Chapter One
Chapter One
Dragon Warrior Jecca Tesera was considered something of an expert when it came to dealing with wild animals.
After traveling to countless planets across the universe, she’d encountered plenty of ferocious beasts in a variety of shapes, sizes, and temperaments. Since she had a natural ability to connect to even the strangest beings, she never feared who or what she would encounter when venturing into the unknown. She could sense their intentions, so she knew when they were friendly and when to keep her distance. She also had two of the most fierce argos ever to exist who accompanied her during her travels, but they were more companions than pets.
The only creature she had ever failed to successfully tame was her own twin, Jaya.
That was undoubtedly true, but it didn’t bother either of them. Jecca was more reserved than her twin, but she loved the fact that Jaya was a wild and uninhibited soul. While she adored her twin’s carefree nature, she didn’t care for some of the ridiculous situations she found herself in because of her sister’s impulsive decisions.
Jaya’s latest impulse had them hurtling toward a new game world they’d recently heard about. They both loved visiting new planets and spent most of their time exploring the stars and studying different worlds. Even if the new planetoid sounded fascinating, Jecca would have preferred to go somewhere remote for a little peace and quiet instead.
But that would have to wait.
They had just spent the last several weeks enjoying a long visit on Tartarus with their beloved cousin, Katra Tesera, her mate, Lord Jaden Tor, and their new twin babies. Their other cousins, Xavier and Galan, had also created a home on Tartarus with their bonded brothers, Thorn and Brydan Volis, and their shared mate, Alexis.
The group had planned to head back home to Arcadia to introduce their parents to the new babies but had decided to postpone their visit after discovering that Alexis was pregnant again. Even though she was a Dragon Warrior now, she hadn’t gotten over some of her human sensibilities. Because they knew Alexis preferred to have the babies in what she considered their home, her mates insisted on waiting until after the birth before they returned to their home world.
Not willing to wait to meet their new cousins, Jecca and her sister had decided to visit them instead. Tartarus had been an interesting planet to explore. The civil war that had been waged there had turned the tide to make necessary changes for the advancement of their race. Having a group of Dragon Warriors living there freely using magic had sped up the development process quite a bit, though it was still considered a rather primitive world.
Despite that, the dark, otherwise barbaric land had its own appeal. It was particularly interesting since Tartarus was the type of undeveloped world they usually circumvented having direct contact with. It was vital to avoid revealing themselves to races that weren’t deemed ready to interact with magical beings. However, after Katra had discovered she was mated to a Tarin lord, there was no reason for the rest of the Dragon Warriors to keep their distance.
Outsiders weren’t able to tell that the Teseras had royal blood, but titles rarely mattered when it came to other worlds. They were a loud and boisterous group, and it was always a nonstop celebration whenever they got together. Add in a horde of Tarin warriors, and it had turned into complete and utter chaos.
Jecca had enjoyed spending time with everyone, especially the babies, but now she wanted some quiet time to herself in order to recharge. She’d tried to find some solitude while she’d been on Tartarus, but the babies hadn’t liked her leaving their sight for too long. Magical babies could be pretty demanding, but they were so adorable that it didn’t matter. Even though they were spoiled, they were kind, caring souls who would one day grow up to be honorable warriors.
After they had left Tartarus, Jecca had intended to take a break on a small uninhabited planet while Jaya headed directly to the human home world. It had been many years since they had last visited Earth, and they were both eager to see what had changed over the centuries.
Hearing about the new game world had changed their plans.
Jecca had to admit that the idea of a planetoid that had been terraformed with magic and integrated with the latest technology was too intriguing to ignore. They were still in the process of something called beta testing the new game world that had been named Evo. While it wasn’t open to the masses yet, a group of individuals had been invited to Evo to begin evaluating the new setup.
That gave Jecca and Jaya the perfect opportunity to join in the fun.
Instead of an affinity for animals, Jaya had developed a peculiar sense of insight. While she was often reckless and got them into some pretty strange situations, there was usually a reason for whatever path she steered them toward. It might not become evident right away, but things usually worked out for the best.
“We are almost there.”
Jecca didn’t bother to open her eyes as her sister joined her in the lounge. She was resting on an oversized chair with her legs propped up on the cushioned window seat with her two argos curled up together sleeping at her feet. Roko and Aki enjoyed staring out the windows at the bright stars, planets, and colorful gas clouds, but they quickly lost interest whenever their ship was traveling through the unending darkness. If they were napping, they had the ability to completely ignore the twins no matter how loud they were.
But if danger was close by, they would wake ready to attack.
Jecca rubbed her bare feet against Roko and Aki’s backs, and they both let out rumbling purrs of contentment even as they continued to sleep. She’d heard the excitement in her sister’s voice and had already sensed their vessel drawing closer to the planetoid. They still had a few hours before they reached their destination, but they only needed a few minutes to get ready before they transported themselves down to the surface, so they weren’t in a hurry.
Normally, they didn’t have a problem landing on an unknown planet. They would just pick a remote spot and make sure they kept their vessel shielded from view. In this instance, they had decided not to land because they didn’t want to draw any attention to their arrival. Since they weren’t sure what technology the planetoid was equipped with, they didn’t want to chance disrupting anything or setting off any alarms.
Jecca sighed as she felt her sister squeeze herself onto the lounge chair next to her instead of claiming her own seat. Since she was used to her antics, she simply used her magic to expand the chair to comfortably fit them both rather than complain. When something soft brushed against her face, she finally opened her eyes. Her brows furrowed in confusion when she saw a pair of glassy eyes, then she scowled when she realized what she was staring at.
As her sister shook the small stuffed penguin in front of her face, Jecca reached up to grab it and tucked the little toy in the crook of her arm. “Why in all the worlds did you steal your nephew’s favorite toy?”
“I did not steal it, and he has hundreds of favorites,” Jaya scoffed. “This one is rather cute, though.”
“Why do you have it?”
“Gideon gave it to me.”
“Gave it to you?” Jecca repeated suspiciously.
“Well, it was actually a trade. He offered it in exchange for one of my moon daggers.”
Jecca turned her head to shoot her twin an incredulous look. With their glowing silver eyes and similar facial features, it was like looking in a mirror. The only distinction was that Jecca kept her long black hair natural, while Jaya liked to change the color of hers on the regular. Right now, it was a pale silver that made it look like the strands had been dipped in liquid metal.
She let out a groan. “You gave a blade to a baby?”
“Of course not. I gave Gideon and Kadan harmless replicas.”
The moon daggers they both carried were made of an iridescent crystal they’d found on a moon of a distant planet. The crystal was one of the strongest natural substances they’d ever come across, and it was an excellent source material for weapons. Besides the knives, they also had swords and throwing darts made out of the gemstone. Although none of them were appropriate gifts for toddlers, at least magical replicas wouldn’t hurt them.
As Jaya snuggled closer, Jecca sighed again. Whenever her sister was being this blatantly affectionate, she’d either done something she knew Jecca wouldn’t like, or she wanted something. Instead of asking, she simply waited her sister out.
It didn’t take long before Jaya broke and said, “Our brother contacted us while you were sleeping.”
“Which one?”
“Braxas.”
That made Jecca wince. Malachi and Braxas were their older brothers and the Crown Princes of the Palace on the Isle of Mist. Both of them were extreme hard asses, except when it came to their mate, but Braxas was the most difficult to deal with. It would have been much better if their younger brothers, Riko and Nox, had contacted them, but they were usually too busy causing mischief to spend time with their sisters.
“What did Braxas want?”
“He wants us to come home, of course. And he wanted to know if we have any more information about the race behind the recent attacks within this area.”
“Did you tell him we are planning to speak with Amari Nazira about that once we get to Earth?”
“Aye, I did. But he is concerned due to another report of an attack near the Ziturri home world.”
The significance of that made her turn more fully toward her sister. “Who reported it? How many ships? Did they discover anything new?”
Instead of explaining, Jaya used their mind bond to directly send her all the information about the attack. Unfortunately, the Dragon Warriors who had reported the incident had destroyed the enemy vessels before they could get any information. Not that Jecca blamed them. When a Dragon Warrior was attacked, their retaliation was swift and deadly.
However, that wasn’t the most interesting part of the exchange. When she had shared the information with her, Jecca had sensed her sister was hiding something. “Spill it.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
Jecca used her fingertip to poke her sister in the forehead. “What are blocking me from seeing?”
Jaya rolled her eyes, then finally admitted, “I pretended to be you during the call since Braxas does not lecture you as much as he does me.”
That made Jecca chuckle. Switching places had been something they’d done often as younglings to trick their parents and older brothers. It didn’t work when they were in the same room together, but if there was only one of them around, they could make it work.
“He is just showing his concern.”
“He is just being a big pain in the ass,” Jaya countered. “He still blames me for the whole wormhole incident. It is not like I flew us into the damned thing on purpose.”
They had been on their way to meet their cousins when Jaya had accidentally flown their vessel into a wormhole. Their vessel was magically protected and programmed to avoid such anomalies, but the pull of that particular wormhole had been a lot stronger than anything they had encountered before. That had obviously caused an unexpected delay in their plans, but it had turned out to be an interesting experience since they had ended up in a part of the universe that hadn’t been discovered yet.
At least, not by any Dragon Warriors according to the historical records.
While it had been fascinating to explore the new territory, most of the worlds on the other end of the wormhole had been barren, desolate places. The few inhabited planets they had found were too young and the natives too primitive to establish contact with just yet. Jecca and Jaya had explored those worlds a bit, but they’d made sure to conceal their presence so the civilizations could continue to develop undisturbed.
There was a planet that seemed similar to Earth, but they were still close to their infancy phases of space travel, so it was best to leave them be for the time being. They had also discovered an intriguing world that was home to magical beings that could shift into different forms. The shifters had been in the middle of a brutal civil war, so the sisters had decided it was best to simply observe from afar.
Since Jecca and Jaya spent the majority of their time traveling the vast universe, it was a steadfast rule that they check in with their parents and brothers back home periodically. But because of the distance and other obstructions in space, the wormhole had made that impossible. Even using their magic, their communication system had been blocked for several long months.
Their brothers and cousins had almost lost their minds when they hadn’t been able to reach them. They’d already started to search for them when Jecca and Jaya had finally been able to reach them. Malachi and Braxas had demanded they return to Arcadia immediately. They had also threatened to come find them and drag them home personally, which had been utterly ridiculous.
Thankfully, their parents hadn’t been as freaked out about the whole thing and had been able to calm the brothers down. Of course, their mother and fathers had been worried as well, but they trusted that Jecca and Jaya could handle themselves.
Since the sisters weren’t able to return using the same wormhole, they’d had to take a longer route back. That wasn’t much of a hardship, though. It actually gave them a chance to resume their original plans to visit Tartarus, Earth, and several other places before they returned home.
Malachi and Braxas weren’t very pleased about the delay, but they would just have to deal with it. Jecca thought that they should be more concerned about their younger brothers than wasting time worrying about her and her sister. Riko and Nox had been a little too interested in the exact location of the wormhole for comfort. She wouldn’t be surprised if the troublemakers headed directly to it once they were allowed to travel on their own.
Thankfully, they were a little too young for that just yet.
Reading her thoughts, Jaya snorted in derision. “You really think that is going to stop them?”
“You think they will sneak off planet to check it out?”
“Of course, they will. Riko and Nox are too much like me to doubt it.”
Jecca chuckled. “You are right. We will all have to be very diligent watching over them.”
“That will not stop them.” Jaya glanced out the window. “I think the planetoid should be coming into view soon. If my calculations are correct, that should be Evo.” She pointed toward a planetoid hovering close to a blue star in the distance.
“It is a lot smaller than I expected.”
Jaya hummed in agreement. “That is a good thing.”
“I agree. It will only take us a few days to explore the entire world instead of weeks. We should be able to check things out quickly without causing a disturbance, then be on our way to our next destination.”
Jaya rested her head on Jecca’s shoulder. “We can only hope…”
That sounded slightly ominous. “What exactly does that mean?”
“It means our plans have a funny way of changing when we least expect it.”
“I think you just jinxed us.”
“Nay, I think you did, as you are the one who declared it would be a quick trip.”
Jecca sighed. That was probably true. If it ended up being a long, arduous expedition, she had no one to blame but herself.