Excerpt

Kolina Steelscale stood on the tower platform overlooking the island of Aeleftheria Nisi spread out before her. A collection of villages lay strung along the coastline, stretching inland and joining, until one city nestled against the base of the queen's citadel.

Dragon shifters and humans alike, all female, living and working together, maintaining the harmony of the archipelago civilization hidden in the vast Atlantic Ocean, deep in the region known to the rest of the world as the Bermuda Triangle.

She stood, hands resting behind her back with her fingers curled around a locket, feet planted shoulder-width apart, monitoring the comings and goings below, as well as the increased patrol progress above. Swallowing a lump in her throat, she straightened her spine, pushing away intrusive thoughts of her daughter.

That will do you no good, Kolina.

Three dark spots in the sky approached in a uniform arc, growing larger until Kolina could make out the shape of their wings, supporting their glittering scale-covered bodies through the air.

She rubbed a thumb over the etched surface of the locket in her grasp once more before tucking it into her pocket. She used the few seconds before they landed to tie her long, graying, dark hair back from her face.

They came in fast, and banked hard, pushing the air into chaotic eddies of turbulence that twisted across the open deck of the platform. Kolina closed her eyes against the kick-up of dust, but not before she caught the flash of color adorning the claws of the left-wing guardian.

The currents settled. She opened her eyes and raised a brow, but otherwise waited patiently for the three to land, shift from their dragon to human form, and grab their robes from the change room.

"Aunt Kolina," the one approaching addressed her.

Kolina looked pointedly at the color glittering on her finger and toenails, visible above her open-toed sandals. "I thought you and Kymri didn't get along."

Zayli snorted. "Cousin-rivalry. We may not get along all the time, but we're still kin." Besides, I miss her, and nail polish is her thing."

"You miss pushing her buttons," Kolina said, turning to walk along the parapet and not toward the inner guardian offices. "I suppose some of the others aren't making it easy for you?"

Zayli shrugged. "I ignore it." She followed Kolina around toward another platform on the south side of the tower.

"How is it out there?"

"You've read the reports."

Kolina nodded. "And?"

Zayli sighed. "It's storm season, so everyone's exhausted with the extra patrol duty. Tempers are flaring more than usual. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, or anything more than I report to my commander. Why are you here?"

Kolina stopped walking at the blunt question.

"Has Marli returned to the island, or has anyone left to meet with her and Kymri?"

Zayli shook her head. "No one would dare, without Queen Regina's permission or command. What's going on?" She dropped her voice.

Kolina drew a deep breath, debating what to say to her niece—if anything at all. After a moment, she looked back toward the horizon and blew out a breath. "I don't know. At least, not yet."

"But something's wrong?" Zayli straightened, alert. "I haven't seen you concerned in a long time."

Kolina nodded. It wasn't something she could put a finger—or a claw—to. Not yet. It was a pitched vibration almost unnoticed. Almost. Like a dog whistle. Inaudible, but at the right pitch to slide under her scales and ride the nape of her neck.

"If you feel something, you'll tell me. Report it to your commander, of course, but report to me too. Anything out of place. Your commander won't ask it of the guardians under her orders. It isn't her style. But I want every dragoness, of every squad, reporting what they can't see, hear, taste or smell, too."

Zayli frowned. "Yes, aunt."

Kolina sighed and softened a fraction, reaching out her hand to touch her niece's shoulder; something that before Kymri's absence, she'd have never done.

Things had changed.

"I know there is a lot of tension between everyone. Between you and others, because of Kymri. Our duty to our queen's safety is above that."

Zayli snorted. "You don't have to tell me that. I know all about duty." She did nothing to mask the acid in her tone.

Kolina nodded.

Zayli was the one that always pushed the 'duty' line and had been right there supporting Kolina when she'd talked to Kymri about hers. "Is that all, Aunt?"

"Yes. Thank you."

Zayli turned at the next open archway leading toward the interior of the tower and strode down it in the direction of her quarters.

Offspring.

It was the one area of Kymri's life that she'd refused to fulfill.

And now, the long-standing peaceful island was struggling to keep from slipping into chaos.

Kymri's resistance to her duty to have young had pushed her into a heat that resulted in poor judgment choices.

Kolina sighed. She couldn't blame Kymri for the recent attacks from the male dragon tribe, but everyone else did. The object of her heat, Jori Mountainside, had unknowingly led them right to the island, threatening the safety of both the queen and the rest of the population.

Now, they were all on high alert to fend off more attacks from the much larger dragons.

More would come.

They all knew it.

And there'd been no more information from Kymri or Marli since Marli's sparse report arrived from the continent.

All they knew was that Kymri and Jori were alive, as was Elora—Jori's mother and the queen's trusted ambassador—who'd disappeared several decades before, and that the Dragon King was dead.

But that wouldn't stop his radicalized followers from carrying on his ideology and attacking the female-populated island to take control.

None of them would allow that to happen, but given how much larger male dragons were than female—it wouldn't be easy. The queen's guardians were all highly trained warriors. They'd die for their queen and people.

Why hasn't Kymri come back?

Kolina stepped into the frame of her long-time friend Launia's open office door.

Launia glanced up from the reports she scowled over, lips quirking at the corners. "I wondered how long before you graced my threshold."

"Well, you know, the queen likes to keep me busy." She brushed the hair from her face, tilting her nose toward the ceiling.

Launia snorted at Kolina's affectation of self-importance, reminding both of them of some of their island sorority. Her eyes twinkled, and the severity of the worry lines creasing her forehead eased. Then she raised a brow. "Are you here officially, or personally?"

"Both." Kolina closed the office door and approached Launia's desk, resting a haunch on the corner as she looked down at her friend and colleague.

Launia eased back in her seat, folding her hands across her lap as she eyed Kolina. "Reports are unchanged. The guardians are exhausted."

Kolina nodded. "I spoke to Zayli." She repeated what she asked of Zayli.

Launia's gaze narrowed on Kolina, worrying a lip as she considered her request.

"That bad, huh?"

"Maybe. That's the problem. I just don't know. The queen has been…different, since Kymri left. Everything feels different."

"Or you're not sleeping enough and are worrying about your youngling."

"Who isn't so young anymore. Not for a long time."

Launia snorted again, brow rising higher as she studied Kolina again.

Kolina sighed. "I know. You don't have to say it." Kolina knew full well how much she had interfered in Kymri's life.

And she was sure that was the reason Kymri had resisted her duty to produce offspring for so long, until her biology hadn't given her a choice.

Kymri: Independent, stubborn, loyal.

Gone.

For weeks now.

She stood, pacing the length of Launia's heavy, ornately carved wood desk. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't pushed Kymri so hard, she'd still be here, carrying her child in the safety of our island home, the male dragon tribe never having found us."

"Don't do that. Kolina, we all knew they'd find us one day. It was always just a matter of when. And Jori Mountainside's arrival would have happened regardless of any family squabbles between you and your daughter."

Kolina abruptly changed topics. "I can't believe Elora is alive."

Launia blinked, nodding. "And Odson never said a word about it. Maybe that's why the queen is unsettled."

Kolina's gaze darted back to Launia's face, heart twisting in her chest. "Odson Blackridge has always been a wild card." She considered the circumstances of his withholding that information for so long. "But I understand why he kept that secret from her—why Elora asked it of him."

Kolina knew too well what it was to have to make hard choices to protect a son, unwanted by their society.

Many of the dragonesses on this island did.