Prologue
Queen Celene – Optimus Unit Prison, Cell Level C
I stared at the wall, trying, once more, to use my power.
Nothing. I’d been too long from the citadel, the bond grown too weak to use as I once had.
The last time I’d truly used my gift, it had saved my life. It had often felt like yesterday when I’d had to flee, but now… it felt like a lifetime ago.
I needed to return to the citadel. Reconnect. Become strong, as I was long ago. My daughters needed me. Alera needed their queen. First, I needed to escape.
The cleric bitch who’d threatened my daughters was gone. Had been for days. I had no idea if she were dead or alive. I’d been well-treated since then, strangely so considering the misery when I’d first been taken. Not that it mattered. I had to get out of here. Time was ticking in my mind like the countdown on a bomb.
Something had changed, something significant. The moment that cleric had murdered the guard I thought of as Scarface, everything had shifted.
My clothes were warmer.
There had been no more beatings. Before that even, if I thought about it, but it was as if I’d gone from a cruel gulag to the Four Seasons, by comparison.
I had shoes and thick socks to keep my feet warm and an extra blanket on my bed.
I wasn’t hungry, either. I’d given in and eaten everything they brought me, which had been not only delicious, but nutritious as well. Fattening me up for the slaughter, perhaps? No. If they wanted to kill me with poison, it would have happened long ago. Besides, they didn’t need to resort to such devious means to commit murder. If they wanted me dead, they could slit my throat and dump my body in the Western Sea. It was only a few hours away by EV, and the creatures that lurked beneath the waves on Alera were much more aggressive than the peaceful sharks on Earth. They were true predators. Piranha-like monsters the size of small boats, some of them with teeth longer than my arms.
Dead or alive, I’d be fish food in a matter of minutes. Seconds, even.
I’d been moved three times in the last two days, so when the door opened and I saw the two young guards holding handcuffs, I wasn’t surprised. Their words, however, shocked me.
“Greetings, My Queen. We have been sent to escort you to your new home.” One spoke. Both bowed.
What the hell was going on here?
They knew I was the queen. Greeted me formally. As Destiny would say, WTF?
“What are you talking about? Where are you taking me? To the palace?”
The second guard straightened and stood tall, shifted his shoulders back and puffed out his chest, as if he were proud to be holding his queen captive. As if locking me up against my will was a fucking honor. “Our king has returned, My Queen. He has instructed us to escort you to your new home where he will see to your safety and well-being.”
The King? Again, WTF? What the hell were they talking about? “The king is dead.”
The first guard, young and beautiful, and clearly so, so naive, smiled. “No, My Queen. He lives. He has returned, at long last, to take his place by your side.”
“At long last?”
“Twenty-seven years is a long time to wait, My Queen. We had nearly given up hope.” His dark blue eyes were bright with excitement, as if he were about to open a gift on Christmas morning. The look was genuine. Which meant this young idiot believed what he was saying. He hadn’t even been alive all those years ago.
“The king has been gone for twenty-seven years?”
The second guard spoke. “Yes, My Queen. He disappeared when you did, and returned soon after your daughters appeared.”
“He disappeared because he’s dead,” I countered. Dead was dead. I’d watched as my mate, King Mykel, was stabbed, killed in front of me. It was a memory I could never forget.
“He’s alive and well and eager to see you, My Queen.”
But… could he be alive? Could he have somehow survived? Surely, others would have had to know; he’d have needed a ReGen pod. Help to get there. Doctors.