We were on the transport pad, the portal to another planet. To Alera.
“Good luck on your search for your mother,” Warden Egara said. She stood tall, hands folded in front of her, and didn’t speak about our heritage, or the fact that our mother was the queen. There were only two people who knew the truth—the warden and Prime Nial. And that’s the way we intended to keep it. At least for now. “Please, be safe and let me know how things go. I will be rooting for you.”
“Thank you,” I replied, my sisters nodding.
She looked to the transport tech person and nodded. The hum got louder, the vibrations intensifying. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I felt the tight squeeze of my sisters’ hands in mine. We were doing this. Together. Now. We would find our mother… alive, and beat the crap out of those who’d taken her. Make things right. Put Queen Celene back where she belonged, on the throne of Alera.
The Jones sisters were headed to Alera. Those alien kidnappers had no idea what they were in for.
“Your transport will begin in three, two, one…”
The warden’s voice faded. Piercing cold felt like a thousand frozen needles pressing into my flesh. My last thought was that the NPU injection hadn’t been that bad after all.
2
Captain Leoron Turaya, Planet Alera, Outskirts of the Capital City of Mytikas
The sky was black but for the stars as I stood watch on the outermost tower protecting the capital. No moonlight tonight, the darkness feeling like an omen.
“It’s late, Captain. The watch is mine now.” Gadiel was young, barely out of training, but he stood at attention ready to assume my position on watch. His gaze was full of honor and excitement, a look I well-remembered seeing in the mirror. That was before I joined the Coalition Fleet and spent nearly a decade fighting a horror worse than any I could have imagined. I’d seen the Hive, knew what they would do if they ever reached the peaceful planets within the protective arms of the Interstellar Coalition’s Fleet of battleships.
After ten years, my father had called me home. I could continue to serve on Alera, he argued. I would have fought for ten more, but my parents still hoped I would awaken to a woman’s Ardor, that I would choose a mate—or my cock would—and give them grandchildren to spoil.
I’d met countless women in my lifetime, all across the galaxy, and nothing had stirred within me. My body remained mine alone. And to be perfectly honest, I did not hold much interest in changing that. To be so obsessed with a single female? I’d seen mighty Aleran warriors fall, become nothing more than besotted fools. All because their cocks rose—finally—for The One. To be led around by the balls by a female was not what I desired. To be driven by something other than the honor to defend my planet? No, thank you.
I would remain a soldier, a guard, a fighter for life. An Aleran bachelor. Unaffected by the whims of a female.
“Sir?” Gadiel shifted uncomfortably, and I realized I had been staring into the distance, at nothing. No. Not nothing. The spire. That damn queen’s spire and how it glowed bright, the only thing illuminating the darkness.
“Very well,” I replied, turning to him. “May the light keep you.”
“And you as well.”
I nodded in acceptance of his words and left him to attend his duties. The city was at peace, at the moment. The last incursion by an outlying family had ended in bloodshed just weeks before. The tenuous peace would not last. The royal bloodline was weak, with no living members strong enough to carry one of the gifts. Ever since the queen’s disappearance over two decades ago, the capital had been under consistent attack by one grasping family after another. These families believed their wealth and armies would grant them the loyalty of the people.
They were wrong. So long as the queen’s spire burned bright, the royal guard would defend her throne so that one day she might return to reclaim her place among her people. I had lost hope, for I barely remembered a time before she disappeared, but I would fight until the light of the spire died. When that happened, I would fight for the people in my city, choose a family to rule I found worthy. The battles would be bloody, but currently three families held the wealth and power to potentially ascend to the throne. The day the light of the spire went out would be the first day of a very long, very brutal war.
The tower stairs were dark, but I had no trouble seeing my way as I paced through the shadows. There was no need to count the twisting steps, for I’d been this way hundreds of times since my return from space, from the Hive wars.
It seemed my entire life would be dedicated to battle and blood.
So be it. Gods, I was a broody fucker. I needed an Aleran ale, an hour with the hottest setting on my shower tube and my bed. In that order.
Exiting the base of the watchtower, I slowed my pace, in no hurry to return to my quarters. Below me, surrounded by the twisting alleyways and dense tapestry of stone homes, the
royal citadel glowed in the center of the city. The strange tower had been there longer than our people had kept records, built by an ancient race of space explorers who left our primitive planet with two gifts—the citadel itself and those who carried their alien bloodline.
The citadel was both a beacon of hope to all of Alera and a bitter reminder that our people had been abandoned when I was a child. I barely remembered the day the king was found dead, the queen missing. My father, now a retired captain of the city guard, still clung to his faith that the royal bloodline lived on, that his beloved queen would return to free us from the chaos of endless civil conflict.
The light shined, so Queen Celene was alive.
But where?
And why had she yet to return?
The younger generation had given up hope. War was coming, no matter how valiantly the clerics fought to keep the peace. I wanted no part in it. The rich fools would fight over something they could never hold. There would be no ascension ceremony, no new queen, not while the light of the spire shined over Mytikas. Queen Celene’s city.
As if the thought had garnered the attention of Fate herself, the NPU implanted behind my ear buzzed with an incoming message.