Queen Celene, Aleran Dungeon

      This newest prison cell they transported me to was in Mytikas. I couldn’t see outside, as there were no windows in the square room, but I knew what home smelled like, even after all these years.

      The Aleran flowers that surrounded the citadel grew randomly throughout the city in a multitude of colors. The petals close to the honored building were nearly translucent and delicate. But farther away, they changed based on the environment in a way our scientists had never understood.

      I knew it was the citadel itself that made them change, that they were part of the consciousness of the intelligence that designed them. Strange as it sounded, they were the citadel’s nerves within the city.

      And their scent was unmistakable. Sweet. Comforting.

      Home. It smelled like home.

      A fresh set of clothing awaited me once more, and I didn’t bother arguing, changing quickly into what looked like the uniform of a low-level cleric. The basic black pants were comfortable, the white, silver and black pattern on the tunic symmetrical on the outside. Within, it was soft and warm. Thank the goddess they were warm. The dress they’d made me wear on the spaceship for a while had been thin and cold.

      But then, making me uncomfortable seemed to be part of their plan. Until now. For included with the uniform were a thick pair of socks and comfortable boots.

      I could have been preparing for a walk in the mountains with my husband on Earth.

      Adam Jones. I missed him. Knew he was so far away. Unreachable. The emptiness inside me was even more profound than when my Aleran mate, the king, had been murdered.

      That had been a young love. Passionate, but short-lived. We’d only been mated a few months when the attack occurred. When he’d been killed, and I fled Alera for Earth.

      I’d mourned my mate and what could have been, what should have been. Time softened the ache and the goddess had put Adam in my path. A surprising twist in my destiny. With Adam, our love had been aged by years of struggle and shared victory. By raising three daughters. By life. He was part of me, and the longer I sat, isolated by my captors, the more my thoughts turned not to saving Alera, but to him.

      I would leave Alera when the time came, step down and allow Trinity and her sisters to lead if that’s what I had to do to feel his arms around me once more. If