My hands were still trembling, but after a minute of staring numbly at the blank screen, a different emotion rose up in me. Rage.

How dare these monsters do this. How dare they keep us captive.

I was sick of being the victim—of being a helpless pawn in these monsters’ hands. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I had to take back some control.

Seizing on that fire, I whirled on the coldblood woman next to me with a glare. “Fine, I’ll tell you rebels everything,” I spat, “if you take me to your boss. Not Ezra—I want the guy in charge of this whole place.”

The coldblood woman’s eyes widened slightly at my outburst, and she raised a brow. “You want to see Chief Orion?”

“Yes, whatever his name is.”

“Very well. Come with me.” She grabbed my arm and led me to the door.

I shook her off with a scowl, and cast another glare at her when she gave me a warning look. “I’m following,” I said bluntly. “Just do your damn job and lead.”

Her nostrils flared, and I could see she wanted to retaliate, but she bit down on her lip, apparently thinking better of it.

She sped up along the corridor, and I kept pace, my blood pounding in my ears. I was still shaking, but now it really was more from anger than shock.

We took a staircase and descended two flights, then stopped in front of a single towering metal door. I clenched my fists together, steeling my nerves for the man on the other side.

My escort knocked gently on the door. There was a pause, before a familiar, deep voice commanded, “Enter.”

The door clicked open automatically, and as it moved, it revealed a surprisingly bare room—bare except for a desk, a chair, a long tank filled with the strangest array of flora I had ever seen, and, of course, the coldblood chief himself.

He was standing in front of the desk, towering what must’ve been seven feet above the floor, his powerful arms crossed over his chest and his giant wings folded behind his back. I took in the deep scar that ran down the side of his face, then met his almost-black gaze head on. His expression was calm, near inscrutable, and I wasn’t sure if he was surprised to see me. Judging from the slight upward curve of his mouth, he wasn’t displeased.

“Stop torturing Navan,” were the first words to blurt from my lips as I dared take a step closer to him. “Just stop it. There’s no need. I’ve come to tell you everything.”

He gazed down at me, a spark of interest in his dark eyes, and I once again sensed that ancient aura coming from him. He didn’t look particularly old, but there was something about his gaze that told me he had lived far more years than his appearance let on.

A second later, he reached down into a drawer of his desk and pulled out some sort of comm device. He switched it on and said, “Ezra, no more until I say.”

He then switched the device off, planted it down on the table, and returned his full attention to me. “Well,” he said, his voice both soft and ominous, “what do you have to say?”

He pulled up a chair and gestured for me to seat myself. I looked at it uncertainly, and decided that I wanted to remain standing. I felt like I was barely half his size, and sitting down wasn’t going to help with that. Right now, I needed all the boldness I could muster.

I drew in a breath, and, although Navan’s warning not to tell any of these coldbloods anything was ringing in my ears, I did. Well, not quite everything. I explained to Orion how I had come across Navan in the first place, through to how we came to arrive here. I told him that the Fed were aware of shifters in the location, and had sent Navan and me to investigate. What I left out was Bashrik and my friends’ involvement, though I did mention Jethro and Ianthan at the start of the story since, well, they were dead. I was praying that the coldbloods hadn’t found Bashrik after they’d discovered the comm device on me. Hopefully, even if coldbloods or shifters had gone out to scope the area, to see if anybody had been accompanying Galo and me as backup, Bashrik or Ronad would be able to escape in time and fly our group to safety.

When I was done with my story, I paused, planting my hands on my hips and narrowing my eyes at the chief. He was watching me closely, that glint of interest still there in his eyes.

Silence stretched for several seconds, until he spoke. “I must say, you have guts for a human.”

I set my jaw harder, accepting the compliment.

“And it’s interesting to hear how and why you came here… First you with your coldblood friend, and then with the wolf. My men thought you and the lycan might be a little backup sent to look for those other agents we captured recently,” he continued, and my stomach dropped. “But according to you, that’s not the case?”

I shook my head, even as my throat went dry. Sylvan and his men had been captured. Though, given the sheer number of shifters and coldbloods in this place, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. Still, it was a punch in the gut. Sylvan and his team had been the only ones who’d taken my intel seriously, and it made me all the more anxious about Bashrik, Ronad, and my friends. Please, guys, be smart and stay alive.

But I couldn’t think of them right now. I had to focus on myself and Navan, both of whom I also very much wanted to stay alive.

“So,” I said, clearing my throat and trying to sound businesslike once again. “I understand that you want to… cooperate with Navan in some capacity.” I had been about to say use, but could not quite get the word out. “I’m sure I can speak to him and get him to come to some agreement with you regarding your plans, if you’re upfront with me about your mission.”

“Naturally,” Orion replied. A slight amusement played across his lips as he gripped the edges of the desk and leaned gently against it. “Though, I believe you overheard much of what Ezra told your coldblood friend when you first came in here.”

My cheeks flushed slightly at the memory of him calling me out from under the bench.

“Put simply,” he went on, “all we really want is a place to call home. And isn’t that what everyone wants?”

“Well, it’s not just that, is it?” I cut in bitterly, almost scoffing as the vision of that billowing red smoke flashed across my mind.

“Yes and no,” Orion replied coolly. “We want to restore Vysanthe to the home it should be for all coldbloods, regardless of political affiliation. Those child queens had no right to drive us out, and Vysanthe is suffering under their petty, divided rule. It could be ten times the nation it is today if it were handed back over to the people, and that is really what we’re all about. The immortality elixir is merely a means to help us achieve that.”

“Oh, really? How?”

Orion smiled. “That’s a good question. You’re right that merely prolonging our lives wouldn’t help us win a war. But we’re seeking to create a true immortality elixir—one that not only extends life indefinitely, but preserves it. One that protects us from disease and fortifies our physical strength far beyond that of a regular coldblood. Immortality wouldn’t be true immortality if we could be as easily killed as any old coldblood, now would it?”

I bit my lip, but didn’t respond. The logic made sense, though.

“If Navan were to agree to help us,” Orion continued, “he could go down in Vysanthean history as a hero, be remembered for generations into the future. He could play a pivotal role in all of this. He could be the key to Queen Gianne’s downfall.” Here he paused, and glanced casually over at his tank, his eyes fixing on a particularly vivid plant with purple, tentacle-like leaves. “If he were to agree,” he repeated softly, “it would also mean that we would spare your lives, not to mention, give Navan a real purpose to his life. I’m sure he’d rather be a hero than the lackey boy of some impetuous young queen?”

I nodded stiffly. I wasn’t buying his speech, but I couldn’t miss the underlying threat in his words. I kept my voice bold as I replied, “You clearly have a lot of conviction for your cause, and while I’m not going to pretend to agree with your methods, I will agree to talk to Navan and get him to hear out your proposition—if you agree to a few terms of my own. Trust me when I say that he is way more likely to listen to me than you.” At that, I intensified my glare, but if anything, it only seemed to amuse him.

“I don’t doubt that.”

“Then you will grant me three requests,” I stated. “First, untie Navan. Second, release him and give the two of us a decent room with some privacy. And third, provide us with enough potions to fix whatever damage you have done to him—as well as something to heal his wing,” I added, remembering the wound that the traitorous shifter had inflicted on Navan just after we’d discovered the coldblood base. I wanted to demand Galo’s safety as well, but knowing how much the rebels despised the Fed, I knew I couldn’t push my luck. If I asked for too much, then there was a chance Orion would grant me nothing—given that he didn’t exactly need to bend to any of my demands in the first place—and that would help nobody. I needed to tread carefully to not blow my chances, and somehow figure out a way to help poor Galo later. One step at a time.

Orion drew in a light breath, but I could already see from the look in his eyes that he was not going to deny me. If anything, he looked curious as to whether I, a little human girl, could really pull this off—could really bend a stubborn beast like Navan to my will.

“Pernixa,” he said sharply, his eyes moving to the coldblood woman who was still standing behind me, close to the door. “You heard the girl. Grant her requests.”

The woman nodded and then opened the door, gesturing that I follow her.

I looked back at Orion one last time, at his unnerving gaze that seemed to be X-raying my brain, and then I nodded curtly before turning and following the woman out of the room.

As we ascended the stairs and returned to the corridor, I couldn’t ignore the writhing feeling in my stomach. I didn’t trust Orion, not one bit, and the last thing I wanted to do was try to persuade Navan to have any kind of dealings with him. But… I just had to take this one step at a time. At the moment, it was all I could do.