Navan picked me up and spun me around. “Just when I thought I couldn’t admire you any more, you go and surprise me with your genius mind. You’re one hell of a woman, Riley, and I feel so lucky that I get to spend my life loving you.”
“I love you, Navan,” I murmured, kissing him all over his face. “And just because you marry someone else, it doesn’t mean I’ll love you any less.”
He held my face and looked me in the eyes. “The same goes for me.”
“So, does that mean…?”
An uncertain silence drifted between us as we gazed into each other’s eyes. I knew how hard this was going to be, but it was like tearing off a Band-Aid. One little wedding, and it would all be over. We could get back to being us again, without all of this looming over our heads. After all, in the grand scheme of things, this was minuscule—we had an army to recruit, and all we had to show for it was a chunk of opaleine in my pocket, containing Cambien’s promise, and the dubious word of a shifter.
“I’ll marry her,” Navan agreed, at last. I’d never seen him so disheartened.
“Should we get in touch with her now?”
He shook his head, gripping my waist. “Tomorrow,” he murmured, kissing me deeply. I wrapped my arms around him, drinking in every part of him, relishing the sensation of his hands exploring my body. Had it not been for the bitter bite of the Vysanthean climate, seeping into my bones through the blanket, I would have dragged him to the deepest part of the woodland and made love to him there and then.
“Let’s head back,” I whispered in his ear. “I’m freezing.”
He smiled. “Let’s see if we can warm you up.”
Picking me up in his arms, he carried me all the way around the lake. We reached Kaido’s ship, which was parked in front of Sarrask’s cottage, and snuck into the cargo hold. It was warm, and there were blankets stowed away to one side. Navan unfolded them and made a little nest on the floor, where we could lie together, safe in each other’s arms.
“What’s the matter with your ship?” I teased.
“I haven’t had the chance to check for cameras. Wouldn’t want anyone getting a private show, if you know what I mean?”
He bundled me to him as we buried ourselves beneath the thick cover. He folded his one good wing around us, creating a bubble where only we belonged. Kaido’s bioluminescent plants were stacked on the shelves all around us, in portable carriers. As I cuddled into Navan’s side, we watched the veins and petals glow in the darkness, casting a soft light on our faces. It seemed that Kaido hadn’t properly fastened the lid on one tiny, bulb-shaped plant, as it released a flurry of gleaming amber seedlings, which burst out from their container before drifting down upon us. Each one was like a miniature lantern, floating down. I lifted my hand to catch one, and it melted like snow on my skin.
I wasn’t sure what was in the seedlings, but their soft glow made me feel sleepy, and I wanted to snuggle closer into Navan. My passion for him hadn’t dwindled, but I no longer felt like making love. It didn’t seem like he did either, as he pulled me closer, playing with loose strands of my hair and kissing me gently. All I wanted to do was be close to him and nestle into his arms.
“I love you, Navan,” I whispered against his chest.
He smiled against my forehead. “I love you, Riley.”
He was right—this was way better than a flashing climpet.
Chapter Twenty-Five
We spent the night curled up together in the cargo hold of Kaido’s ship. I hadn’t heard anyone discover us in the night, but when we awoke just after dawn, the hatch had been closed, and there was some chopped fruit and a vial for Navan waiting outside the door. There was a flask of something hot, too. At first, I thought it was for Navan, but as soon as the scent of aromatic herbs hit my nostrils, I knew who’d left all of this for us.
“Thank you for breakfast, Kaido,” I said, as we entered Sarrask’s cottage. The others were sitting around a kitchen table, sipping vials of blood.
“I thought you might require refreshment after a night of extensive copulation.”
I choked on a laugh. “There was none of that, Kaido—not on your ship. It wouldn’t be polite.”
He looked relieved. “Well, I have to say that’s excellent news, Riley. I was worried I might have to disinfect.”
“Is everything okay?” Ronad asked, his tone worried. His gaze was fixed on Navan, who stood behind me, looking forlorn.
The two of us exchanged a glance as we approached the kitchen table and sat down. I cradled a cup of Kaido’s herbal tea in my hands, sipping tentatively as we explained what we’d discussed the night before. They were naturally shocked by the resolution, but as soon as we elaborated on the threat Aurelius posed, and the reasons why we had to go through with the wedding, they seemed to understand. At least, they did on the surface.
“You’re stronger than any one of us, Riley,” Ronad muttered, hanging his head. “It takes some serious balls to do what you’re doing for Seraphina.”
I smiled sadly. “The thing is, I know she’s the kind of woman who’d do exactly the same for me, if the roles were reversed.” A murmur of agreement rippled across the room, though Sarrask didn’t seem convinced.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this, Navan,” he muttered. “You’ve got a woman who loves you. What the hell are you marrying another one for? Seraphina’s a big girl. Let her deal with her arranged marriage to Aurelius. She won’t be the first unhappy wife, and she won’t be the last.”
To my surprise, it was Kaido who replied first. “I thought you would be happy for Navan. After all, you wish to attract the affections of Riley. If Navan is married to Seraphina, you will have your opportunity to attempt courtship.”
“I’m not after Riley’s affections, Kaido! I don’t know where you got that from,” Sarrask fired back, blushing. “I just don’t see why Navan has to ruin everything he’s got—which a lot of people would kill for—for the sake of someone he doesn’t care about.”
“Riley has asked me to do this, and I understand why she’s asking,” Navan replied calmly. “I don’t want to marry Seraphina. I don’t want to ‘ruin everything,’ as you say. I wish I could shuffle off this responsibility, but I can’t. I can’t bear the thought of what he’ll do to Seraphina. Riley made me see the truth of it, and now I can’t walk away.”
Sarrask shook his head, sighing loudly. “Nothing will be the same between you after this. You know that, right?”
“What can I do, Sarrask?” Navan grumbled.
“Everything will be fine!” I insisted. The last thing I wanted was for someone to change Navan’s mind at the last moment. He was already teetering on a knife edge.
“I think it is a fascinating exercise in interspecies empathy,” Kaido chimed in, sipping the last of his blood and dabbing the corners of his mouth. “I used to think altruism was a myth, but you have proven me wrong. You gain nothing, yet you insist upon self-sacrifice. In some cultures, that is nobility in its highest form.”
I knew it was Kaido’s way of offering me a compliment, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Right now, I needed the comfort blanket of someone’s support—someone telling me that I was doing the right thing. I just hadn’t expected it to come from Kaido.
Sarrask got up abruptly and strode toward a staircase at the far side of the kitchen. He disappeared upstairs. The house itself was quaint, with a homey quality I wouldn’t have anticipated. The front entrance led straight into the kitchen, with an open doorway revealing a lounge next door. I didn’t know what other rooms the house held, but I could hear Sarrask stomping across the floor upstairs, slamming at least two doors.
“Any sign of Gianne hunting us down?” I wondered anxiously. I’d expected her to come down on us pretty hard, but there was still no sign of her.
“We haven’t seen anything or heard a peep out of her. Whatever’s keeping her away, it’s got to be way more important than us,” Ronad replied. “Anyway, what’s your plan for today?
” he asked. His face was hard to read, but there was a sadness in his eyes. I could tell he didn’t want this wedding to happen, either.
“We’re going to get in touch with Seraphina, and then go from there,” I replied, since Navan was being quieter than usual. “Once we know the details of what’s happening, we should probably contact Angie, Lauren, and Bashrik. I’m sure they’re worried sick by now.”
Kaido raised his hand, as if asking permission to speak.
Navan frowned. “What is it, Kaido?”
“I was listening to the news reports earlier. Queen Brisha’s army hit the comm towers this morning. They’re working to get them back up and running, but for now transmissions are out of action.”
He sighed. “Then we’ll just wait until the towers are back up.”
“No, we can’t wait that long,” I insisted, knowing it would give him a chance to back out. “We should go and find her in the city, and then go on to Gianne’s palace. We need to go there anyway, so we might as well kill two birds with one stone. We might even find out what’s been keeping her.”
“You plan to go hunting, after you’ve met with Seraphina?” Kaido wondered. “Wouldn’t a gun be more useful than a stone?”
I smiled, his words breaking the tension. “It’s a figure of speech, Kaido. It means getting two things done with a single action.”
“I like that one. I will remember it for later!” With that, he got up and headed out the front door, no doubt eager to investigate his ship. With us taking up his cargo hold, I figured he still had a lot of unpacking to do. I thought about mentioning the escaped seedlings, but I didn’t want to distress him.
The thought of visiting with Gianne was an unsettling one, especially since she hadn’t followed us here, nor had there been any news from her. I didn’t like the idea of walking into the lion’s den voluntarily, but I’d made a promise to visit her as soon as Navan was back, and I figured that honesty might buy us some time to explain what had happened at the Idrax mansion—if she wasn’t too busy with destroyed comms towers and general wartime chaos to even care. After all, she had Jareth, and he was the one with the secrets locked up in his head.
“We’ll check in as soon as the towers are up and working again,” I promised, tossing the black box device to Ronad. “Navan has his device, so wait for his transmission to come through.”
Ronad stood quickly and hurried toward me, pulling me into a friendly bearhug. “Good luck, Riley. I mean it. You’re a stronger person than I could ever be.”
“Balls of steel, right?” I joked, wanting to lighten the mood.
He grinned, pulling away. “Balls of serrantium!”
“Balls of what?”
“The strongest alloy in the universe,” Ronad replied with a grin. “You might want this, by the way,” he added, throwing something in my direction. I snatched it from the air and realized it was the pay device we’d nabbed from under Lorela’s bed. How Ronad had managed to steal it back, I didn’t know, but I was glad of it.
“You sure you trust us not to just take off with this kind of money?” I teased.
He lifted his hands, amused. “Hey, enjoy your tropical island.”
I still had a smile on my face as we left the cottage and headed for the sky-cab stop, just up the road. Although it wasn’t ideal, we needed to use public transport, since Navan had arrived in one of Queen Brisha’s military ships. It was cloaked for now, with less chance of someone coming to investigate it out here in the middle of nowhere, but in the hubbub of the city it was an entirely different story. It would take only one pedestrian walking into the cloaked side of it to blow our cover.
Navan had bound his broken wing to his side, so he wouldn’t have to have it out the whole time, but I could still make out the faintest lump of it beneath his shirt. Meanwhile, I’d stolen a thick coat from the back of Sarrask’s door, to keep out the bitter wind, and I pulled it up to my chin as we reached the obelisk with the glowing button. I pressed it, and we patiently waited for a cab to descend. A moment later, I became aware of Navan staring at me, a smirk on his face.
“What?”
“You seem to be getting the hang of Vysanthean life.” He chuckled. “Who taught you to do this?”
I grinned. “Ronad. I’ve been on a Shunter, too.”
“You haven’t!”
“I have!”
He laughed heartily. “You poor thing! Nobody rides the Shunter unless they really have to.”
“Well, we really had to.” I giggled, nestling into his side as he put his arm around my shoulders. Just because we were heading off to see his fiancée didn’t mean we couldn’t be ourselves.
“How much is on that thing, anyway?” He gestured toward the pay device. I handed it to him and laughed as a low whistle left his lips. “You sure you don’t want that tropical island?”
“One day,” I said hopefully. “When all of this blows over and we have time to ourselves, you and I are going to stretch out on a beach somewhere and do nothing but bask in the sun, listen to the waves, and read trashy romance novels.”
“Deal.” He tilted my chin upward, and his mouth caught mine, the two of us getting lost in each other. Had it not been for the impatient beep of the sky-cab that had just descended, we might have stayed like that, wrapped up in our bubble.
We hopped into the back, and Navan told the cabbie where we wanted to go. After swiping the pay device across the scanner, garnering the cabbie’s satisfied nod, the vehicle took off with a judder of machinery and charted a course for Seraphina’s workplace. Since it was the middle of the Vysanthean week, it seemed like a safe bet that was where she’d be.
Half an hour later, the cab set down in a designated space beside the school where Seraphina worked. It was a striking glass building, spiraling in the shape of a mollusk, but there was no playground for the children, only what looked like an assault course built in the yard. A class was out there, running in pairs, clambering up ropes, ducking through tunnels, and hauling themselves over high walls. They couldn’t have been older than six or seven, and it was clear that the activity wasn’t supposed to be fun.
I kept a polite distance away from Navan, remembering the Southern take on interspecies relationships, as we entered the school. It was airy and welcoming, with the sound of chattering children drifting up the hallway. At the reception desk, we asked to see Seraphina and were led down a long glass corridor. Seraphina’s classroom was the last one on the right. I could see her wandering back and forth at the front of the room, talking animatedly to her students. She froze as the receptionist knocked.
“There are two visitors to see you,” the receptionist said, before disappearing back up the corridor.
Seraphina smiled, covering her shock quickly. “How wonderful! What do we say to newcomers, children?”
“Welcome to our classroom! We hope you enjoy your time with us!” they chorused, bringing a goofy grin to my face. All of this was so familiar, and yet so strange. I almost felt like I was back in kindergarten. The children were all adorable, with their chubby cheeks and cute gray faces. I didn’t think these could be older than four or five, but it was hard to tell.
“Lita, would you care to take over until the end of the lesson, while I speak with these visitors?” Seraphina asked, directing the question at a young woman with a white streak in her jet-black hair, who was standing at the back of the classroom.
Seraphina didn’t wait for an answer as she walked up to us and guided us into the hallway. I could see the glimmer of hope in her eyes as she fixed her gaze on Navan. It almost made me jealous, to see the hunger with which she looked at him, but I knew it came from a place of desperation, not affection.
“What are you doing here?” she asked anxiously.
I was just about to answer when a loud siren blared. Terrified it was some kind of airstrike alert or fire alarm, I ducked down and covered my head, only for Seraphina to help me back up. She smiled as a flood of tiny children poured out of the classrooms
all around us, heading out to the assault course. Two teachers walked out into the yard and pressed buttons on the side of the high wall, the tunnels, and the rope ladders. Each one folded away into the ground, leaving a flat surface for the children to play on.
“Let’s play colonizers and natives!” a small boy cried to his friend, as he raced down the corridor toward the now-flat yard.
“Fine, but you’re the native this time!” a girl called after him, sprinting to catch up.
I grimaced. It was just a game to them, but it was so much more to an onlooker. The Vysantheans really did start their indoctrination early. Shaking off the bad feeling it gave me, I turned back to Seraphina, who was still holding my arm. She was trembling, her clammy palms cold against my skin.
“Why are you here?” she repeated.
I forced a smile onto my face. “I spoke with Navan, as you asked, and he’s agreed to marry you. He doesn’t want you suffering at the hands of Aurelius, and neither do I.”
Navan flashed me a curious look, making me realize I’d forgotten to mention that it was Seraphina herself who’d asked me to make a petition to him, on her behalf. I supposed it didn’t matter now.
“Are you sure? I know it’s a lot to ask.” Seraphina paused, a wave of uncertainty moving across her face. She started shaking her head, her body shaking violently. “No, I should never have asked it. Goodness, this is a mess. You must hate me, Riley. No, it was silly of me to even think about it—I can’t ask you to do this. I thought I could, but now that I see you together, I’m not sure I can.”
Navan stepped forward and put a comforting hand on her back. “It’s a lot to ask, but we’ve talked about it, and we’re happy to do this for you. This is what’s best for everyone involved,” he promised.
“Except Riley… What does Riley get out of this?” Seraphina shivered, covering her face with her hands.