Page 1 of Regal Rising

Chapter One

The office sounds wereslowing, and Reggie finished tidying her desk. Rex stopped next to her. “Are you ready?”

“Are you done getting your ass kicked?” Reggie asked.

“It pays my bills. Come on. We need to hit the road.”

Reggie smiled, turned off her computer, and grabbed her purse. “It’s now or never. Literally.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Rex, I know that you weren’t born with someone else in your head, but the lady in question is screaming that it has to be now. Right freaking now!”

Rex nodded. “In that case, I am going to drive.”

Reggie waved farewell to the others, and she and her sister left the office of the cleaning company that their parents owned. Owens Cleaning was moderately successful and staffed by family.

They headed downstairs to the vast garage of company vehicles. Rex’s sand-coloured SUV was waiting for them, fully gassed and ready to go.

Rex asked once again, “Are you ready?”

“Yeah. I have done the test, and things should be ideal in twelve hours or so.”

“I can’t believe we are doing this.”

Reggie got into the passenger seat, buckled in, and they were on their way. Outside the city and following the sunset, she asked, “On a scale of one to ten, how crazy is this?”

“Twelve. We are driving through the desert to the Stronghold so that you can get laid, and we can make a run for it immediately afterward.”

“That sounds rather crass.”

“Reggie, no matter how many times you say it, your belief that you are the reincarnation of a dead queen from hundreds of years ago is a little weird. I love you, but it’s odd.”

“I know. It doesn’t sound less crazy in my own head, but there are two of us in here.”

“You are serious?”

“Oh, yeah. She’s like a weird conscience, but she is militant that this is what I have to do.”

“So, you have to find a dead woman’s husband in the depths of a place no sane woman would dare to tread?”

“Yup. Except he’s my husband or her husband or something.”

Rex chuckled. “So you have said. Is this also why you purchased that plot of land with your entire savings?”

Reggie groaned. “And a loan. She was positive, and she got the architect when she pushed me to the back.”

“Wait. So, she isn’t just a way of thinking; she can actually butt you out of the way?”

“Yeah. She says that once this mission is over, we will integrate, but I don’t know how that is going to happen.” She rubbed her forehead.

“Headache again?”

“Yeah. She’s excited, but I wish she would chill it with the hormones.”

“Bad?”

“Yup.”

---