Chrome snorted. “Thanks, man.”
“No need to thank me.” I waved him off. Another horn blared below as someone cut off another driver, sparking the typical road rage within the city.
The lights from within the skyscrapers surrounding us illuminated Chrome’s profile, highlighting his pensive thoughts.
“So, what happened? It’s not like you to let one slip past you like that.” Chrome stared ahead at the building across from us. The office building’s lights glowed with the typical fluorescence of corporate America. I pushed my awareness toward it, feeling the energy the light emitted, and drew it into my aura to fuel my magic.
“There was this guy there,” Chrome started, seemingly confused as if trying to make sense of it himself. “He said some things about…”
A heavy silence dropped as I waited for him to continue. I wouldn’t push him. I never did. He was older than me, but only by a year. And he’d never made me feel inferior, despite his esteemed status. He always assured me that I was highlyregarded as well, especially for my age, but I never felt like it. More than likely, he was simply humoring me. But it was unrealistic to hold the expectation of becoming his equal when he was an Elemental and Kinetic hybrid.
“I don’t know where he came from, but judging from what seemed like a portal of some sort, he wasn’t from this world,” Chrome explained, his brows pulled together. “He said that Forest had orchestrated my and the princess’s existence.”
No one, other than myself, the king, Chrome’s mother, stepfather, and sister, knew about Chrome’s hybrid nature. I imagined that a mass revolt would ensue if the Kinetic population discovered that truth. I often wondered if the Elementals would ever go public with this info. The fallout would be horrific if they tried to claim him for their own.
As for the princess, no one was supposed to know that she was a hybrid, or that she was even the king’s biological daughter, for that matter. I only knew this because Chrome had told me years ago. Again, if the rest of our people learned this, it would cause an uproar of epic proportions.
“He said…” Chrome sighed, tilting his head and twisting his features in confusion. “He said that my father was Elemental King Jonas. And that Princess Gray’s mother was Queen Lilliana. I’m not sure if I should believe him.”
Unconsciously, my mouth opened in disbelief. All noise faded, smothering the space between us as I took a few seconds to process what he’d just shared. “That…” I managed to say, my tone deadpan, “is not what I was expecting.”
“According to Valik, the king raped Queen Lilliana, and my mother did the same to King Jonas in order to produce a hybrid pair for whatever long-term plans they have.” Chrome’s jaw tightened, and the sound of his heavy swallow even outweighed the cacophony of the traffic below.
I cleared my throat, pulling my stare from Chrome’s shadowed profile to gaze at the moving cars. “Do we know what their plans are?”
Chrome shook his head. “No. Not yet.”
“Well, what do we know, then? And who are we telling this information?”
“We know that Princess Gray needs to be trained in sparring. The king has been withholding it from her, but if she’s trained, she can become valuable to the insurgency,” he responded in a monotone, as if talking about the princess like this was the least interesting thing to him. “No one is to know about Valik and what he told me, yet. We just need to convince them to get the princess trained.”
“Not even my parents?” I asked, since they were basically in charge of the insurgency.
“No.” Chrome’s glamoured crystalline blue eyes pierced through me, daring me to object. It was rare for him to be completely unglamoured, but when he was, his molten, quicksilver irises and gilded skin unnerved me as he radiated pure power. “If they know about the potential of my and Gray’s lineage, it would put them and the entire cause at risk. No one else can know about it. Not even Peri.”
My eyes bulged. “Damn,” I said on a breath and then nodded. “Okay.” If he didn’t even trust his sister to know about it…
“What about the princess? How do we go about getting her trained?” I asked, genuinely curious how the king had been holding her back on it.
Chrome stared into the illuminated office windows ahead of us. “I haven’t figured it out yet, but I know you’ll be the one to start training her. I would, but I’m not allowed near her due to both of our hybrid natures.”
“Me?” I asked, dumbstruck. “Why me?”
“Because you’re the next best, Slate,” Chrome answered, matter-of-fact. “Plus, you have the personality that I think she would trust. ThatItrust.”
“You still feel her emotions?”
Chrome closed his eyes and breathed in deep. “Yeah. It’s never stopped since that day.”
“Do you think she can feel yours?” He shrugged and dropped his focus to the street beneath us. “I don’t know. If she does, she wouldn’t be able to show it.”
“What do you think it means?” I asked, intrigued about this odd phenomenon.
“I wish I knew. Perhaps it’s because we’re both hybrids.”
Another silence blanketed us as I pondered everything he’d said, trying to make sense of it.
“So, back to this guy–Valik, was it?”
