Prologue #2
Zsekhet glanced over his shoulder, his golden scales glittering in the exact same way as the dragon’s massive scales did.
Dark hair and black horns made him stand out among his peers, but something else did too: Zsekhet had a zest for life that drew people to him.
I’d been told he’d used that to his advantage when seducing his mate, Cosima.
There was a twinkle that flared briefly in his golden gaze, there and gone again.
I was pretty sure I’d imagined the wink entirely.
With a whooshing noise, he faced forward, and the dragon leaped.
We raced skyward with a rush of wind, my hair whipping wildly around my face.
Some of the naga hunters weren’t so fond of flying, clinging with tight fists to the flight harness or the spikes that lined Sesethul’s massive back.
Others did not mind, but I had a feeling most naga much preferred having their feet—or, er… tail—on solid ground.
Joxra had slapped the tip of his tail over the hand holding my bow to keep it from flying from my grip.
He let go when the dragon leveled off, and I twisted to warn him that I had it.
“I can hold my own, got it?” This wasn’t going to work if he and the others were just going to hover protectively around me.
They had respect for my skills with the bow during practice, and they’d respected them when we had rescued those on the crashed ship.
I’d been one of the few sent into the ship, even; that wasn’t a job for the faint of heart.
He dropped his tail, and the bow caught the full force of the wind just like the rest of me did.
But I had it, I did. There was no way I’d let my best weapon slip from my grip.
Joxra didn’t take offense, or if he did, he didn’t show it.
His red face tilted into the rush of wind the dragon’s wings pummeled into submission with each downward stroke.
His copper-tinted hair was restrained by braids and beads, and some of those decorations looked deceptively sharp.
He was handsome; there was no denying it.
When I looked forward, appraising the hunters in various shades clinging to Sesethul’s back, I had to admit they all were.
Some more rugged than others, but all exotic and powerful.
There wasn’t a single guy here who was out of shape, and they were all incredibly skilled with their chosen weapons.
I knew because I’d watched them spar. They even sparred with Kalani sometimes, but I wasn’t brave enough for that.
Yet none of them were my mate, and I was happy with that too. Unlike the girls who’d been rescued with me three months earlier, they’d already come around and now actively hoped one of the guys would be theirs. This new group, recently awakened from stasis, would be exactly the same in no time.
The flight was longer than I recalled, yet it was short at the same time.
My heart rate soared when the crashed ship came into view in the distance.
It didn’t look the same as last time, which had only been three days ago.
More and more snow had begun to melt as the temperatures rose.
Spring was in full swing now, but last week, it had still felt like winter stubbornly persisted.
With much of the bulk of the ship no longer covered in snow, it looked like a great black monument sticking oddly out of the purple-hued plains.
Hills rolled toward it from one side, covered in dense forest. It was the direction we’d come from, and I knew this was where the group that had remained behind had made their camp.
I searched for any sign of them but saw no smoke rising from campfires.
Leaning to the side, I peered down Sesethul’s flank at the ground rapidly passing beneath us as he descended.
The forest was a little more open here, and I was pretty sure I saw the glitter of blue scales. Was that an ally or an enemy?
“Thunder Rock warriors, but only a handful,” Joxra murmured.
“There are several Sun Fang to the east,” he said, pointing.
I followed his hand and saw what he’d seen: more scales, these a more muted brown but glittering with orange flecks.
Those had to be Sun Fang, allies that had been part of the party that had rescued me last winter.
Something had changed, and they’d flipped sides…
I was not the only one leaning to the side to get a good look.
There did not appear to be any fighting going on, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t already happened.
As fast as Sesethul had flown, it had still been well over an hour before we’d gotten here.
How quickly had the group with the ship called for aid?
In time for us to arrive before anyone was injured?
The dragon landed beside the ship, out in the open by the partially rebuilt palisade that surrounded the airlock.
They’d been busy, and had perhaps moved their camp behind these walls after we’d left three days earlier.
It looked in disarray from the outside, the wood scorched from earlier fights and splintered by arrows and spears in places.
When Corin led a group out through the crooked gate to greet us, I knew we all drew a breath of relief.
I was one of the first to have my buckles undone and slide to the ground. My bow was at the ready as I went to greet Corin’s mate, Min-Ji. She peered at me in surprise from behind the raised coils of his silvery-blue tail. “What are you doing here, Jasmine?” she asked, drawing all eyes my way.
The ground rocked beneath my feet, a shuddering, wavy sort of feeling that was hard to put into words.
For a split second, I thought it was the dragon’s doing, his tail whipping wildly against the ground behind his body.
Then recognition sizzled through my brain.
“Earthquake!” I screamed before the rest of the warriors could climb down.
“It’s an earthquake!” I flung my hands at Zsekhet, still mounted at the base of Sesethul’s neck. “Take off! Take off now!”
He did not hesitate, screaming for the males to hold on as he made the beast leap into the air.
I tumbled as the ground rocked again, the rumbling fiercer this time.
It occurred to me then that fighting was the least of our worries.
This earthquake was going to send the superstitious attackers running, but if it got any worse…
these plains might become unstable. I’d only just thought that when the quake came in full force.
Corin was ordering everyone into the ship, and I struggled to find my footing and do the same.
The palisade opening was up ahead, the airlock not far beyond it.
The ship would be safe; it was made to withstand escaping a planet’s atmosphere and traveling faster than the speed of light.
It might sink, but the earthquake would not harm it.
I pumped my feet, my hands holding tightly to my bow and my backpack.
The quiver of arrows thumped heavily against my hip with each step I took across the bucking, seesawing ground.
“Jasmine!” Joxra shouted, and his tail slammed into me, crushing me to the ground.
Arrows sailed over my head, a spear piercing the ground uncomfortably close to my hand.
I rolled and saw another wave of projectiles sailing down toward me, right as the ground opened up and swallowed me whole. There was only darkness after that.