Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
“The Goddess cares about all her children,” Hold said quietly. “She put the three of us together—she let us share each other’s dreams. That’s why Fierce and I came for you, even though we knew you were already spoken for.”
“Oh, um…” Celia wasn’t sure what to say to that. The Light Twin was staring at her again, his hazel-green eyes intense with longing. It made her heart pound and her pulse race even though she knew she ought to be thinking about Peter—not the Kindred warrior in front of her. “I, uh, guess we’d better get going,” she said lamely, looking away at last.
“Plotting a course to Tranq Prime using wormholes,” Fierce said dryly.
“Thank you.” Celia crossed her arms over her breasts. “I’m sorry if it’s inconvenient. All I know is that Kat told me we should take wormholes, just in case. If that’s going to be a problem, I can probably find some other Kindred to take me to Tranq Prime to hunt for the jewel moss,” she added, looking at Fierce.
“No, no,” Hold said quickly. “Not a problem, my lady. The grottos where the jewel moss grows are remote and I’ve heard they can be dangerous. Fierce and I want to be with you to protect you.”
“Dangerous? Really?” Celia frowned.
“Mainly just too fucking cold,” Fierce growled, as he punched coordinates into the control panel.
“But if Kat made you a warm suit, you should be all right,” Hold added.
“She did.” Celia nodded.
“Then why aren’t you wearing it?” Fierce demanded.
“Because I thought I’d wait and change when we got there. I don’t want to get overheated,” Celia snapped. Ugh—why was it that everything the Dark Twin said annoyed her?
“That makes sense,” Hold remarked. “Fierce and I aren’t going to put on our extra furs until we land near the grotto either.”
“Which, uh, grotto are we headed for?” Celia asked. She’d heard that Tranq Prime was a planet where everyone lived underground in huge caves called “grottos” and she wondered which one they were going to see.
“Commander Sylvan gave us the coordinates of an abandoned grotto he said has lots of jewel moss,” Hold told her.
“Oh—so we don’t get to meet any of the people?” Celia was rather disappointed.
“Believe me, you’re not missing anything—Tranq Prime isn’t exactly the most welcoming place.” Fierce finished punching in the coordinates and grasped the steering yoke. “The grotto we’re going to is pretty far from the more populated part of Twin Moons, so Commander Sylvan advised us to take weapons and emergency supplies, just in case.”
“I’ve got everything we should need for an overnight stay,” Hold confirmed.
“Wait—an overnight stay?” Celia frowned. “Why overnight?”
“Because we’ll be hiking into the back caverns of the grotto to find the moss—it only grows deep underground,” Fierce growled. “That’s going to take some time and we don’t want to go back to the ship when it’s dark—we have to wait for daylight. Otherwise we’ll all be fucking V’ranna chow.”
“What’s that?” Celia demanded.
“A V’ranna is a large carnivore that lives on Tranq Prime,” Hold explained. “But they mainly roam the tundra—we should be safe from them inside the grotto we’re going to.”
“Oh…okay.” Celia nodded. “Er…thank you for taking me,” she added, speaking to both of them, though she looked more at Hold. “I hope it’s not an imposition.”
“Spending time with you is never an imposition, my lady,” the Light Twin murmured and gave her a smile that nearly melted her. Why couldn’t Fierce be as charming as his brother, she wondered?
“We’ll take you anywhere you want—as long as it’s not back down to Earth to that stupid fiancé of yours,” the Dark Twin remarked, as he pulled back on the yoke.
Celia shot him an angry look.
“That ‘stupid fiancé’ is the man I’m going to marry,” she informed him.
“What? After the way he treated you yesterday?” Fierce looked down at her with a frown and then back at the viewscreen, where the stars were zipping by.
“We had a fight—that’s all,” Celia said defensively. “All couples fight—it’s not a big deal.”
“Well, I didn’t see him calling this morning to apologize,” Fierce pointed out.
“He just needs some time to cool off—that’s all. Plus, he’s probably busy—he helps his mother run the family business, since he’s the only son,” Celia said defensively. “He—oh! What’s that?”
She was pointing to the viewscreen where an enormous, swirling thing had appeared. It looked to Celia like what you saw when you looked in a kaleidoscope—a mass of swirling colors bigger than the ship—blue and gold and purple and green.
“That is a wormhole, just as you requested, lelka,” Fierce growled. “How about if we all be fucking quiet now so I can navigate it?”
“Is…is it safe, though?” Celia didn’t like the idea of flying straight into the swirling vortex.
“Perfectly safe—Fierce only uses stable wormholes when we fly,” Hold assured her.
“Well…all right.”