Gripping the serum and the box for Bashrik in my hands, I left Queen Brisha to her books and her vengeance and walked quickly through the palace until I reached the dayroom we were supposed to be meeting in for lunch. I’d been in the library for what felt like hours, though the clocks on the wall told me it had barely been thirty minutes.

When I entered, my friends looked up at me from a circular table that was laden with empty plates. Behind them, floor-to-ceiling windows opened out onto a wide balcony overlooking the tumbling waterfalls that cascaded from the mountainside beyond, the water frothing a pinkish white at the bottom. The color had something to do with a red sediment found in the rocks, but its resemblance to blood troubled me.

“About time!” Angie said, though it was clear that both Navan and Lauren had filled the others in on my whereabouts. I could see in the relieved expressions on their faces that they were happy to see me in one piece.

“How did it go?” Navan asked, standing to pull back one of the chairs so I could sit down.

I shrugged. “A lot better than expected, to be honest,” I replied, as Navan sat back down in the chair beside me.

Lauren frowned. “How so?”

“I thought she might want to talk about the blood sample or the elixir, but she didn’t. She just wanted to give me a gift,” I explained, knowing how strange it sounded. Seeing the empty plates in front of everyone, I glanced at the food that remained in the bowls, but I’d lost my appetite.

“The queen wanted to give you a gift?” Bashrik remarked, almost disdainfully.

I placed the vials of wing serum on the table. “She gave me these.”

Navan picked up one of the vials and turned it over in his hands. Just as I’d done, he shook the small bottle, listening to the sound of liquid within.

“It’s a serum that can give me wings for a few hours at a time,” I continued, feeling increasingly excited at the thought of taking to the air by myself. “She wants to even the playing field for me in battle scenarios. It’s still a little bit experimental, but apparently it’s safe enough.”

Navan’s expression darkened. “There’s no way this stuff can be safe for humans to use,” he announced, lifting the vial up to the light. “You’re not seriously thinking about taking it, are you?”

I shrugged. “I’m still deciding,” I hedged.

“You’re going to have to use it at least once,” Bashrik interjected, flashing his brother a knowing look.

“She doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want to,” Angie cut in, giving Bashrik a pointed glare. I almost laughed, wondering how they’d been getting along recently, working together in such close quarters on the new alchemy lab. It seemed they were still fully capable of getting on each other’s nerves.

“Angie has a point,” Navan said.

Bashrik rolled his eyes. “Am I the only one with any common sense around this table?” He sighed, exasperated. “You’re going to have to use it, Riley, because if you don’t, Queen Brisha will see your refusal of it as a personal slight. She has given you a gift that, even by Vysanthean standards, is pretty exceptional. If you don’t use it she’ll be beyond offended, and, seriously, we can do without that kind of trouble—”

“It’s too dangerous,” Navan said, only to get another savage eyeroll from his brother.

“This whole planet is too dangerous for them, Navan,” Bashrik replied. “Somehow, against all odds, the queen has taken a liking to your beloved Riley, and I suggest we use that to our advantage. If the queen says the stuff isn’t going to kill her, then what’s the harm? There are a million things on this planet that could kill her, but I don’t see you worrying about those.”

“I do worry about those, actually,” Navan muttered.

“By the way, the queen had something for you, Bashrik,” I said, wanting to break up their argument before it got too heated. I handed the box over to the astonished Bashrik. “She hoped it might help you continue with all your hard work on the alchemy lab,” I explained, though I had no idea what the box contained.

Bashrik took the box tentatively before lifting the lid and peering inside. Immediately, his face paled, his cheeks flushing a deep shade of pink. Through the ashen skin of his throat, I saw his Adam’s apple bob as he gulped.

“An arakar heart!” Navan burst out laughing, clutching his stomach. Bashrik looked on, utterly mortified. Every time Navan looked up, he started laughing again, descending into hysterics as Bashrik scowled in his direction. Whatever the queen had given him, it clearly wasn’t something he’d been expecting. “She gave you an arakar heart!” Navan managed between laughs, smacking a hand down on the table. “Looks like Riley isn’t the only one who has won the queen’s affections!”

“It’s not funny!” Bashrik snapped, punching his brother in the shoulder.

“An arakar heart?” I asked. Glancing at Angie and Lauren, I could see that they were just as bemused as I was.

Navan nodded, wiping his eyes. “It’s a Vysanthean gift of courtship,” he explained, still chuckling through his words. “I’ve seen you humans give roses or chocolates, but we give arakar hearts if we really like someone,” he added, grinning at his brother.

“Where’s Riley’s arakar heart, then?” Bashrik countered, evidently intending to claw some of his dignity back. My outburst of laughter made his face fall again. I didn’t care about arakar hearts, or roses, or chocolates. I knew Navan’s feelings for me, and that was all I needed.

“Queenie loves you!” Angie chimed in, her eyes glittering with mischief. “That’s why she keeps sending all those vials when we’re working! It all makes sense now. She thinks you’re gorgeous. She wants to kiss you,” she cackled, clearly thrilled with her new ammunition.

“And you’ll be out of a job if you don’t shut it!” Bashrik warned sourly.

Angie laughed. “I’d like to see you try to fire me. You wouldn’t have gotten those foundations built if it weren’t for me, and you know it. I am captain of measurement, and without me pointing out that the builders were off by almost an entire foot, you’d have a wonky base and your beautiful building would topple over before you even got it finished.”

Bashrik scowled. “Yeah, well, you’re skating on thin ice right now. I can find someone else to be my captain of measurement if you’re going to step out of line,” he said, though the fight had gone from his voice. Instead, his features softened as he lifted the lid again to stare at the item inside. “I can’t believe she sent me this,” he said hoarsely. “What am I supposed to do if she expects something in return?”

“Avoid her like the plague,” Angie suggested. “I used to have a million ways to avoid boys I didn’t want to speak to. I’ll teach you a few tricks, and I can always run interference if you need me to.” Her grin broadened.

I smiled too, that world of high-school boys seeming impossibly far away. This wasn’t where our lives were supposed to end up. In all the chaos, I’d lost track of time, but I knew it couldn’t be long before Angie was supposed to be in Paris taking on her big internship at a trendy sports fashion brand, and Lauren was meant to head off to start pre-law. We’d had such big dreams, but had fallen into this whirlwind of madness instead, with no end in sight.

I could only begin to imagine what everyone back home would think when we didn’t return home as promised. Police would get involved, missing persons cases would be filed, and our loved ones would endure untold heartache.

“As wonderful as your blossoming romance is, dear Brother, we have other things to attend to now that Riley is here,” Navan said, clearing his throat and finally managing to wipe the smirk off his face. “We thought we’d wait until you got back before we started discussing Orion,” he explained, turning to me.

I nodded, drawing in a breath. “Has anyone managed to gather any intel on the elixir?”

An awkward tension spread through the group.

“With all the plans for the alchemy lab being drawn up, and eyes on us all the time, we haven’t really had a chance to sneak out and do any Sherlocking,” Angie said apologetically, flashing a glance at Bashrik.

“It’ll be easier once the first floor starts to go in, but I think everyone was worried we’d run off while the foundations were being built,” he said. “Since we’re still here, and the foundations have been laid, the security around us should ease up.”

“I’ve been buried in books for a week, to no avail,” Lauren added. “I’ve been absorbing as much as I can about Vysanthean lore and alchemical compounds to see if there’s anything that can help us, but I haven’t come across anything to do with the elixir that we don’t already know. Not yet, anyway.”

“And with us in training all week, that leaves us with nothing.” Navan sighed.

“Well, actually, not nothing,” Bashrik returned, a thoughtful expression on his face. “There’s this alchemist who keeps bugging Angie and me about the status of the new alchemy lab and the proposed completion date. He’s pretty antsy to get back to his work—”

“And he makes Oscar the Grouch look like a pussycat,” Angie cut in, pulling a twisted, angry face that I presumed was meant to look like this mystery guy.

Bashrik frowned. “While I have no idea who ‘Oscar’ is, this particular alchemist is the very definition of a grouch. Yorrek is definitely not the kind of guy you want to have pestering you all the time. However, he could be pretty useful if we could capture him and interrogate him.”

Angie nodded. “He lives in a village nearby, though he comes into the city to bother us pretty much every day. If we can intercept him on his way into the city, we could try to squeeze some info out of him.”

“It’ll be risky, but since he doesn’t live in the city, and nobody likes him, nobody will miss him,” Bashrik continued, glancing at Angie for confirmation. “He doesn’t really have any friends as far as I can tell, and keeps to himself—when he’s not bothering us, that is. And, with the alchemists mostly out of action until the new lab is built, he could disappear for days and no one would know or care.”

Angie grinned. “I think we’d be doing them a favor.”

“And what about putting him back once we’re done with him?” I asked, seeing several holes in this risky scheme. “Surely he’d tell everyone what happened to him, but then, we can’t lock him away forever, or… kill him. Somebody would notice, eventually.”

“We can always use a vial of Elysium to wipe his memory once we’re done,” Navan replied. “I’m sure there’s some lying around the palace interrogation rooms or medical wing that we could get our hands on. This Yorrek guy probably has the ingredients in his house, if he’s the kind of alchemist I think he might be—the kind who takes his work home with him, if he doesn’t like to be around other people. My concern is that he won’t give up any useful information in the first place. He has no reason to.”

I hadn’t thought about that. If Yorrek was as obsessed with his job as Bashrik made him seem, there was no way he’d give up his secrets. He would never put his position as a royal alchemist at risk, even under duress.

“We can always create a serum from the poroporo fruit,” Lauren said suddenly, as though a bulb had just flashed in her mind. “It’s a fruit I’ve been reading about in the library. It’s indigenous to Northern Vysanthe. It has hypnotic qualities when ingested or injected and puts a person in a state of extreme susceptibility. It would give us a chance to ask questions and receive honest answers… if we can administer the right amount.”

“Never heard of it,” Navan and Bashrik chorused.

“Of course you haven’t! You’re southerners,” Angie remarked. “Go on, Lauren. Ignore these dumbos.”

Lauren smiled. “Apparently, they had a few problems with it a couple of decades ago. People were using it recreationally, and they used so much of it that they nearly harvested it into extinction, so it doesn’t really grow in many places anymore. One book said it still grows in some areas of Northern Vysanthe, though I can’t remember whereabouts off the top of my head… I’ll double check and get back to you as soon as I can.”

“Riley and I can track it down if you pass us the information,” Navan said. “We have a day off a week, where the rest of you don’t. If we tell the queen we want to leave the city on a romantic outing, I’m sure she’d let us. Especially since she seems to be in a romantic mood herself.” Navan’s smirk returned as he gave Bashrik a pat on the back.

His brother scowled; he had evidently hoped the arakar heart incident had been forgotten. “No matter how we get around her security, we’ll need to work quickly,” he said tersely. “We’re running out of time.”

I swallowed, my heart sinking like a stone at the reminder. There were only three weeks remaining until Orion carried out his threat to kill my parents. Now, more than ever before, the pressure was on.

This was a deadline we couldn’t afford to miss.