Etta took a deep breath, expanding her ribcage as far as it would go, and digging her back claws in as if she expected to need the traction. She wanted to burn this entire thrice damned wyrmcraft to the ground with her next exhale. She let the thought of it play through in her imagination. If she put everything she had into it, every reserve, all the mana she’d saved for nesting over decades, it would be over. She could float out into the void and die.

  Nothing ever worked out for her, and for all the talks her tutors had given her about taking responsibility, she really couldn’t see how any of this was her fault. Supposedly she was the second most powerful wyrmhole queen in the entire galaxy, but she had never been permitted to make a single decision in her entire life. If she wasn’t in control of anything, how could anything be her fault.

  She had finally made a decision, and it was to break from everything she ever knew and start over. She’d thought that might earn her some respect, but nothing ever did. Now the Earthlings were missing and whoever had them was going to use them to control her. Even if that didn’t happen, Bodran was taking over everything on the ship anyway. No one respected Etta enough to listen to her. She had one job – one way to be useful – use her Space Affinity to engage the wyrmdrive and make the jump out of reach of Imperial troops. If she’d done that, maybe these people would look at her like she wasn’t dead weight. Maybe Bodran would ask her opinion before he started ordering everyone around. But the damned drive wasn’t working. Etta had learned the procedure from an early age in anticipation of the powers she’d one day gain. She was certain she was doing it right and yet it would not work.

  Bodran poked his head into the central eyrie in empyrean form, an Andonthan in priest’s robes stood next to him carrying the crystal Etta had given him – the one that gave access to her spatial storage – as if it was a holy relic. Bodran noticed her agitation and raised an eyebrow. “Have you figured it out yet?”

  “There’s nothing to figure out,” Etta said. Her jaws were clenched tight and her voice came out in a growl. “The procedure is simple. I’ve performed it many times over, but it does not work.” She knew what she was saying was true, but she also knew that everyone here would assume she was incompetent. She braced, ready to have an argument.

  Bodran nodded, “Well, the ship has been abandoned for a long time. It’s probably a misaligned or blocked mana conduit. I’ll see if I can fix it.”

  She let the inhalation go without putting any fire into it and watched him walk away with his assistant. He was leaving her out of everything again. She morphed to Empyrean form and marched after him, back straight.

  “You will teach me to do these things myself,” she said. “Then you’ll be the useless one.”

  He didn’t say anything, but she could see his jawline tightening with annoyance.

  “You want me to remain ignorant so you can remain in charge,” she said.

  He stopped. “Keyth, please go on ahead. I’ll meet you there.” Keyth’s vocal apparatus harmonized some kind of reply and he moved toward the city portion of the wyrmcraft at a jog.

  Bodran turned to her. She sensed his irritation, but he kept his posture and facial expression pleasant and neutral. Etta saw there were more Andonthans watching them from afar. They seemed to always be watching Bodran.

  “What I want, your Imperial Highness, is for you to ask me to teach you instead of ordering me to.” His cadence had changed from the more casual tone he used in front of the Andonthans and Earthlings to one of courtly grace. “I may not be of the Imperial line, but I am still a dragon and I am a God to these people. These are the Andonthans who love and trust me so much that they left behind their lives to follow me mere hours after we killed three dragons – three of their Gods.”

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  “This does not make you my equal, Bodran. You are an unproven male and I am a bonded wyrmhole queen and heir to the very Empire that made it possible for you to reach the people who worship you.”

  Bodran sighed, “You misunderstand, Highness. This is not about entitlement, it’s about what we need to do to survive the situation we find ourselves in. I spent my entire life earning the loyalty and love of my people. These rebels have known their entire lives that I was destined to die to save their planet. Unlike my father, who thought I sought to escape my fate, they still believe in me, despite what happened. They rejoice that I get to live, even if it means the plan to save them has changed. They know I will not abandon them to their fate. I have been trying to get them to extend some of that faith to you, but at every turn you agitate. So, Imperial Majesty, please feel free to spew all the vitriol you desire at me, but for the sake of our shared goals, do it out of earshot of the people who worship me and do it with a pleasant expression. Do try to behave like the Goddess you are.”

  He offered her his elbow, and in a voice that carried, he said, “My lady, would you please join me in engineering.” She took it and walked beside him, seething through her smile. He was right about the image she was presenting to their lessers, and it made her want to beat him to a bloody pulp. It was news to her that he still wanted to save that ridiculous planet. He wanted her to act like they were in solidarity, yet he kept her in the dark about everything. At every turn she was made subordinate to him.

  But that would all change soon. There was a reason wyrmhole dragons were in charge. Once they’d jumped to the new Galaxy, everyone would be stranded without her powers.

  A plan formed. After they retrieved the Earthlings, she could strand all three of them somewhere safe in the new Galaxy and return home triumphant, having wiped out a branch of the rebellion. With her range, she’d be indispensable.

  She smiled to herself. She’d let Bodran keep thinking he was in charge. His worshippers would turn on him as soon as they realized he had no power to save them.

  *

  I love my little sister, Sara thought. It was true, but nevertheless she ended up saying it over and over in her mind after an hour with Shayla and Max.

  Shayla was as extroverted as Sara was introverted. She had a social media following that made her an actual societal force, and she’d gained that without doing any kind of sex stuff. Her personality was just that magnetic. All Shayla did was read reddit stories out loud while her dog did dog things. That was all she had to do to make all the money she needed and more. In D&D parlance, Shayla had a charisma of 20.

  Today Sara wanted to choke her baby sister.

  When old reliable Sara who hadn’t been late once in years missed work, one of her coworkers texted the famous sister, who texted Sara like nine-billion times (Shayla’s accounting, not Sara’s). Then Shayla went to her house and used her emergency key. Sara’s purse, bookbag, car, and keys were all inside behind a locked door, but her beloved cat was not. So of course, Shayla freaked out.

  And put Sara and Hammy on all her social media as missing.

  Helpful fans had put posters all over town.

  There was a fraudulent Patreon raising reward money. Shaylah had shut it down, then offered the reward herself.

  That explained the big pile of unread emails and texts Sara had. Yeah, she was just gonna delete those. She didn’t want to live through that much mortification.

  Then maybe move to China. It would be easy with her Space Affinity.

  The worst part. Sara couldn’t come up with a single plausible reason why she had taken her cat on foot for a whole day. And even if she could, Sara was not good at lying. Every time she tried, the minute she opened her mouth, she wound up telling the truth anyway. It was practically a compulsion.

  So yeah, Sara was about to do the impossible. She was going to render Shayla speechless.

  Sara looked at Hammy, who had settled down at the top of his cat tower to watch Sara’s life unravel with disinterest.

  “I was abducted by space dragons to another galaxy where Hammy and I gained magical powers and used them to come home, but it took like, all day, so I missed a few things.”

  Before Shayla had a chance to roll her eyes, Sara snapped her fingers and teleported. She tapped a startled Shayla on the shoulder from behind. “Oh, and Hammy is sentient now.”

  Hammy lifted a paw and waved.

  Sara was ready to catch her little sister if she passed out, but that was not Shayla. The squee she let out made Max howl. Shayla turned and grabbed Sara by the shoulders. “Oh. My. God. Sara! We are going to get so many followers! Now tell me everything.”