pretty hard guy to fool. I’m starting to rethink that now.”

I chewed on my lower lip, trying to scrape together the courage to say what I wanted to. “I hope it wasn’t too weird on the way over. I . . . I don’t know what came over me. I don’t know why I was saying whatever it was I was saying.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, and he looked away again, focusing on our line of flight straight ahead. I’d been hoping he’d take the bait and spill what had happened, without me needing to put myself out there and ask him directly, but his lips remained sealed.

“Because, see, I can’t actually remember what I was saying. So, maybe you could clue me in?”

When he looked at me, I was surprised to see empathy in his eyes. My cheeks grew hotter.

“You said some things,” he replied vaguely.

“Uh… Okay.” I breathed out, deciding not to push it. If it came out naturally in conversation, then that was all well and good. If not, I wasn’t going to force it. It didn’t make the discomfort go away, but there was one way I could try to compensate for that… “Well, I feel like there are quite a few things you skimmed over during our first question and answer session,” I said, changing the subject. I recalled the conversation I’d overheard Ianthan and his father having, and how many question marks still hovered over that in my brain.

Navan cocked his head to one side. “Such as?”

“Such as, what’s really going on back in your homeland? I overheard Jethro talking about two queens, who are going to be entering some kind of war against each other? Jethro was saying how important it is that he and Ianthan get on the side of Queen Brisha, because she’s going to win the war. Which led me to assume that he—and probably you and your brothers too—are on the side of Queen Gianne?”

Judging by the dark flicker in his irises, the question made him uncomfortable. “You’re right,” he replied heavily. “I did hold back a lot of details when answering your questions. If you recall, I believed you would take Elysium right afterward, so there wasn’t exactly much point in giving you a full background… But yes, Vysanthe is ruled over by two queens. Gianne of the South and Brisha of the North. They are sisters—twin sisters—who inherited the throne about a decade ago. My brothers and I are citizens of Gianne’s queendom, as are our parents, as were their parents…”

“Wow. So why do the sisters hate each other so much? Why is a war brewing?”

Navan sighed, stowing away the compass into his black shoulder bag and adjusting his grip on me with both hands. My skin tingled as his right hand accidentally slipped through the interior of my coat and brushed against the bare flesh at the small of my back. His touch was freezing—not a bit of warmth left in him.

My breath hitched and I clutched him tighter, shivers running through me, unwittingly drawing our faces closer together.

“I apologize,” he said, his eyes meeting mine. The shadow of a smile crossed his lips. “As I mentioned, the ‘humanizing’ formula I developed allows us to become a conductor for heat, but in the absence of external warmth—and sunlight—our blood goes cold again. Like a reptile, just as you said.”

“No worries.” I loosened my hold on him and created a little more distance between our faces. Though I couldn’t deny being that close to him felt… nice. “All in all, you’re probably easier to handle as a coldblood.”

“Is that so.” I could tell he was trying not to smile. “I don’t think anyone’s ever told me that before. Anyway . . . As for your question, why are the sisters going to war? Well, it’s kind of a long story… Vysanthe is a planet that consists mostly of ocean, iced over for the majority of the year. There are two mainlands—located around the north and south poles. Both of these continents were once ruled by a single monarchy—King Hektor and Queen Shari, the parents of Brisha and Gianne, their only children. But a little over a decade ago, a powerful underground rebel faction rose up, unhappy with the king and queen’s dictatorship. They wished to introduce a system closer to democracy—as you on Earth would describe it. However, although the faction managed to execute the King and Queen, the two sisters escaped the assassination, and, quickly rallied troops and formed an army to wipe out the resistance. The few who managed to escape with their lives were forced to go underground. If they made public their wish for democracy, they’d be executed, so anyone who managed to escape essentially had to disappear. So the rebellion was over, thus securing their own place as leaders, the rule of Vysanthe naturally passing down to them from their deceased parents.”