I tried to bite his hand but nearly broke my teeth in the process. A rookie error, I discovered; coldblood skin wasn’t like human flesh. It was shockingly tough.

“If you promise not to scream, I’ll let go,” Kalvin said, his tone surprisingly gentle. “I don’t mean you any harm. I just wanted to apologize for my behavior the other night.”

Wary but curious, I relaxed my jaw, nodding slowly. A moment later, I felt the hand around my mouth slacken, before it moved away entirely. Kalvin stepped back, his brow furrowed, like he expected me to do exactly what he’d asked me not to. Instead, I remained quiet, knowing I could always shout out if I needed to now that his hand was gone.

“Why should I trust a word you say?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest.

He smiled. “Because I’m a nice guy, really.”

I didn’t believe him, but he’d caught my attention. I wanted to hear what he had to say for himself. The horrible things the trio of coldbloods had said still haunted me.

“I doubt that,” I remarked.

“I am, really. I just… I get carried away sometimes,” he said… almost sheepishly. His dark brown gaze dropped to the floor. “It’s bravado. You know, something to impress the other guys.”

Why was he telling me this? Surely, if any of those “guys” heard him speaking like this, he’d be mercilessly teased, if not worse. Admitting it to me seemed like a weird thing to do, but then, what did I know of the inner workings of Vysanthean minds? Nothing, that’s what.

“Say I did believe you. It changes nothing. I don’t trust any of you,” I said coldly, wanting to be back in the safety of my pod.

He nodded. “I can understand why. I just wanted to come by and see if you were okay. This mission is a crazy one, right? I can’t even imagine how you’re feeling about it. You’ve left your world behind, to head into the unknown—you’re a braver person than me.” He flashed me a grin.

Was he… flirting with me? It certainly felt like it. Perhaps this was a ruse to try to bring down my defenses. And yet… it appeared oddly genuine. There was a sincerity on Kalvin’s face that hadn’t been there the other day, and it was confusing the hell out of me.

“I’m a bit concerned, as anyone would be,” I replied, not wanting to give too much away. Besides, he didn’t know that I had to be here, thanks to Orion’s chip.

“I just figured you might want to talk about it, since we’re all in this together. I know it didn’t seem like it the other day, but we are. We know it’s going to be tough, and I wanted to make sure you were doing okay,” he continued.

I frowned. “You think we’re some sort of team?” I said, stifling a tight laugh.

He shrugged. “It’s what we’ve been put here to do. We all behaved like idiots the first day, but you should know we’ve all got your back.” I could barely believe my ears. “Plus, I’ve heard what Navan’s like from his uncle—he never talks about anything. So I figured you might be in need of a shoulder to vent on.”

Of all the people in all the world, Kalvin was the last person I’d feel like pouring my heart out to, and yet there was something compelling about him when he was being serious like this. He was trying—I could see it in his face.

So I decided to humor him.

“Well, I’m worried. I’ve never so much as left my country, never mind the planet,” I said. “I don’t know what to expect. Everyone and everything sounds so cold and harsh on Vysanthe, so I’m not exactly looking forward to it.”

Just then, I felt a hand on my shoulder, pulling me sharply away from Kalvin. I jolted backward, almost losing my footing. Turning, I saw Navan’s face looming above me, his slate eyes glowering in the direction of the blond-haired coldblood.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he said, though I didn’t know if he was talking to me or Kalvin.

“We were just having a friendly chat,” Kalvin replied, his tone returning to the taunting lilt I’d heard a few nights ago. “Getting to know one another, before the big day.”

A low sound growled from the back of Navan’s throat, but I was standing between the two coldbloods, preventing Navan from lunging forward. There would be no more fighting while I was around to stop it.

“We really were just talking, Navan,” I said softly, and placed a hand on his arm. “Come on, why don’t we go and find something to eat?”

“Fine,” he muttered, his eyes still on Kalvin. I led him down the narrow hallway and out into the main space of the Asterope.

There were several boxes of supplies stacked up in the far corner, and I made a beeline for them. Inside, there were several containers filled with metallic vials, and a few plastic boxes filled with what I’d discovered over the past few days was astronaut food. I picked up a pouch, then gestured to Navan for him to pick up some vials.

“You can’t trust any other coldbloods, Riley,” he said as he bent down to the boxes, clearly still preoccupied with Kalvin. “I thought you knew that.”

I shrugged. “He wanted to apologize for the things he said the other night, so I was letting him. We’re in this together, after all—we may as well be a team,” I said, echoing Kalvin’s earlier words.

Navan turned and widened his eyes at me. “It’s all a game to them, Riley!”

Before I could reply, a loud siren tore through the ship.

Immediately, the Asterope’s interior lighting dimmed down to a low, flashing red. Lazar came running out into the corridor, sprinting so fast he was almost a blur. He barreled through the main room, heading for the door at the far end which slid open, and he disappeared inside.

I looked at Navan, bewildered. “What is—?”

I didn’t get a chance to complete my question as a screen embedded into the ship’s wall flickered to life. After a few moments of white noise and crackling, an image appeared. Staring through the display was a woman with gleaming copper hair, shot through with bolts of brightest white. Her sharp, almost silver eyes pierced through to where I was standing, though I was pretty certain she couldn’t see me. She was beautiful—astonishingly so—with cut cheekbones, dark red lips, and effortlessly arched eyebrows that seemed perpetually scornful.

“This is Queen Gianne of the planet Vysanthe. You have entered the airspace of my queendom, without my permission. Your ship is not one my system recognizes as due for arrival.” Her silky voice boomed through the speakers. “I demand to know who you are, what you want, and why I shouldn’t blow you up right here and now. I have ammunition aimed at your ship as we speak, so do not try anything foolish.”

Blood pounded in my ears, and my gut clenched. We had reached Vysanthe.

I had known we would face Queen Gianne eventually, but I hadn’t imagined what she might look like—or how poorly our arrival might be received. On screen, her expression remained fierce and unforgiving. I glanced at Navan, who looked just as shocked to see her as I did, his jaw clenched.

He strode toward the cockpit, and I followed, careful to keep to the shadowed sides of the room as I entered. It was even tinier than the ship’s main space. A command module lay up ahead, where Lazar was frantically toying with various buttons and levers. Beyond that, Queen Gianne’s face loomed, stretched across the ship’s front.

“Let me,” Navan insisted, and his uncle stepped to one side. With the press of a button, a smaller screen appeared beside the first, showing Navan’s face. “I am Navan Idrax of the Explorer’s Guild, son of Jareth Idrax. I come bearing news for you, Your Highness.”

I watched his face on the monitor, impressed by his calm demeanor. Queen Gianne studied him for a moment before speaking again. “Navan Idrax?” she asked, her tone suspicious. “The last I heard of Navan Idrax, he had gone to the far reaches of the universe. Why would you be here now?”

“I returned as quickly as I could, Your Highness,” he said. “You see, early on in my exploration, I was betrayed. I had Jethro and Ianthan Plexus aboard my ship, but they sought to turn against you, Your Highness—they wanted to feed information to your enemies, the rebel forces. They changed the coordinates of my ship while I was sleeping, and took us to a rebel outpost. I realized in time to stop them from speaking with the rebels, but not before we had landed.” He spoke quickly, and I could see Queen Gianne’s face contorting with each word.

“Jethro and Ianthan Plexus?” she remarked icily.

Navan nodded. “I was forced to carry out their execution for treason. They wanted to smuggle rebels back, to create a weak point in your queendom, Your Highness.”

“At a rebel outpost, you say?”

“It was only a small one, on a forgotten planet a few days’ travel from here, Your Highness,” Navan replied smoothly, his voice never faltering. Even I would have believed him. “There were a handful of rebels there, but they seemed disenchanted with the whole rebellion idea. I think the real rebel base had forgotten them, too. After seeing the execution of Jethro and Ianthan, they begged me to bring them back to Vysanthe, where they might offer you information on the true rebel base, in exchange for immunity... They know their true leader is you, Queen Gianne, and they would seek to be your citizens once more.”

“This rebel base, is it close?” Queen Gianne asked, her eyebrow raised.

“The outpost is a bit under a week away, though the rest of the rebels scattered. Those I brought with me hold the information you seek.”

“How many of you are there?” she demanded, peering closer into the screen, as though she could pick every crew member out.

“Eight, Your Highness,” Navan answered swiftly. “Myself, four other coldbloods—including my uncle Lazar, who helped me out of a spot of trouble I had with my own ship—two creatures called Carokians, and my personal slave, of an unknown race.”

I wondered if Carokians were a real thing. If they weren’t, would the shifters just make something up? Time would tell.

For a few minutes that seemed to stretch on forever, Queen Gianne said nothing. Instead, she simply looked through the screen, studying Navan’s face on the monitor. Surely, if she knew Jareth Idrax, she knew his son, too? From what I’d gathered, Navan was supposed to be close to the queen. Though, by the looks of it, she wasn’t convinced of his loyalty.

“Perhaps your story is true,” she sighed, breaking the tension with her crisp voice. “In these times, I cannot take any unnecessary risks. Stay precisely where you are while my border force comes and investigates your ship. If you move an inch, I shall shoot you from the sky—is that understood?”

Navan nodded curtly, and I could see him letting out a slight breath. “Understood, Your Highness. We’ll await them.”

“Very well, let’s see if you make it through, shall we?” she said softly, before the screen flickered off.

Navan whirled around. “Hide everything, immediately!” he shouted, running out of the cockpit and back into the main space. “We’ve got Impalers coming, boys! Hide the weapons. Hide everything we don’t want the border guard finding!”

I sprinted after him in time to see Nestor, Cristo, and Kalvin come hurtling out of the hallway a moment later, clutching handfuls of guns and boxes of weapons. Their eyes were wide in fear. The shifters followed soon after, carrying stacks of items.

“What are Impalers?” I gasped, heaving a particularly heavy trunk up into my arms.

“The Vysanthean border guard—well, Queen Gianne’s border guard, anyway,” Navan explained rapidly, tossing a bag of rifles to Kalvin, who was running past. He caught them with lightning-fast reflexes.

“Why are they called Impalers?” I pressed, following Navan toward Lazar. He gave me a look, making me realize it was probably a stupid question, and I shuddered.

“You, shifters, change into something vaguely Carokian!” Navan instructed, confirming that it was a real species. The two shifters looked at one another uncertainly, their skins unchanging.

An air of panic bristled through the ship as Lazar led everyone to a shimmering square in the wall of the Asterope, his hand seeking out a secret button that opened a hatch, invisible to the unknowing eye. Without a moment to lose, everyone shoved the boxes and trunks of weaponry into the hatch, making sure there wasn’t a single box of ammo left out in the open. The only thing that stayed out were the metallic vials and boxes of supplies. After all, it had to look like a ship that had been lived in for a short while—the journey from the fake rebel outpost was a week-long journey, after all. I did what I could, throwing containers and bags at whoever was ready to catch them, until there was nothing left cluttering the narrow hallways of the Asterope.

A knock rapped at the front door.

The sound echoed through the confined space, filling me with dread. Everyone whirled around, their eyes on the spot where the gangway slid out. I didn’t doubt these Impalers could have knocked the door down if they’d wanted to, but for now they seemed eager that we should open the ship up to them. A gesture of cooperation.

Lazar lunged for the button that concealed the invisible hatch, the façade sliding down with a rapid swoosh. To my surprise, I could see no hint of the square storage space in the wall’s smooth surface once the screen was down. We had stashed everything just in time.

The Impalers were here.