Hive Queen

by Sinclair, Grayson

  Raven asked for the bag back and pulled out a small bottle of red wine and a bevy of spices and bouillon cubes. All of it went into the cauldron over the fire and was allowed to simmer. In just over half an hour, we dug in.

  I hated to admit, as the meat fell apart in my mouth, but it was one of the best meals I’d ever had here.

  Raven was just as hungry as I was, because she scarfed down three helpings of the meat after I tapped out on one.

  “Hungry?” I asked with a smile.

  She nodded, wiping broth from the corner of her mouth. “Shapeshifting takes a lot out of me, and I’m not used to using it for extended periods of time. Today was exhausting.”

  “Well, you fought surprisingly well today,” I said, setting down my bowl and spoon.

  Raven looked up with surprise, more sauce at the corners of her mouth where the hint of a grin lifted her lips. “What? For a shapeshifter, you mean?”

  I pulled out the flask again and took another drink. “Yeah, for a power-hungry leech, you didn’t suck,” I said, offering her the flask.

  She took it and drank a larger gulp than I was expecting and passed it back. “Damn, that’s good. Thanks for sharing.”

  I laughed and gave an exasperated sigh. “All right, spill. What happened to the meek, subservient girl in the throne room, kowtowing to Magnus? Seems like you pulled an alternate personality out of your ass.”

  Raven laughed and held her hand out for the flask, so I passed it back. She leaned back and glanced up at the incalculable number of stars overhead. There was absolutely zero light pollution, and millions of stars shone bright in the night sky. It took her a minute to speak, but when she did, her voice was filled with fear.

  “You haven’t been around him long enough, but Magnus is the most terrifying man I’ve ever met. He’s utterly ruthless in the pursuit of his goals, and nothing is off limits when it comes to achieving them…I’ve found keeping my head down is the best way to avoid trouble.”

  She took another drink from the flask. “Despite your hatred of me, I’m still grateful, you know. To you.”

  “Whatever the hell for?” I asked.

  “For getting me away from Castle Aliria, even if it’s only for a little while.”

  Castle Aliria? Yeah, she seems the type. I scoffed. “Don’t thank me. I’d have left you there in a heartbeat if I could’ve. I’m just as bad as Magnus, and I don’t need your thanks.”

  My words didn’t push her away as I wanted. Instead she looked up at me with a tilted head, her crimson eyes regarding me with intent. “I’ve been watching you, ever since I was told I’d become your tool. You’re not as bad as Magnus. I can say that for certain.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  Raven shook her head. “I am not. Magnus was cruel when I didn’t do exactly as he said or made a mistake. You wouldn’t hurt me.”

  “Don’t be so sure of that,” I replied.

  She scooted even closer to me.

  “Then do it,” Raven challenged. “Hurt me.”

  My first response was to laugh at her; she was right, after all. Even if I couldn’t stand the fact she was a shifter, I wasn’t going to physically hurt her.

  But as I gazed down at her pale throat, the slight raised vein on the side of her neck throbbing in time with her heart, my inner demon roused itself from its slumber again at the mere thought of blood.

  “Do it, knight. Hurt her. Feast upon her flesh and savor her blood.”

  I bit my lip in anger at the flood of desire radiating from my chest. Finally decided to speak after being so quiet? I don’t need your influence, Aspect. Back off.

  I forced my eyes away from her neck, but the pull was strong. I wanted nothing more than to feast on her blood.

  To lap at her neck and drink my fill.

  Get out of my fucking head! You left me to fend for myself with Aliria—I’m not doing a damn thing you demand!

  The magic in my heart burrowed free from its shell and filled my veins with ice water as it sought out my brain. The Aspect sought to control me again, its frigid grip on my mind, fogging my thoughts and weakening my resistance.

  Pain filled my body and converged on my mouth as if I’d stuck a red-hot coal into my gums and gargled with acid. I backed away and clawed at my face, dragging my nails down my flesh, ripping deep furrows into my cheeks. The pain shifted something in my mouth, and I spat on reflex.

  A handful of my teeth and a large gob of blood fled from my mouth.

  “What the hell?” Raven asked, stepping back.

  The pain receded, and I rode the pain for all it was worth, because it kept the Aspect from taking control of me. Though a sense of smugness came from within.

  “Fight all you want, knight. We are one now.”

  The Aspect faded back into my heart as I pulled out Raven’s bag and found the item I’d noticed earlier. A small hand mirror.

  Opening my mouth with trepidation, I found I’d been changed once again. My canines had elongated and been joined by another set, side by side in my mouth. Just like Eris’s.

  I had the teeth of an entomancer now.

  The mirror showed them in complete detail, and I didn’t want to look at myself anymore. I stowed it away and sat back on the ground. Raven had distanced herself from me, and I thought that a wise move.

  “I wouldn’t put much stock in that theory of yours, Raven. I can hurt you just fine.”

  Chapter 9 - Training

  Eris

  As the glow of leveling up faded away, I knelt as fatigue set in. I wiped my brow; the hot, muggy air clung to my skin and burned in my nose from the salt in the air. Oh, that’s interesting. My Agility increased by five, and so did my Durability. That seems reasonable, though I wish I had gained a bit more mana.

  “Congratulations, on the level up,” Gil said. “What’s it at now?”

  “Only twenty. I wasn’t allowed to take any really dangerous quests growing up, so it took nearly twenty-two years for me to even make it to nineteen.”

  “Well, the rate we keep going, you’ll climb the ranks quickly.”

  Gil turned back to the others and left me alone.

  The yellow squishy thing that’d been inside the shade was by my foot in the mud. I picked it up, wiped the muck off and squeezed it gently, my fingers indenting it. What is this? I turned it over and found a slight tear in it—something shiny lay at its center. I tore it open, revealing a single black ball in the center, about the size of a marble. It twinkled even under cover of clouds. I took it from the external casing and stood.

  I walked over to the others, who were staring at me with a mixture of emotions. Pride came from Gil and Makenna, while Adam eyed the bauble in my hand with greed, and Evelyn looked quite disappointed.

  "Good job, Eris!" Makenna said, beaming at me.

  "Good job? That was abysmal. You have literally no technique. I expected that blockhead you call a lover to at least teach you something of fighting, but it was foolish of me even to expect that much," Evelyn scoffed, her tone reproachful.

  I couldn't even argue with her; I knew I wasn't a fighter. That was only my third fight and my first where Sam didn't help me. If I didn't have my magic, I'd be dead right now. I needed to get stronger, so I had to muster up the courage to ask. "I know I'm not skilled at fighting, and I know that I need to get better and fast. So would you be willing to teach me, Evelyn?"

  She sighed at my request but nodded. "I'll have to. I'm not going to babysit your ass." She gave me a half-smile. "Besides, not like you can be a worse student than Duran."

  "You taught Sam?" I asked.

  "Of course, though he'd developed a few bad habits with the sword, and I had to retrain him from scratch, so you'll be a breeze compared to him."

  "Thank you," I told her, but she brushed me off.

  "Save your thanks. I just don't want your ineptitude to get us killed. Now, round up those kids of yours and let's get a move on. We still have a lot of ground to cover."

  "Righ
t!" I said and headed off in the direction I had last seen them.

  Finding the spiderlings was easy thanks to their acute hearing. I barely had to call their names before they came bounding out from the underbrush, covered in mud and twigs.

  Tegen smiled wide at me, holding up a six-foot snake he’d caught. “Look what I found, Aunt Eris!”

  “I see that,” I said, taking the snake and releasing it back into the marsh. It slithered off as Tegen groaned. “Sorry, Tegen. But we can’t take it with us.”

  “Told you,” Cheira said, ruffling her brother’s fine brown hair.

  I couldn't help but laugh as I knelt to brush what filth I could from them, though we were all dirty. I need a bath, but there isn't any clean water around that I can tell. With so few insects around, I couldn't use them to pinpoint any freshwater. So I settled in for staying grimy for a while.

  I held their hands as we made our way back to the group; everyone was already on their horses by the time we got back. I helped Tegen and Cheira onto Lacuna and was about to hop on myself when Gil called out to me and tossed me something. It was my backpack and cloak that I'd discarded by the trees.

  "Thank you," I said, hastily donning my pack and tying my cloak around me. From the look of the clouds overhead, it was going to rain soon. The breeze that blew through the gray marshes began to pick up, so I climbed on Lacuna, and we quickly picked up the pace. The rain would do wonders to wash all the muck off us, but I didn't want to be stuck in the deep mire if it started to flood.

  We sped through the damp as quickly as we could, but it still took another hour of riding before we exited the worst part of the marsh. Dying reeds and mud gave way to a breath of greenery as we took a path that, according to Gil, would lead us out of the worst of the Salted Mire.

  "The only route to this road is through the deep marsh, but we should be out of the worst of it for now. We're headed to a small town on the outskirts of the Salted Mire about twenty-five miles away, so we have a lot of ground to cover," Gil told me as I kept pace with him.

  I was just thankful to have a breather from the salt-laden wetlands. We were finally on somewhat stable ground. The scent of salt was still present, but it was almost as an aftertaste. Another hour of riding, and my stomach was screaming at me for food, but I didn't want to be the first one who complained. So I suffered for a while longer until Makenna spoke up and saved me.

  "All right, guys. I'm seriously about to gnaw off my own arm here. Let's break for lunch, shall we?"

  I heaved a sigh of relief when Evelyn nodded, and we found a decent spot to build a fire and get some food cooking. While Gil dealt with setting things up, Makenna and I carried heavy pieces of deadwood from the edge of the marsh to the fire pit along with some decent kindling. Once we had the fire going, Gil took out a large cooking pot and metal stands to set it over the fire. He poured in a generous measure of water along with salt and spices and let it rise to a boil.

  When the stew was finished, we all gathered around the fire and let the damp dry out of our clothes. The storm clouds had been steadily increasing throughout the day, but the rain held off as we filled our stomachs.

  I poured two bowls for the spiderlings first and let them eat while I waited for everyone to get their fill. I slurped down as much of the soupy stew I could stomach before setting back with content. Tegen and Cheira cuddled into me while everyone made polite conversation. With nothing to add myself, I took out the strange rock I'd acquired from the shade and twirled it around my palm, marveling how it shone even without a light source.

  "How much?"

  At the sound, I looked up to see Adam leaning over on the stump, staring intently at the rock in my hands. I held it up. "How much for this?" I asked.

  He nodded, his head bobbing back and forth like it was attached to a string. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. How much do you want for the core?"

  "This is a core?"

  "Sure is!" he said, practically bouncing in his seat. "Do you know how valuable they are?"

  I didn't have a clue. I had heard of cores before; they were prized trophies that lucky members of the Hive procured from slain monsters, but I hadn't ever actually seen one before and didn't know the first thing about them. Adam seemed overly excited about it, and even if it was exceedingly valuable, I had no use for it, so I tossed it over to him. In his surprise, he almost dropped the small core.

  His eyes widened as he palmed it. "I can just have it?"

  "Sure. I have no use for it, so I don't see why not."

  "Wow, thanks!" he said and took out a nearly transparent crystal, and with a long string of guttural words, a glowing blue circle made of light appeared in his hands just under the crystal. He brought the core close to the now-glowing crystal, and before they could touch, the core absorbed into the clear gem, turning it black.

  "Where'd it go?" I asked, bewildered.

  Adam laughed and scooted over on the log to show me the crystal. "This is a summoning crystal; they're used to store the cores of monsters and the like."

  "So you used the shade’s core and the summoning crystal to do what?"

  "Just watch," Adam said.

  He stood up from his seat and walked past the fire while I watched and waited. The others didn't so much as stir from their food. Once Adam had gotten about fifteen feet away, he tossed the crystal in the air.

  "Come forth," he called, and the darkness burst from the crystal and rained down to form three individual shades. They took the form of humans and stood still, like they were waiting for something. I jumped to my feet as fear ran through me, but Adam just laughed and told me to calm down.

  "They're under my control now, and they won't hurt you. Now, my shades, return from whence you came!"

  In unison, they bowed and flowed into a single mass of flickering shadow before returning to the crystal. Adam called the gem to his hand and stowed it away. "Awesome, some new toys to play with."

  I had to agree; it was awesome. Sam said Adam was good with creatures, but I've never seen anything like that before. "So you have to use a summoning crystal to store cores?" I asked.

  Adam shook his head. "Not technically. You can use any gemstone, but they're usually inferior to summoning crystals, which is why they cost so much."

  Gil's booming voice shouted over to us. "Hey, Adam, if you're done with the summoning lesson, let's get going. We still have a long way to go, and those storm clouds are getting darker."

  After that, we cleaned everything up, dowsed the fire, and set off again, trying to outrun what was quickly turning into a monsoon. Wind swept at our backs for over two hours as we kept up a frightening pace; none of us wanted to get caught in the storm.

  But for all our might, we were nothing compared to Mother Nature, and mountainous thunder was the harbinger of the storm. It rolled over us and pelted us with rain the size of rocks. The storm was so fierce, it whipped up debris around us, and we could not press on without fear of injury. We huddled in a close cropping of trees while the wind and rain hounded us for hours. We couldn't even make camp or take shelter under our tents without them getting soaked with water, so we leaned against the trees and suffered under the rain.

  At least we were all clean now.

  It was approaching twilight when the rain finally let up. The rain drizzled to a stop, and the dense cloud cover faded into the cool evening. I stood from the soggy ground and shook well over a pound of water from my clothes, in definite need of a change of clothes.

  Gil spoke up from the next tree over. Both he and Makenna were dripping with just as much water as I was, and they looked miserable. "Why don't we set up camp here tonight? I'll doubt we'll find a better spot, and I'll get a fire going while you girls go and change."

  That sounded like a fantastic plan, and I quickly climbed to my feet, as did Makenna and Evelyn. I told the children we'd be right back, and the three of us headed into a nearby thicket to change. After pushing through some thick underbrush, we entered a small clearing just wide enough for
the three of us to move without bumping into one another.

  I wasted no time in stripping from my soaked clothes, though the leather corset had straps that I couldn't reach on my own, and I struggled for a second before Makenna came over and helped untie me.

  "Here, let me," she said as she placed her hands on my back.

  "Thank you very much."

  "It’s no trouble," she replied and got to work.

  She'd done this before, and in under a minute had me out of the armor. I placed it on the ground and stepped out of my skirt easily enough, but my shirt stubbornly clung to me and took far too much effort to remove. When I was finally free, I almost shouted in joy. I piled all my soiled clothes together and opened my pack to change.

  "Well, don't you look sexy," Evelyn said at my back, I turned to find her naked, staring at me with curiosity.

  "I'm sorry?" I asked, unsure of what she meant by sexy.

  She didn't say anything, instead choosing to come closer to me. I couldn't help but stare at her while she did so.

  Evelyn was beautiful, to a truly remarkable degree. I’d noticed before how lean she was, and how her armor hugged her body, but to see it uncovered was like night and day.

  Her skin was flawless, pale like mine, but so much prettier. Hers was almost translucent it was so clear. She had the grace of a dancer and the strength of a warrior, pure functional muscle, but it was smooth and flowed flawlessly from head to toe. Her breasts were larger than mine, not by much, but still enough that it irked me. They were taut, and her nipples were almost invisible next to her skin. She caught me staring but wasn't angry; she looked at me with desire in her golden eyes.

  Evelyn stood several inches taller than me, and she trailed a finger slowly from the top of my navel through my cleavage to grab my chin.

  My heart beat incredibly fast in my chest, so much that I was sure Evelyn could hear it. She bent low to gaze at me, and her breath drifted across my bare skin to tickle my nose, and I caught the sweet fragrance of peppermint and honey from her mouth, while her skin smelled of rose petals and lavender. She tilted my neck, and I knew she was looking at my scar.