Feeling despondent, we returned to our apartment to find Angie, Lauren, and Bashrik sitting in the hallway outside. They looked up as the elevator doors pinged open, immediately getting to their feet. They were still wearing the clothes from the party and looked surprised to see us in black military fatigues, with my gown draped over my arm.

“Where have you been?” Lauren asked, her tone concerned.

I shared a guilty look with Navan. “With everyone distracted by the party, we took the opportunity to go down to the control room, to see if we could get the intel to Orion,” I explained, feeling bad about having kept them out of the loop.

“Let’s head inside, and we can fill you guys in on the rest,” Navan said, unlocking the door to the apartment.

As my friends made their way to the lounge area, I noticed that Bashrik sat as far away from Angie as possible, their eyes refusing to meet under any circumstance. The sight made me smirk. I knew there was still some tension lingering between the pair of them. Now, if only they’d just look up and confront it.

“So, that was almost a colossal disaster,” Angie remarked, readjusting the neckline of her dress, shifting uncomfortably beneath the tight fabric.

I gave a small smile. “Almost, but not quite. We got the Elysium into Yorrek, and nobody is any the wiser, right?” I asked, understanding the stern look in her eyes. Navan and I hadn’t been there to check that the serum had worked on Yorrek, since Orion had taken precedence. Even so, the three of them were capable of handling a single unruly alchemist without Navan and me.

“He was out cold in the hedges when I left him, but that doesn’t always mean it worked. Did you see him again after we left?” Navan pressed.

Bashrik nodded, clearing his throat. “He reappeared a few minutes after you’d gone, but he was pretty disoriented. I’d say the Elysium worked, though it’s hard to tell. He didn’t go around blabbing to anyone, at least,” he replied with a shrug.

Lauren raised a polite hand. “After the debacle with the guards and the queen, and you two leaving, Yorrek ended up wandering out of the bushes toward Brisha’s table. I stayed close, in case he decided to spill any beans, but all I overheard was her asking if he was feeling well, as he seemed a little woozy. He just muttered something about needing to head home,” she explained, a grim expression on her face. “He left shortly after that.”

“So, that’s a good thing, then? His memory got wiped, and he went home. No harm, no foul,” I said, relieved.

Lauren shook her head. “The only problem is, I’d say he looked more perplexed than disoriented, as if he was trying to figure out what was wrong with him. It was like he was trying to find the missing piece of a puzzle, but he couldn’t remember where he left it. Being an alchemist, I wouldn’t be surprised if he sensed something unusual had happened. We just need to hope he doesn’t figure out what.” She sighed anxiously.

“Can Elysium be traced in the blood?” I asked, turning to Bashrik and Navan.

They looked at each other uncertainly. “It depends how quickly a sample is taken. Usually, no, unless the person is very quick. It disintegrates in the bloodstream within a quarter of an hour, give or take,” Navan replied. I prayed Yorrek hadn’t somehow managed to take a sample of blood from himself. Sure, he was strange, but I doubted he’d have brought an extraction kit with him. If he had, and found the Elysium in his system, we’d be in a lot of trouble.

“But you’d say the Elysium worked?” I repeated, looking to the others. I just wanted confirmation; otherwise, I knew I’d never sleep again, with the worry that we were going to get found out.

“I’d say so,” Lauren conceded. “He looked too confused for it not to have worked. Besides, he’d have told the queen right then and there if he’d suspected something.”

“So, it was almost a colossal disaster, but we just about got away with it,” Angie said. “I say we make cheers to that,” she ventured, before getting up and heading to the kitchen.

The sound of clinking followed, and she returned carrying a bottle of the same fizzy stuff we’d been drinking before the party. In her other hand, she was balancing two vials for the coldblood contingent, and three glass flutes for the three of us girls. Setting the flutes down on the table, she poured the fizzy drink into them. The bubbles rose up, threatening to spill over. Once the flutes were full, she passed them to Lauren and me, picking up her own.

With a forced smile, she held it aloft. “Here’s to a semi-successful mission.”

“And another month of borrowed time,” I added as we all clinked our glasses and vials against Angie’s. Looking around, it didn’t seem like anyone was in the mood for a celebration.

The trio who hadn’t been in the control room looked to me, their expressions curious. With a sigh, I explained what had happened down there and where Pandora had taken us. I told them of Orion’s gratitude for our intel, resulting in the extension of my parents’ protection, though I did have to mention the caveat of him wanting more intelligence in exchange. Then again, that didn’t come as a surprise to anyone in the room.

What did surprise them, however, was the revelation of Pandora’s true loyalty. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, an audible gasp rippled around the room, their disbelief evident. A second wave of gasps spread when I told them who her lover was. Even now, it was difficult to wrap my head around.

“Orion and Pandora?” Lauren whispered, her face frozen in shock.

“They’re… lovers?” Angie gagged.

I laughed. “I know. It’s hard to imagine Pandora with anyone. She isn’t exactly the cuddly type.”

“So what? Everyone is entitled to love and be loved,” Bashrik muttered unexpectedly, his cheeks flushing a pale shade of pink. “It’s no stranger than you and Navan. In fact, it’s way less strange than your relationship.”

Navan grinned. “I guess that goes for you and Angie, too?”

“Yeah, what the hell happened there?” I wondered, thinking back to the dramatic kiss in the garden, Bashrik sweeping Angie off her feet. And now, their awkwardness was palpable. “Kissing Angie in front of the queen wasn’t exactly part of the plan, was it? I hope you did it for a good reason, because Brisha is going to hold one hell of a grudge now.” If Bashrik had kissed Angie because he truly cared about her, then I was all for it. But otherwise, I wanted to know what on earth he’d been thinking, offending the queen so callously.

Bashrik lowered his gaze, running an anxious hand through his cropped hair. “It… might not have been part of our initial plan. But it made sense in the moment. It killed two birds with one stone. It got me off the hook with Brisha, and it was the perfect distraction. That’s all it was,” he said tightly, the muscles twitching in his neck.

Knowing how Angie truly felt about Bashrik, I stole a glance at her, catching a flicker of disappointment as it flashed across her face. A split second later, it was gone, replaced with her trademark show of bravery.

“It’s like Bashrik says—it was the best course of action in the moment,” she stated, her tone a little too strong. “I was just playing along, making it seem genuine. Although a bit of advanced notice might have been nice,” she retorted.

“It wasn’t like I planned it meticulously. I didn’t know it was going to happen until about a minute before it did,” Bashrik countered, refusing to meet her gaze.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t have any mouthwash nearby. Thanks to you, I might have caught some rare brand of Vysanthean cooties.” She sighed melodramatically. “You have to warn a girl if you’re going to kiss her, especially if you’re an alien species who only drinks blood. And you definitely didn’t need to slip me any tongue. There’s putting on a show, and then there’s crossing a line. I’ve still got a weird metallic taste in my mouth,” she muttered. With each word, Bashrik was turning a deeper shade of crimson.

“Look, can we just forget about it? The ruse worked, and that’s all that matters,” he said quietly, his throat constricted. I wanted to knock their heads together. It was clear they both liked each other, and yet they were holding back through embarrassment. Angie had done her usual thing of covering her discomfort with brash humor, and Bashrik was retreating into his shell. The pair of them were useless.

“Yeah, all we have to worry about now is Brisha’s retribution for being humiliated,” I said with a sigh, returning my mind to the gravity of the situation. She was a queen; she would not take kindly to being made a fool of, especially not by a man she was besotted with. I could only imagine how deeply that must have stung her, to watch Bashrik kiss another woman in front of her very eyes. I wouldn’t have taken kindly to it, and I was a nobody with no power. There was no telling what a woman like Brisha would do in the pursuit of payback.

Bashrik looked up, his expression blank. It was clear that he hadn’t intended to do any harm. He had been swept up in the moment, doing what he thought was best… and a little extra too. Still, he wasn’t a bad guy. He hadn’t meant to hurt the queen.

“I had no choice. I needed her to stop obsessing over me, and we needed a distraction. If there are consequences to my actions, then we’ll have to deal with them when they come,” he concluded stoically. “I’ll take whatever punishment she wants to dole out.”

A tense silence drifted across the group, our thoughts turning to Brisha, and the kind of retribution she might bring down upon us. In addition to Bashrik’s betrayal, she was undoubtedly harboring some kind of anger toward me, too. I had told her that Bashrik wasn’t interested in anyone else. I had given her hope when I shouldn’t have. She had trusted me, and I had let her down. I doubted I could ever win her favor so easily again.