“What’s on your mind?” Navan asked, as we stepped back out into the bitter afternoon.

“Nothing,” I lied, smiling at him. “I’m just glad that’s over and done with.”

“It’ll be you and me again in no time,” he promised, pulling me into an embrace. There was only so much we could do here without attracting unwanted attention, but I was only too happy to steal a kiss or two. Right now, I really needed it.

We’d just gotten into a sky-cab when Navan’s comm device sounded. He picked up the call, and a hologram rippled through the air. Seraphina stared back at us, an anxious expression written across her face.

“Is everything okay?” Navan asked.

She nodded. “I thought I’d call you to tell you that I’ve spoken with my parents. They’ve booked the wedding for four days from now. It’s set to happen at sunset, at the Decorum Chapel.”

“Okay,” was all Navan said.

“Did you manage to see Queen Gianne?”

I replied for him. “Yeah, we just went to see her. She’s given her blessing for the wedding, so no problems there. I’m sure she’ll be expecting an invite,” I joked, but it fell flat. After all, with her keeping an eye on the Idrax family, she probably would be attending.

“Okay, well… I guess I’ll see you both in four days’ time,” Seraphina murmured, sounding a little hurt by Navan’s dismissal.

“See you then,” I said politely, and Navan swiped his finger across the small screen, ending the call.

He didn’t say a word as he cuddled me to him, kissing my hair softly, wrapping his arms around me and squeezing me tight. I didn’t have the heart to be mad at him for treating Seraphina so coldly. I knew none of this could be easy for him, and I wasn’t about to give him a hard time for behaving the way anyone would, in his situation. Instead, I snuggled into him, listening to the beat of his heart as we made our way to the hospital.

* * *

The Vitalis Facility was a quaint little hospital on the outskirts of Regium, built of dark red stone, with a concave, dark slate roof that reminded me of Japanese architecture. There were sculptured gardens around the building, with several ponds and a couple of benches for patients. It looked really nice for a hospital, and I could tell that Navan was pleased that his mother had ended up here.

After stopping at the reception, we were shown to a large room on the top floor. Lorela was sitting in a huge bed and was propped up by a mountain of pillows, her face turned toward the open window, staring listlessly at the world beyond.

“Mother?” Navan said, approaching.

She turned. “My baby… you came back,” she whispered, holding out her skeletal arms.

He closed the gap between them and sat on the edge of the bed, enfolding her in his arms as she gripped him with all the strength she had left. In his embrace, she looked even more frail, his broad shoulders dwarfing her. I held back, wanting to give them their moment.

“Why did you come back?” she said suddenly, pushing him away.

He frowned, releasing her gently. “What do you mean?”

“Did you do it to taunt me?”

“Mother, I—”

“Where did I go wrong as a mother?” she asked, her voice getting stronger as tears glittered in her rheumy eyes. “What did I do to you, to make you betray our family the way you did—and drag Bashrik down with you? Was I that awful?”

Navan stared at her, dumbfounded. I guessed he’d thought there would be fanfare and a warm welcome when he came home. In all honesty, I’d expected the same thing. Their exchange was making me feel suddenly awkward.

He stood again, moving over to the window. “It was nothing like that, Mother. You know it wasn’t.”

“Your actions drove me to try and end my life,” Lorela spat.

He scowled at her. “You just did that for attention, Mother! You probably just wanted your husband to notice you, instead of disappearing off to his lab!”

“I wish I’d destroyed you in the womb, you nasty son of a frostfang!”

“Well, I guess that makes you the frostfang then, doesn’t it?”

“I had such hopes for you, Navan. I know you’re not supposed to have favorites, but a mother always does. You were mine, until you broke my heart into pieces!” she screamed at him. “You never gave a damn about anyone but yourself. You were always running off, not caring that I was worried sick. You’re a spiteful wraith, and I curse the day I gave birth to you! If I had the chance again, I’d smother you in your sleep!”

“Oh, yeah? Well, I wish Queen Gianne had finished the job with you!” he fired back.

I stared at them in disbelief, horrified by the way they spoke to each other; I hadn’t known a mother and son could be so cruel to each other. It was a million miles away from the joy that had spread across Lorela’s face when she’d welcomed him back during my first visit to Vysanthe. She’d been so happy and proud then, but now… she was a completely different woman.

Then again, everyone had been different back then. There had been parties at the palace instead of a war and surprise executions.

“All you do is disappoint me, Navan. I look at what you could have been, and I feel hollow inside,” she growled, picking up a cup and hurling it at him.

He caught it in midair. “You got what you wanted in the end, the way you always do! I’m marrying Seraphina, just like you commanded. You happy now? Can you rest easy, knowing you successfully managed to ruin everyone’s life?”

Lorela instantly brightened at the news. “You’re marrying her?”

“Yes, he is,” I interjected, moving toward the bed. “The wedding is set for four days from now, at sunset, at the Decorum Chapel.”

“A beautiful location for a beautiful couple!” she cried.

“Why don’t you tell her some more about it, Navan,” I urged, knowing it would help improve her health and hopefully the tension between them. I had no warm feelings toward Lorela, but I didn’t want them to keep hurling insults at each other.

“Yes, do tell me more!” she pleaded, the twisted changeling replaced with a much calmer woman. “I will endeavor to be better in time for the ceremony; you can be sure of that!”

Navan rolled his eyes, refusing to move from his spot by the window. “I don’t know any more than you do. Seraphina’s parents are planning everything. I just have to show up.”

Lorela’s eyes narrowed. “I wish you didn’t look like a sad vagrant who’s just come back from doing hard time in a Carokian mine! Why is your back all lumpy? What’s the matter with you?”

“I injured a wing in battle. It’s nothing.”

“No, not your beautiful wings!” she gasped, aghast. “You should have taken better care of them!”

“I didn’t have much choice, Mother. There’s a war going on, in case you hadn’t noticed,” he grumbled.

“A man of your status shouldn’t be getting involved in such things—you’re an Explorer, not a soldier. Fighting on a battlefield is beneath you, regardless of which side you were fighting for!” she snapped. “Idraxes do not sink to such lowly occupations unless they are in the elite corps!”

Navan scowled. “Kaido is an infantry soldier!”

“Yes, but Kaido is… Kaido doesn’t count. He’s not a proper Idrax.”

It broke my heart to hear her say that. With his relentless admiration for her, I’d hoped Lorela might have been his one ally in that house, but it appeared I was wrong. She didn’t care about him any more than the others did. And still, even if she said those awful things to his face, which she probably had, he would continue to adore her, feeling as though he owed her something just because she hadn’t killed him as a child. Any pity I’d had for Lorela died in that moment.

“You want to know what you did wrong as a mother?” Navan said quietly, his voice raw with emotion. “You didn’t stand up for the ones who needed you.”

I didn’t know if he just meant Naya, or if he was finally including Kaido in the mix. Either way, tears sprang to my eyes as I watched him walk across the room and out the door. I followed him into the hallway, pulling him into a doorway so I could put my arms around his waist and look up into his eyes, without anyone seeing.

“I’m sure your mom didn’t mean that about your wings. She was probably just worried about you getting killed,” I said, wanting to comfort him despite my personal hatred toward Lorela.

He shook his head. “She doesn’t care about anything but reputation. If she knew what had happened to Jareth, you’d see her reaching for another bottle of tonic before you could finish the sentence.”

“Is that why you didn’t tell her?” I’d thought it a little weird that he hadn’t used Jareth’s arrest against his mother, who’d been out cold after her near-smothering and was still oblivious to the fact.

“I didn’t want her wailing about how much of a victim she is.” He sighed. “My parents are selfish creatures. They’ll never change.”

“I guess visiting the prison is out of the question, then?” I joked.

Navan snorted. “I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. He’s made his own deceitful bed. Now he can lie in it.”

A siren blared, startling us both. I peered out of the doorframe to see a cluster of medical personnel, dressed in the same black uniform, burst through the double doors nearby. They stampeded through the hallway toward a room at the end, where a single red light was flashing above the door. They’d just hurtled past us when Mort stumbled out of the room in question, in the guise of Doctor Ulani, his hands covered in Vysanthean blood.

“Oh, God!” I gasped, clutching Navan’s arm.

“What happened, Doctor?” I heard one of the medical staff ask.

“Well, you’ll never believe it, but the poor bastard had a seizure. It forced him up out of his bed, and he fell, chest first, onto the vascular needle I’d been preparing to relieve the pressure in his valves,” Mort said. “I tried to stop him, but there was nothing I could do—he was too strong for me!”

He caught sight of us and grimaced, waiting until the staff had sprinted into the room before sneaking up the hallway toward us.

“People might actually die because of you, Mort!” I whispered. “You’re in way over your head here.”

“Eh, get down off your rainbow griffon, Miss Perfect. I’ll have you know I’ve delegated the truly sick to my assistants and the other doctors, while I get the easy cases,” he explained proudly. “I just didn’t expect sticking a needle the size of a chopstick into someone’s heart to be hard. There really is blood everywhere. I’ve never seen anything spray so far or so fast in my entire life!” He grinned, waggling his dripping hands, as if to prove a point.

“Why didn’t you get someone to help?” I hissed, incredulous.

He shrugged. “Like I said, I didn’t think it would be hard. Ah, well, you live and you learn.”

“That poor guy might not!”

Mort laughed, his cheery demeanor fading as he set eyes on Navan. “Well, if it isn’t Captain Abandonment! How are you, bloodsucker? Finally decided to make an appearance, did we?” he mused. “I see the landmine didn’t get you—more’s the pity.”

“You must be the oh-so-unhelpful voice on the comm device,” Navan retorted. “Not once did this guy tell me how you were, though I must have asked about a million times.”

“You didn’t care! You left her all alone. But I didn’t abandon her, did I, sweet cheeks?” Mort wiggled his eyebrows.

“Sweet cheeks?” Navan scowled. “I’ll sweet cheeks you in a second, skinbag!”

“Hey, I’m not the one in the wrong here, grayskin. I didn’t leave your precious lover to a bunch of pumped-up, fang-mouthed enslavers!”

Navan rolled his eyes. “Enslavers? One time, skinbag! We forced you to take us to the rebel base one time!”

“And have I heard a sorry? I don’t think I have.”

“That’s because you deserved what you got. Your people are a bunch of untrustworthy leeches, always clinging to a superior species to get yourselves noticed,” Navan shot back. “Why don’t you go back to Mallarot, and Malla-rot in hell!”

“Oh, very clever, Mister Wordplay,” Mort taunted. “And who’re you calling a superior species? Coldbloods? Don’t make me laugh. You all would have died out centuries ago if you hadn’t gone around stealing everyone else’s things. Vysantheans are just space pirates in nicer clothes!”

“Says the one who steals other people’s identities!” Navan hissed.

Mort snorted. “Pipe down, Captain High And Mighty!”

I was almost too amused to stop them, but I had to step in if we were ever going to get anything done.

“If you two don’t stop, you’re going to start drawing unwanted attention,” I snapped. “So I suggest you both shake hands and get over it. We’re in this together now, whether you like it or not.”

Mort wiped his palms quickly on the clothes he was wearing, removing most of the blood. They looked at each other sourly, before shooting out their hands as if they were in a Wild West standoff, both desperate to be the first one to make the move. I stifled an exasperated sigh as they gripped one another’s hands and shook firmly, neither of them wanting to be the one to break.

“Enough!” I barked, forcing them to let go. “Mort, we’ve got a task for you, if you’re up for a challenge.”

He eyed me curiously. “Is this part of our deal?”

“It is. It might just be our way out.” It wasn’t entirely the truth, but he didn’t need to know that.

“In that case, what’s the order of the day, princess?” he asked, grinning.

I smiled back, feeling a bristle of excitement. “Do you have access to the palace mailroom?”

“You know me. I can wriggle my way into just about anywhere… if you catch my meaning.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me, only stopping when Navan shoved him in the ribs.

“I think that means yes, he can get into the palace mailroom,” Navan said coldly, flashing Mort a warning look.

“Would you be able to send a large package from the mailroom without it being processed through the machines?” I continued. “And, for the love of God, please don’t make any large package jokes—it’s too obvious, and, frankly, it’s beneath you, Mort.”

“I know what I’d like beneath me.” He chuckled, getting another shove in the ribs. “But yes, I think I can make that work. I know my way around a mailroom. I bet you do too, Riley, am I right? See, bloodsucker, I can do wordplay too.” He grinned triumphantly.

Even I had to smirk at that one. “Focus, Mort.”

“I can do it, but who’s the package for?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “Let me guess… The Fed? Your human buddies? The Darians? The Sonorans? Orion—is it Pandora’s head in a box?”

I pulled a face. “That’s disgusting, Mort.”

“What? It’s a valid guess!”

“I’m not telling you where the package is going. It’s no slight on you, but you don’t need to know,” I insisted.

He gave an accepting shrug. “Hey, what can I say? You’re smart not to fully trust me. I know me, and I wouldn’t fully trust myself.”

“We also need some help finding a contact in the darkstar market,” Navan added.

I glanced at him in surprise. I’d never heard him mention the darkstar market before. In fact, the only time I’d ever heard about the darkstar market was when that three-eyed guy mentioned it to his crew of scavengers, back at Tristitia Lake. Judging by the sound of it, and what those scavengers had been loading onto their ship, I guessed it was some sort of black market. Maybe Navan had an idea for what we could send the Titans. After all, although I’d been planning the route to get the package out of Vysanthe, I’d had no clue what we were going to put in it.

“Ah, my second home,” Mort said with a smirk. “I’ll let you borrow my code, since I’m such a nice guy. And please, if you happen upon the right part of the market, give my warmest regards to Rosita at The Legless Merman.”

With the code safely in our grasp, and the security of having an inside man in the palace mailroom, we made our way back to Sarrask’s cottage, leaving Mort to his medical misconduct.