Reena took a long sip of the lukewarm tea her father had made for her. It had been piping hot when he’d brought it to her, but after she’d finished with her story, it had stopped steaming.  

She told them everything. Bast and Hermes’ great battle in the house. The wild trek to Epic Center. Mica’s horrifying fall, and Bast’s first dragon transformation, along with all the visions she’d seen. The Ikroza. The armor. The kholakele and the nanto and the fiery arrow that stopped them both.  

Jasper hadn’t spoken at all. Neither had Auntie Kay.  

Finally, when she had finished, the two adults looked at each other in dread and dismay.  

“Extraordinary,” Auntie Kay murmured and sat back in her chair.  

“You could have been killed.” Jasper ran his hands into his hair. “Sareena, you will turn my hair gray.” 

Reena held his hand. “Is it true, Dad? Are we actually royalty?” 

He squeezed. “Yes. My father, your grandfather, was the King of the planet Mercury.” 

“Arawelo?” Reena smirked.  

“Arawelo.” He bowed his head with a smile. “I was destined for the throne, and my sister Hani was selected to protect the royal family of the empire, the Inyanga Bukhosi.”  

“The Queen Under the Moon.” Reena glanced at Auntie Kay. “That’s what Bast said.” 

“Queen Aiyetoro.” Auntie Kay looked down at her hands. “My mother.” 

Reena sat up. “So it’s you. You’re the one I vowed to protect with my life?” 

Jasper shifted with an uncomfortable sigh. “Yes, you would have done that, wouldn’t you?” 

Reena held up the pink jewel. “I had to make an epic vow, Dad. It was like something out of a comic book or a fantasy movie.” 

Auntie Kay chuckled. “You have been so brave, Sareena. I knew you were strong, but you have shown yourself so much stronger than I expected.” She shut her eyes. “I am sorry we did not know it was you. We would have made many different decisions had we known.” 

Auntie Kay’s eyes shone in the sunlight of the living room, sparkling with unshed tears. Auntie Kay wouldn’t cry, of course. She never cried.  

Reena slid off the couch and flung her arms around Auntie Kay’s neck, holding her tightly.  

“I love you, Auntie Kay,” she said. “Stop apologizing. You both did the best you could.” 

“Speaking of.” Jasper sighed. “We ought to check the Ikroza.” 

“Yes.” Auntie Kay released Reena and stood. “Not that I doubt your capability, zintanda, but the system is complex if I remember correctly.” 

Reena smiled up at her. “I understand. And you really can’t get there without the jewel?”  

Jasper nodded. “Yes, we are depending on you.” 

Reena took a deep breath and cupped the jewel in her hands as Bast scurried up to her shoulder. “Let’s see if I can do this again.” 

She shut her eyes and concentrated, the jewel in her hands pulsing in time with her heart. She focused on the base orbiting the planet, its sounds and its shape and its scent.  

Almost instantly, blinding light surrounded her, and she felt her father and Auntie Kay grab her as the world inverted and turned upside down. But when the light faded, they were standing in the cold metallic chamber of the Ikroza with the Earth glowing beneath them. 

Auntie Kay choked on a sound somewhere between laughter and a sob before she threw her arms around Reena and pulled her into a crushing embrace, muttering something in a language between Somali and Xhosa while tears streamed down her face. 

“Amazing.” Jasper stood at the window and gazed down at Earth.  

While Auntie Kay and Bast focused on the computer terminal, Reena tucked herself against Jasper’s side. They stood together in silence.  

“I am sorry, Reena.” He kissed the top of her head. “I am.” 

“I already forgave you, Dad.” Reena smiled up at him. 

“This was not what I wanted for any of you,” he said. “But I convinced myself that Cecilia would be strong enough to do it. I encouraged her to pursue her athletics. I didn’t have the same expectations for you.” 

“I’m glad you didn’t.” Reena laid her head on his chest. “I hate sports.” She pulled back. “And besides, Dad, I don’t have to be strong like Cecilia. I can be strong like me.” 

Jasper smiled at her, his eyes shining as much as Auntie Kay’s had. “You are right. And wise. Much wiser than your old dad.” 

“No, just better looking.” 

Jasper chuckled and kissed her forehead.  

Reena waited for a moment. “Was Eedo Hani really a mighty warrior?” 

“She was.” Jasper’s expression saddened. “Bold and brave and fierce. She protected the people loved until the very end.” 

“She was a hero.” 

“Yes.” Jasper held her tighter. “A hero.” 

They stood together quietly while Bast and Auntie Kay spoke at the computer.  

“Mica was here with me before,” Reena said.  

Jasper didn’t respond.  

“Do you know why Auntie Kay didn’t want her to come with us?” 

Jasper patted her shoulder. “Mica is a good girl and a wonderful friend, Reena. I am glad you have her, and I know you love her.” He turned them around to look inside the Ikroza. “But this is bigger than her. It is bigger than Earth, and it’s not something she needs to bear.” 

“She’s my best friend, Dad.” 

He squeezed her shoulder. “I know. And I want you to know that we care about Mica as much as you do. She came from nothing, Sareena. You could have ignored her when you first met her, and you didn’t.”  

Reena nodded.  

When Mica had first come to Kansas, adopted by the Sherman family from an impoverished orphanage in Russia, she had been scrawny and malnourished, quiet and sickly. None of the other children had wanted anything to do with her. She’d been skeletal, pale as snow, with hair like a tangled ball of orange yarn.  

Reena remembered wondering if all Russian children looked like that.  

“We care about Mica,” Jasper said again. “But she is just a girl. You are a princess, Reena.” 

Reena bit her lip. She didn’t really see why it made a difference if Mica was royalty or not. They would be friends regardless, but maybe her father was trying to say something that she just wasn’t understanding yet.   

Jasper hugged her again. “I am proud of you, Reena.” 

Reena laughed. “What for?” 

“What for?” Jasper looked at her like she grew another head.  

“Dad, I didn’t do anything.” She shook her head. “I put on an armor that did all the work. I rode a dragon who did all the work. I didn’t do anything.” 

Jasper knelt on one knee and took her hands in his.  

“Sareena, hear me when I say this.” His eyes shone at her. “You were given tools to use, and you used them to defend and protect. That is no less heroic than a warrior who charges into battle with bare hands as his weapons.” He tapped the bottom of her chin with his knuckle. “Do you hear me?” 

Reena blushed and looked down. “Yeah, Dad, I hear you.” 

“Little hero, then.” He smirked and stood up. “Come. Let us find your aunt.” 

They strode arm in arm to the computer terminal where Auntie Kay had been.  

“This is dangerous, isn’t it?” Reena asked softly.  

Jasper’s hold on her arm tightened. “Very.” His fingers trembled. “There is an ancient evil, Reena, that my sister and the princess guardians of the other planets gave their lives to defeat. They, along with the great dragon Khanyiso, sacrificed everything to lock this evil away for a time.” 

“But not forever.” 

“No.” Jasper shook his head. “We do not know how much time we have before she returns, but when she does, we must be ready for her.” He tapped the end of her nose. “You must be ready for her.” 

“Jasper, Sareena!” Auntie Kay’s voice echoed in the chamber beside them. “Come here.” 

Reena ducked out from under Jasper’s arm and ran into the chamber with the stone figure of Khanyiso with her wings outstretched. Jasper paused in the doorway to stare, and Reena would have sworn his eyes grew teary again.  

“What is it, Auntie Kay?” Reena ran up to her.  

Auntie Kay’s expression was somber. She stood near one of Khanyiso’s great talons, and she pointed to the skin of the dragon’s giant knuckle.  

“Do you see?” Auntie Kay asked. 

Reena narrowed her eyes and blinked in surprise. “Is that—a crack?” 

Jasper came up behind her and leaned closer to see for himself. “Yes,” he said grimly. “A crack in Khanyiso’s skin.” He cast a worried glance at Auntie Kay. “How long?” 

Auntie Kay shrugged. “I have no idea, Jasper.” She brushed past them in a flurry. “There is no data. There is no history. Khanyiso may have cracked today, or she may have cracked ten years ago.” 

Reena ran to catch up with her. “What does that mean?” 

Bast bounded along beside them. “Khanyiso sacrificed herself to seal the Dark Queen away. She turned herself to stone expending the energy to accomplish it. But the seal she used will only remain in place as long as Khanyiso remains stone.” Bast scurried up Reena’s leg to perch on her shoulders. “And Khanyiso’s seal is cracking.” 

Reena took a shaking breath. “So that means, the Dark Queen is coming back?” 

“Sooner than we expected.” Auntie Kay turned back to the computer terminal. “The countdown to her return has begun. She could return at any moment.”  

Reena paused at the computer terminal, watching the characters on the screen drift up and down. Auntie Kay had switched the computer back to its original language. In the quiet of the moment, Reena could hear the recycled air swishing in the vents.  

The pink jeweled Heart of Arawelo burned in her pocket.  

“What do we do?” she asked softly. 

Jasper came up behind her and set his hands on her shoulders, and Auntie Kay smiled down at her.  

“I have been preparing for this day for decades,” she said, “seeking out the members of the royal houses who are living on Earth, gathering them together, working toward the day when I knew we would need to unite.” 

“How are we going to find all of them?” Reena asked. “Will each one need to get one of the stone eggs in the chamber?” 

“Yes. Each egg holds the Khonzi—the dragon partner—of each dragon guardian.” Auntie Kay focused on entering code on the computer terminal. “When they are ready, we must locate the next princess.” 

“What about the egg for Saturn?” Reena asked. “I noticed it was missing.” 

Auntie Kay smiled to herself. “The Dragon of Saturn is already active, but she is not here. And that is another story for another time, but your powers of observation are impressive, as always, Sareena.” 

Reena smiled.  

“I’ll help in any way I can,” Reena said. 

“I know, little one.”  

“But I want Mica to help too.” 

Auntie Kay stopped typing and looked down at her with a raised eyebrow. Reena held her gaze without flinching.  

“I think well of your friend, Sareena,” Auntie Kay said. “If you believe she can help, then she will be an asset to our cause.” 

Reena brightened. “She will, Auntie Kay. She’ll make a difference.” 

Auntie Kay turned back to the computer. “I hope so, Sareena. Our time was short, and now it is shorter still. We know not when the Queen of Darkness shall break free of prison, so we must move as quickly as we can.” 

“We will.” Reena straightened. “We’ll win.” 

“We must.” Auntie Kay smiled grimly.  

As Jasper and Auntie Kay fell into conversation about some other part of the Ikroza, Reena glanced to the chamber where Khanyiso loomed over the khonzi eggs. As she stared at them, Reena would have sworn she saw one of them crack.  

Surely she was imagining that. It was her anxiety getting the better of her.  

Either way, whatever time they might have had to get their bearings was gone. The Dark Queen that Auntie Kay feared so much was coming, and if Reena and the other princesses who were yet to be discovered didn’t stop her, nobody could.