I realized as we were descending that we’d already passed over the glittering village I’d spotted earlier in the distance, and it was now behind us. My stomach lurched as we soared downward, dropping out of the sky faster than I was comfortable with. I held on tighter, while Navan’s arms pressed in harder around me.

I shut my eyes for the last few feet, and opened them again only when I heard Navan’s feet crunch against the snow. I was glad we’d been blackberry picking when the whole Ianthan-Jethro incident happened, since it meant I was wearing long pants and sneakers. Still, I was grateful that Navan kept holding me, since my attire was not exactly snow proof.

Ianthan’s dark figure approached.

“Over there,” Navan muttered, gesturing to the large rock protruding from the ice, some ten feet away.

He carried me in silence, until we reached it. It wasn’t an awkward silence, though; I didn’t feel the need to try to think of something to say. It felt natural, which almost made me laugh out loud—here I was, being carried in the arms of a coldblood who had just flown me from Texas to Alaska because I’d imbibed a potentially dangerous substance. Nothing about this was normal, or natural, yet being there in his arms felt exactly that.

He stopped at the rock’s base and began brushing against the snow with his boots, revealing a metal trapdoor. He put me down, though made sure I held on to his shoulder for support, because my knees were shaky. I pulled the coat closer around me, and watched as Navan pulled open the secret trapdoor, revealing a storage compartment underneath that contained a steel trunk, which was about four feet by five feet in size. He heaved it out onto the snow and opened the lid, revealing a treasure chest of countless small silver vials, sectioned into dozens of compartments with exotic names that held no meaning to me.

Navan studied the assortment of vials for a few moments, before pulling three out, along with a glass beaker. He poured the three liquids into the container and shook it before pushing it toward me.

I clutched the beaker in my hands.

“Drink it all,” he instructed firmly.

I breathed in, then nodded, before holding my nose and downing it as quickly as I could. I almost spat it back out as it burned down my throat, but somehow, I managed to force it down.

To my astonishment, the effect was almost instant. I felt the last of the mist clear from my eyes, the headache disappeared, and I felt… quite normal. Cold, but normal.

“Wow,” I said. “That really worked.”

Navan nodded, then took the bottle back from me. He wiped it with a cloth that had been tucked into one corner of the trunk, and then replaced it, closing the lid of the trunk.

He moved closer to me, and pulled out a tiny flashlight from the bag around his shoulder, which he shone into my eyes. “Seems to have worked—for now at least…” He hesitated.

“What?” I asked.

He sighed, and that same look of guilt I’d detected in him earlier when he’d talked about my ordeal returned. “I’ve been reluctant to say it, but… you ought to know that you will likely feel the consequences of drinking that silver root for the rest of your life.”

I stared at him. “Wh-What? What do you mean?”

“Silver root is strong. It can have a negative impact on even a coldblood’s brain if he or she consumes too much. A known side effect of overconsumption, aside from nausea, is increased susceptibility to stimulants in general, as it weakens resistance levels. Being a human, you only needed a small dose to be severely affected by it, and as a result, I would advise you to be very careful when consuming anything with addictive qualities in the future… Even food could become a problem, if you allow yourself to overeat.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe you switched the two vials like that without me noticing.”

My lips parted as I absorbed his words. It felt as if he’d punched me in the gut. Thanks to my dear parents, I had no desire to ingest anything remotely intoxicating, now or in the future, but the thought that this entire ordeal had left me more susceptible, more vulnerable than I already was, played on an insecurity that was already so raw in my heart and mind, it was hard to stop my hands from shaking. My confidence was already fragile, a timid thing that I worked hard every day to nourish and protect. The idea that even food could end up becoming a vice if I wasn’t careful was frightening.

“I’m sorry,” Navan said. “It was good you caught Jethro and Ianthan, but… I wish you had just taken the Elysium like I wanted you to.”

Despite the shock and the whirlwind of emotions I was struggling under, I managed to find a thread of reassurance in his empathetic gaze, and reel my mind back in. I got the uncanny sense that he understood what I was going through, but more than that, his presence reminded me of what I had just been thinking about, barely a few minutes ago—if he could maintain his character in spite of all the massive obstacles he faced, then there was no reason why I couldn’t.

The thought calmed me. “Okay.”

Navan took a breath, then nodded, switching his focus to a patch of snow six feet ahead of us, further around the side of the rock. “Let’s keep moving,” he said softly. “This was just a storage cupboard.”

I kept hold of his arm as we approached the patch of ground his eyes were set on, where another trap door lay hidden in the ground.

He exhaled sharply as we reached it, his arm muscles tensing. The snow had already been cleared away from the door.

“That’s not possible,” Navan breathed.

He swooped down and yanked open the door, shining his flashlight to reveal a much larger space beneath—an actual room.

He withdrew his wings into his back and dropped through the hole, followed swiftly by Ianthan, and I found myself crouching, staring down after them. It was… empty.

“Where is all of my stuff? How could anyone have known about this?” he exclaimed. “Everything’s gone. Every last damn thing!”

“There’s a light!” Ianthan said suddenly, pointing to a door in the far corner of the room. Indeed, light was shining through the cracks—dim and warm, like candlelight.

Navan fell silent and rushed to the door, but before he could grab the handle, it swung open, spilling light into the main room. An old man with a long, bedraggled white beard and a grubby once-beige coat emerged in the doorframe, a gin bottle hanging in one hand. He looked just as surprised as Navan. Barking ensued, and a husky dog came padding out of the room, stopping beside the man.

“Who are you?” the old man slurred. “Is there a party I didn’t know about?” He raised his bottle like he was making a toast, sloshing liquid down his arm. He didn’t appear to notice. Nor did he appear to notice Navan and Ianthan’s grayish skin.

“Party? No, there’s no party!” Navan grabbed the old man by his collar. “Who are you? What are you doing here? What did you do with all of my things?”

“Things? Are there things down here?” The man tried to twist around but couldn’t escape Navan’s grip.

Navan gritted his teeth. “There’s nothing down here anymore.”

“I got no home to call my own, you see. Found this lil old hole in the ground—door was open and I climbed right inside!” He grinned, looking pleased with himself at the discovery, before taking a gluttonous swig from his bottle. “Thought it was my lucky day. I don’t have too many of those, you can probably tell.”

Navan let go. It was obvious this man, who could barely stand on his own two feet, was not the thief. “Maybe it is your lucky day,” Navan said. “Why don’t you take off.”

“I think I will, seeing as I’m not welcome here no more,” the old man mumbled, shuffling over to the ladder and climbing up it. He swayed dangerously, and I was afraid he was going to fall before he made it to the top, but he managed, and I moved aside to let him pass. He cast one lazy glance over me in the gloom, before turning back around to call down, “Mind passing Charlie up, would you?”

Navan had disappeared into the second room, but Ianthan passed the husky up to the guy, and with that, he headed off into the snow, his dog trotting along by his side, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he’d just been in close quarters with a couple of vampires. At least we didn’t have to bother with Elysium with him—he had his own bottled version.

I stared after the retreating silhouettes for a moment, hoping he’d make it to the nearby town before freezing to death, but I couldn’t dwell on his well-being for long; we had bigger things to worry about right now.

Such as the safety of the entire human race.

I looked back down through the trap door to see Navan had reemerged from the second room and was prowling around like a caged animal, running his hands through his hair.

He turned to Ianthan, narrowing his eyes. “A logical person would suspect you. Or at least suspect you had something to do with this.”

“I swear, Navan, I have no idea!” Ianthan said. “I had nothing to do with this, and I can’t imagine why my father would have either. He only wanted to escape to Queen Brisha with a blood sample; being accepted by her was his only objective. There’s no reason on Vysanthe why he’d come ransacking this place. And when would he have done it? How would he have done it? What would he have done with all your equipment? There’s no way!”

Navan seemed almost relieved as Ianthan spoke; there really didn’t seem to be a way that Jethro or Ianthan could’ve pulled this heist off. I had a feeling it would’ve been more than Navan could handle right now, to find out his best friend had been involved in this, too.

“We’ve got to get that ship fixed,” Navan said, breathing out. “It’s the only way.”

“Do you think it could have been other humans who found this place and raided it?” I asked softly.

There was a long pause. “It's possible but unlikely. I… I do have another idea what might’ve happened here.”

“What?” I lowered myself onto the ladder and climbed down.

Navan set Ianthan with a dark look. “I think it was The Fed.”

I scrunched up my face in confusion. “Huh? The Fed?”

“What?” Ianthan said. “What makes you say that?”

Navan continued to prowl, addressing me first. “The Fed is a supernatural federation that operates in this quadrant of the universe, and essentially helps to maintain peace and good relations between worlds. It’s a protective and intermediary agency.”

“What? I’ve never heard of it,” I said, my mind being blown open yet again by another facet of our universe I’d previously been oblivious to.

“You wouldn’t have,” he replied. “Although The Fed does have a base here on Earth, they don’t make themselves known to humans.”

“Why’s that?”

Was there the slightest hint of amusement in his eyes? “Don’t take this the wrong way, but the rest of the supernatural community generally sees your kind as . . . rather primitive and immature; and a little too trigger-happy when it comes to their weapons.”

“Oh,” I said. He did have a point. “I guess that’s fair enough.”

“Humans aren’t the most powerful species in the universe.” Now Navan did smirk. “I mean, a good deal of your population honestly believes that they’re the only intelligent life form in the universe.” He and Ianthan both laughed. “Which is so ridiculous and narrow minded it’s almost unimaginable. So, you can understand why your kind were never deemed fit to join The Fed, officially—and so the alliance contains no human members—but Earth is in their circle of watch, nonetheless.”

“And you think they somehow found this place and raided it?”

“I know they operate on Earth because I encountered an agent here, several weeks ago.” He pursed his lips, shaking his head. All traces of the previous smile was gone. “I was utilizing my holograph map, and it must’ve given off some strong, irregular frequencies that a nearby Fed agent picked up on. Damn. I should’ve known better.”

“What happened?”

“I’d say it was the last thing he expected—to find a coldblood. The Fed doesn’t have much jurisdiction in our corner of the universe, and they despise Vysanthians to the core. We stand for everything they are against—they seek to preserve and balance, while we essentially seek to destroy. That agent fired at me before I could explain why I was here. I had no choice but to kill him; otherwise, he would’ve taken me in, or worse. Still, I feared that he might have already alerted his base to my presence. I waited for three days, expecting that if his fellow agents were coming, they would do so within that time. When they didn’t, I assumed the agent I killed had not yet transmitted his findings to his base, and I needed to return to Vysanthe, so I left… Which I now realize was a mistake.”

“The agent who came to get to you,” I said, my head reeling. “He was… a different kind of supernatural?”

Navan nodded. “Earth’s base is manned by a lycan unit.”

“Lycans?”

“I guess you would be more familiar with the term werewolf, though they are different.”

“Werewolf?” I said, again trying to wrap my brain around what he was telling me.

“What do we do?” Ianthan said. “I mean, this is bad, right? This is really bad.”

Navan swallowed hard. “It’s only bad if we give up. And we’re not going to. We have to get my ship fixed… And the only way to do that now is to stake out the Fed and convince them to return my tools.”

“That’s insane!” Ianthan exclaimed. “The Fed would never negotiate with you! To them you’re a filthy Vysanthian! They’d shoot you down on sight, before you could even get a word out—and that would be even if you hadn’t murdered one of their agents.”

“I know.” Navan glanced at me. “Which is why we might need to try a different tactic.”

I looked from him to Ianthan, then back. “What?” I asked. “Why do I have a feeling I’m suddenly about to get a lot more involved?”

“Because if it was a human who made first contact with them, then we might at least get a meeting,” Navan replied.

“And tell them what?” Ianthan asked. “What would a human tell them, exactly, in order to convince them? That we need those tools back to intercept a human blood sample that’s on its way to Vysanthe? That would get The Fed asking serious questions, which would inevitably lead to revealing Vysanthe’s search for immortality.”

“Why would that be so bad?” I asked.

Ianthan exhaled. “If there’s anything our Queens agree on, it’s that The Fed should never be given information about our activities, because all that will do is encourage them to scrutinize Vysanthe more than they already have,” he explained. “If Gianne—or her sister—found out we were behind the leak, we’d be in for a fate worse than death. We’d all be.”

I could only imagine what such a fate might consist of, but from the petrified look in Ianthan’s eyes, I knew I didn’t want to find out.

“I didn’t say it was the ideal plan,” Navan said, clearly frustrated. “Do you think I want to risk something happening to Riley? But it’s the only way. If we don’t try, then we’re never going to be able to get back, the blood sample will arrive in Vysanthe, and then they’ll—”

“You’re right,” I said. “We’ve got to at least try. I mean, won’t they help if we ask them to? Vysanthe clearly needs to be stopped from terrorizing other planets, and The Fed was an organization set up to do just that—maintain balance and protect weaker species.”

“Unfortunately, it’s not so simple,” Navan said. “If we approach it like that, what we’re really asking for is a bright red target on our backs—The Fed would not be successful in subduing Vysanthe even if it tried. If threatened, the Queens would put their differences aside to join forces and combat the threat. Take your entire planet’s militaries, combine them, and you wouldn’t be anywhere close to how powerful Vysanthe’s military is. And our environment is too harsh; there are few who could compete with us in our own element. The Fed knows this, which is why Vysanthe has had free rein for so long. Of course, that doesn’t mean the Queens will ever grow complacent—they still don’t want The Fed knowing about their business.”

“So what would you tell The Fed, then, if you managed to get a meeting?” Ianthan asked.

“As you said, we may have no choice but to tell them the truth—or at least, part of the truth. Our case has to be strong enough for them to be persuaded,” Navan continued. “We’d also have to hope we can persuade them to keep our identities confidential… But we’re getting way ahead of ourselves. Before we get to that, we have to figure out how to meet with them.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “I thought I was going to try to get a meeting with them.”

“I don’t know where The Fed’s headquarters are… though I do have an idea of how we might attract their attention.” He swept past me and reached the ladder. “For now, let’s get out of this hole.”

Ianthan and I followed, reemerging in the icy world above. However we ended up meeting with this organization, I was going to have to convince a bunch of werewolves to return Navan’s supplies.

The only thing I knew for sure was that we were certainly going to be gone longer than twenty-four hours.