No Nice to see you. No I’m glad you’re okay.

Not that Robb had really expected that, but there was a small part of him that was still disappointed. Did Jax even look like he missed him? Robb couldn’t tell.

He took the antique holo-pad from an inner pocket of his coat and slid it down the table to the other end. Siege caught it and turned it on. “Because,” he said, “my mother found it almost seven years ago. The night of the fire, when the royal family and my father found out the origins of the Metals, they must have also found out about the heart. Mellifare killed them for it. But my father must have sent her a communication after he stole away on the Tsarina. She found the heart, and she hid it—from everyone. Including Lord Rasovant and Mellifare.”

“Well, well, Cynthia,” Siege murmured, her hair dimming to a burnt coal. She skimmed through the files and handed them off to Talle. “Surprising us even now.”

Talle’s eyes widened at the coordinates of the heart. “Sunshine, this is . . .”

“Astoria,” Robb filled in for her. “My family’s floating estate in Nevaeh.”

A murmur swept across the table.

“Well, great, we can just steal the heart and launch it into the sun and boom, we’re done here,” said Cullen, pushing back their chair to leave. “I expect you have it from here—”

“No can do, Snarky. The HIVE will know where we’re going, and I’m sure the old clunker’ll figure it out.” A screen popped up in the middle of the table, and Elara’s face materialized. She looked like she was sitting, very comfortably, in Jax’s pilot chair. His eyebrow twitched. “Sorry, I didn’t really want to make a grand entrance into your little meeting, and I really had to take off my pants. I can cloak us into Nevaeh, but I can’t disable all the security cams on the garden and the space station.”

Mumbling darkly, Cullen sat back down.

Mokuba asked, “Then how’ll we get in?”

“Well,” Robb began, but Erik beat him to it, which rather irritated him.

“I’ve got a party tomorrow night in the garden, as luck would have it. Every Ironblood is invited to commemorate the occasion. The Emperor is supposed to be there. Though I didn’t expect him to be here, too,” he added. “Pleasant seeing you, Your Excellence.”

The room turned to Di expectantly, and he shrugged helplessly. “Do not look at me—I hated him HIVE’d, too.”

“Yeah, and good luck getting into my party. My guards are no fools and—”

“And if you don’t help us,” Siege interrupted, her voice level and bored, “then I’ll personally break every bone in your right hand, and then your left. And then if you still won’t, I will personally break all one hundred and fifty-one—”

“Fifty-two,” Talle politely corrected.

“—Fifty-two bones in your body,” she finished.

“It will be a pleasure to have you at the party,” Erik replied nervously.