Even though she had been smiling after her presentation, Adelina had been terrified. Now she felt relief so intense her knees were weak and she didn’t think she could stand without collapsing.

Convincing Asher that she was strong enough to rule – that she could rule – without him coddling her, had been something she’d needed to prove. And then there was the matter of the Neprijat.

Adelina had needed Asher on her side.

She wasn’t naïve. She knew most of their people still looked to him. After all he had always been the one in council meetings and war councils. He’d been advising their father alongside Raena from a young age. Their father had noted his strong drive and knack for leadership and had groomed it.

But her? She’d been kept out of most of the politics for as long as possible. It was why she’d started spying. It was why she’d started paying servants for information and discretion. It had been the only way she could get real information.

And it had served her well. For cycles Adelina had collected information on the people of importance in her system and Nash’s. She’d paid travelers for whispers and rumors. Her other life as Lina had made that easy enough.

Then there was the information she’d gained working for Varan as a jewel thief.

Not only that, but she’d absorbed and learned as much as she could from her siblings. Raena, Goddess keep her soul, hadn’t been secretive about council meetings or the lessons she took. Giselle and Asher had always been interested in the militaristic side of things. Simply sitting in the same room while they spoke or debated, pretending to focus on her reading, had been helpful.

Even her baby brother William had taught her much about how their army worked – he’d been obsessed with the warriors from a young age, professing his desire to be one before he could even talk, and had wielded a tiny wooden sword for play.

Their father had truly done well for them. King Orion had set up a required curriculum, but then allowed them to study anything they wished on top of that. Adelina would never, ever forget what he’d done for her.

Her father had given her every tool available. All she’d had to do was take them.

It would have been so easy for him to reinforce the old gender stereotypes, but rather he’d asked them to grow past them and seek out their dreams if they could.

Adelina suspected the only reason her father had denied Giselle’s admission into the army for so long was her mother.

Goddess, she missed her father.

She opened one of the deep drawers of her vanity and eyed the books still there. The last stack her father had set aside for her before he’d died. No, before he’d succumbed to the poison Drozer had infected him with.

Despite how badly she wanted the Neprijat rebels – she also wanted peace in her small corner of the galaxy. Badly enough that she was willing to rule over a people who had killed the only male who had ever truly seen the real her from the very beginning.

She still hated them.

But emotions could not rule a queen. Adelina could not let herself stoop so low. Allowing her petty prejudice to keep her from saving three systems…it was something she’d never allow.

Adelina traced the spine of the book on the top and sighed before gently sliding the drawer closed once more.

Then she looked into the mirror.

In her rooms, she was finally alone. It had taken some convincing, but she’d told her three mates to find something useful to do and simply leave her alone for an hour.

Adelina needed to think. She needed to absorb and process everything that had happened in the last few days.

But all she could really think about was her brothers – Veri, all of them – were finally together again even if it was in a system they’d only ever heard stories about before.

What came next was terrifying, and allowing her mates to sense that wouldn’t be to anyone’s benefit. They had to be focused and ready to go the moment that beacon went off and Kaita was ready for them.

She couldn’t shove it down anymore.

Adelina needed to process. She needed a clear head for this battle, and the next. Especially after the cast P’draic had sent her. If he was right, and he said he was 99.8% sure, then there was a solution to the horde.

The demonstration had been horrendous if effective.

Sozav had assisted as well. The intel he’d provided had been invaluable. The probe had come back with footage confirming the location of the Neprijat system. As he’d said, it wasn’t much farther than Khara, simply on the other side and hidden behind layers of tech.

So many Neprijat rebels ready to fight back alongside them.

Then the following meeting with the various councils had not gone well.

Adelina stretched her neck and sighed when some of the tension released with a pop. The muscles in her shoulders were sore from holding back everything she’d wanted to say. Even after she’d called them all cowards.

The Drakesthai were the most recalcitrant. The Unchanged were peaceful so a route offering peace between them and the enemy was ideal for them. Her royal cousins had even thrown in their support – most likely they simply wanted to incur her favor, but it was all the other lords and ladies who had protested vehemently.

“And if we fall because you could not accept a helping hand because of where it came from?” she’d asked.

It had felt like her words had echoed for hours as they all stared at her.

It wasn’t their fault. They were terrified.

As was she.

None of them were stupid. A lot of their people wouldn’t make it through this and everyone had been glaring at everyone else – hoping it wouldn’t be them. Adelina had been forced to use the entire extent of her dominance simply to get everyone to keep from drawing their blades.

In the end she’d been forced to overrule them with her rank, and the support of her mates and Hand.

No one else could counter her orders.

Not with Nash the highest ranking Corinthian left while Kaita infiltrated Khara.

Not when Kaiden was a high-ranking Drakesthai prince. Somehow he’d gotten Serilda to agree – he and the Master Sealer convincing and cajoling her.

Despite her reveal regarding the rebel Neprijat, Sozav had been locked up in a private room with her queen’s guards and tech galore to keep him in. Bringing him to the meeting would have been asinine.

Adelina tugged at a curl and tilted her head, watching each motion in the mirror. She looked older. Not weary or worn, simply…older. Having seen so much in such a short time had made her wiser. Most rulers had not accomplished a fraction of what she’d managed in a few short months.

Her amethyst eyes were a tad darker than she remembered, but it could be the new makeup style as well. She’d taken to wearing her hair down with the cooler temperatures just to stay warm. It made her look different – yet kept some of her youth.

Sighing again, she removed the jewels from her neck, her ears, wrists, and finally the crown. All of them went into the velvet case waiting to be put away with the rest of her jewels. Only the bracelet Varan had made for her stayed.

The deep, blood-red dress she wore was made of sumptuous fabric that clung in all the right places until it hit her ankles and swept out onto the floor. The long sleeves covered her new marriage marks, and it kept her warm. The sweetheart neckline was more modest than she normally wore – but she’d needed them to take her seriously.

She was so disappointed.

It had been expected, but still…she was disappointed.

Her people had been the loudest protestors.

She’d seen their thoughts on their faces when she’d overruled them clear as day.

She’s too young.

Too inexperienced.

Our lives are in danger with her as our queen.

And if she was wrong about this gamble, they would be right.

No one, not even Varan, could truly understand the pressure she was under.

The only benefit to her risk thus far was the tech Sozav had shared. He’d shown them how to de-cloak the Neprijat ships. Sozav had spent hours with Ian and P’draic and Asher, telling them everything he knew. Everything from how they hid their system to the weapons they used and how their shields were built.

With this new information it would no longer take a worldbreaker to bring down a Neprijat warship. The demonstration for the councils had proven that well enough. The destruction had been absolute.

At least that had silenced most of the grumbling.

The scientists she’d asked to find solutions to her problems had been aflutter with this new information as they used it to confirm theories or scrap others. They thanked her for getting them all that data – they did not care where it came from.

To scientists the knowledge was provable or it was not. Nothing could hide from them or deceive. A few simple tests and they knew each piece of tech worked as Sozav had said – they could break it down and see how it operated, how each tiny piece functioned and what it did.

They were the only ones who’d been appreciative of what she’d accomplished.

All the others held grudges as if she too did not have something to hate the Neprijat for.

Adelina closed her eyes as the memory of the fires from her sister and father’s pyres filled her thoughts until she imagined she could feel the ash on her face, smell the smoke in the air, feel the moonlight shining down on her skin, and hear the song of mourning as her people joined them in their sorrow.

She remembered singing – alone – for Alpha, how she’d seen the first joining of her people and the Drakesthai as those winged warriors joined her song of mourning. Alpha’s death had done that.

He would not die for nothing. Her sister and father’s deaths would not be wasted if she could win this. And those babes who had perished in the bombings nearly a cycle ago would finally be avenged.

Adelina never wanted to have to walk the streets with wailing mothers begging her to find their children again. Even if they happened to have grey skin and black eyes.

Thankfully Sozav’s rebellion had been treading carefully for nearly a century now. Their communications system was simple, yet effective. The rebels aboard the horde ships would gather the innocents and those willing to fight for Adelina, to live under her rule.

Other rebels in the Khara System would take ships and pick up the escape pods.

It was a risk. The moment they moved, Kaita’s cover would be blown. So it had to wait until the beacon was lit. The second they got the signal she was ready, encrypted transmissions would be sent as her armada moved on Khara.

Adelina reapplied her makeup, hiding how tired she was. The day was still young and she had much to do yet.

Voices from the main living space reached her. Her mates had agreed to leave her alone for the hour she needed – but they’d refused to go far. It made her smile slightly as she heard Varan and Nash argue about the best sauce for the meat Kaiden was cooking.

How all three knew how to prepare a meal was beyond her.

“I told you the chili honey would go best,” Nash argued, his voice growing louder in indignation. “Because of the breading Kaiden’s putting on the fowl.”

“That’s far too sweet. My winterberry sauce is tart enough to offset the savory meat,” Varan said with a snort. “Are you trying to rot all our teeth out?”

“Why are you so insistent about your damn winterberries?”

A cupboard slammed and glass thunked. Adelina assumed Varan had gotten out his stash of liquor which sounded divine just then. “Because mate, it goes with the liquor in ways your barbarian tongue could never understand.”

Adelina could practically feel Nash roll his eyes. Then Kaiden’s wings made a snapping sound in irritation. “If both of you can’t shut your traps and fix the vegetables I’m kicking you out.”

Nash and Varan grumbled but then she heard sounds of preparation and her heart felt full.

She had truly doubted they would ever reach this point. Nash had been so resistant, but now he was making up for it in spades. It may take him a long time to make a decision but once he did, he was completely dedicated.

War sped up the timeline of things that may have taken months or cycles in peacetime. It was the sense of urgency, the knowledge that this could all end at any moment and therefore they had to enjoy what they could right now, or suffer the consequences.

Adelina trailed her fingers over the crown in the still open case, one of the sets Ian had brought from the Official Collection of Draga Royal Jewels. A queen who’d ruled alone for two centuries of peace, a thousand cycles before her own reign, had it commissioned.

Ian knew her better than it might appear to outsiders.

Then Sozav and Asher had contacted the more reclusive Neprijat rebels. The ones who lived in secret on hidden outposts, ships traveling aimlessly through space, or moons and planets that were mostly abandoned. That was where the strong females were sent, where they lived like their ancestors had – with females leading them, teaching the warriors to have honor and mercy…

Adelina had a to-do list meters long for when she finally had a moment to settle down and deal with all that she’d learned and collected since starting this journey.

She wanted to speak with the Unchanged for longer than a meeting meant to cow them into obedience. She wanted to visit the two planets they ruled.

Perhaps she could visit the other Drakesthai planets while the physicians worked on improving their fertility.

Then the Neprijat. What could she learn about them? Adelina wanted to sit down with their females and ask millions of questions. Perhaps she could visit their system and help them rebuild.

And then there was the embarrassment of her forefathers – Brogna. The tiny system of only three planets with a sun so small it didn’t even have a proper name. The system and its people had been mostly ignored for the last five hundred cycles. As long as they paid their taxes on time kings had been content to ignore them.

Nothing had been done to help those people either, and at some point they’d amassed a small army they were not supposed to have.

Adelina hadn’t asked too many details about that when she’d met with the male who called himself Chancellor. He was the unofficial ruler of Brogna and had come to her aid when she’d practically begged on the recording she’d sent off weeks ago. A messenger on the smallest, fastest ship she could spare had managed to give them the chance to fight another day.

Despite how his people had been treated the chancellor had been extremely easygoing, accepting her thanks for saving what remained of the Draga Royal Army and its armada with a shrug and a low bow.

She owed their system much. Adelina would not forget them when this was over. They would be at the top of her list along with the promises she’d made to the Drakesthai. A visit to Brogna would help her decide what they needed to have access to the best opportunities.

Adelina wanted her people happy. All of them.

But only after they won this war.

The Neprijat rebels would be at the coordinates Asher had sent soon, thankfully. Their tech was far better than anything Khara, Draga, or Hai possessed.

But they had to go around the Khara System, on the other side of Draga to keep from being detected. Some were going under, but really it was all a risk. At any moment a loyal Neprijat patrol could see them and then report it to those in charge.

Sozav had explained how the ranking went for the Neprijat to Asher, but she’d tuned it out once everything had been set into motion. Adelina could only do so much. And once orders had been given, they didn’t need her until the beacon was lit.

Once the Neprijat arrived she would speak with them if they had the time, but the task of dealing with them had been delegated to Asher.

After the war…there was so much she had to do after the war.

Her hour was nearly up. Soon Adelina would have to put that crown back on and deal with everyone who looked to her. Closing the case she stood, making sure her legs were steady once more. Then she took the case and entered her closet.

The time for gowns was done. At least for now. Adelina could not afford any more frippery when her instincts were telling her that soon…sooner than all of them probably expected, it would be time.

She placed her golden palm on the door to her inner vault and it slid aside with a hiss, revealing other cases full of jewels and valuables. Adelina hadn’t brought much – most of it she’d left with her new mother-in-law on Anarr for safekeeping.

Then she slipped off her wedding rings – all three of them. Adelina had left the diamond Nash had given her in its raw form. Smoothing those edges…that wasn’t how Nash was. His edges would never be smoothed, but he was devotedly hers and the diamond still sparkled with the same shining love he possessed for her.

The blue diamond Kaiden had given her went next to it, and then she paused longest on the emerald shaped diamond Varan had given her on that balcony when they both thought they’d only live together as friends, tolerating the marriage they’d felt forced into by honor and circumstance.

That one sparkled the most. Varan had Calix cut it no doubt. No other had the skill to make it glow with the same inner fire in such a difficult shape.

Adelina would not lose her mates in this war. She would not.

Her signet ring came off next and went into the official blackwood box with the royal crest carved into it.

A flick of her nails and the clasps on her gown came undone. All she had left were her golden marks that now graced her spine with room to tell the tale of this war if they managed to survive. The marriage bands on her arm – not just for Nash, but also for Kaiden and Varan.

Those two had gotten them as well. Each even sported a thin band representing the other two males – signifying their bond through her.

Tears filled her eyes and she slipped on the silk footed-leggings, and then the tight breast band that would hold them down as she fought in battle.

Her personal crest on her back had been her first symbol of independence, as had the vine of jasmine framing her breasts in the same glittering gold – a testament to how far she’d come.

Then she put on the long-sleeved silk shirt. The layer under her armor would keep her warm and protect her skin. Adelina took her specially made spidersilk armor from the hanger and stepped into it, avoiding her reflection in the long mirror at the end of the closet.

She ignored what felt like endless frilly gowns she adored – that she may never get to wear again.

The armor hung loosely on her frame until she tapped the crest on her breast, activating it. The entire thing shrunk to hug every curve, conforming perfectly. The tech in her armor scanned her body and then adjusted the position of the reinforced panels to protect her vital organs and weak spots.

Adelina stepped into her boots and clicked her heels so those would seal to her armor. Adjusting the bracelet to fit over the wrist of her suit she nodded to herself, satisfied with the position. The gauntlet was on her left arm instead of the right as she’d requested. Tapping in her code it connected her to all the other active suits of armor being worn, asking her if she’d like to connect to any of the available casts.

Flicking her finger to decline, Adelina finally turned to the mirror and inspected her appearance as she gathered her mass of hair, twisting it into a tight, efficient braid that would hold regardless of what she was doing and fit into her helmet when it was activated.

The spidersilk armor was purest black with gold accents. The scrollwork featured wolves and roses, but they weren’t the gentle creatures seen on so many royal outfits. They were snarling, vicious, and full of teeth. The rose petals had sharp edges and the thorns appeared deadly.

But that wasn’t the most glorious aspect of the armor created for her. They’d taken time out from producing non-stop to outfit all their allies, replace mechas, and repair everything needed to wage war for her to make a masterpiece.

What was truly awe-inspiring was the crown they’d created for her. It was a magnificent piece of tech hidden in a spiky, gold crown that wrapped around her head. The crown glittered in the same gold that marked her forehead. That shone on her suit of armor. But the brutality of its design was made for war.

The helmet, when activated, would seal around her head, allowing the crown to remain while still protecting her from the vacuum of space and any Neprijat trying to command her will.

No jewels. No frills.

Just her armor and a sharp, brutal crown to indicate her rank.

Battle was upon them.

And she was ready for it.

“Adelina?” Nash asked from her doorway. She could tell by his voice something had happened.

“Yes?” she asked, grabbing her gloves and tucking them in one of the hidden pockets.

Adelina reached for her plasma blades next and the armor clicked as they settled into place on her back. The rest of her weapons snicked into place at her hips. A particularly nasty set of knives attached to her boots.

“A recording from your mother has arrived.”

When she entered her room all three of her mates stood in her doorway.

“Eat before you go,” Kaiden insisted.

Adelina nodded, taking the plate he offered. She would eat. Because her gut was telling her there wouldn’t be much time to do so later.

The recording from her mother wasn’t what made her stomach roil in anticipation though. Something else was waiting for her.

And she would be as ready as she could when it finally came.