Hive Queen by Sinclair, Grayson (ereader iphone .TXT) 📗

a wobble as she sauntered across the room. Her sharp heels cracked loudly against the stone.

“I’ve brought drinks for everyone, but don’t get used to this,” she said as she set the tray in the center of the table.

“Thank you, dear,” Magnus said as he poured himself a glass of wine.

A crystal tumbler filled with amber called my name, and I snagged it from the silver tray before knocking it back. Oh, that’s delicious and just what I needed. I grabbed the bottle and another glass and poured another for myself and handed a glass to Raven.

“Thank you, darling. I think we could all use a drink right now.”

Eris declined a glass but held onto my fingers tightly as I leaned down and kissed her. She scrunched her face is disgust, but her eyes lit up with humor and warmth. “You taste like alcohol, love.”

“Sor─” I began before Raven grabbed hold of my face and pulled me into a kiss of her own, her tongue dancing with mine.

“You’re right,” she said as she pulled away a second later. ”He totally does.” She laughed and kissed my cheek before laying her head on my shoulder.

It was for just a minute while everyone took a drink from the table, but I loved them both for being themselves in the face of such melancholy. Times have never been as dark as these, and they’re only going to get darker. I need to keep them close, to remind me of who I’m fighting for.

Once we all had a bit of alcohol to ease the mood, we returned to the conversation at hand.

“This override code, what is it?” I asked.

“Nick went around me and used his access to initiate the purge. When it was over, I couldn’t remove his access, but I had to make sure he didn’t do something like it again, so I did the only thing I could and locked us both out of the system,” Adam said, taking a sip of wine.

“But you left a way back in. An override.”

He nodded. “But I can’t give it to him, even if he’s right. He’s also not being completely honest. Even if it starts with NPCs, that’s not where it will end. Because if it’s not something we can fix, it’ll eventually lead to him sacrificing players to save space like he did before. No one person should have the right to decide who lives and who dies.”

Magnus sighed. “I wish you would see reason, James. But this isn’t getting us anywhere.”

He snapped his fingers, and Evelyn froze in place, her glass tumbler halfway to her pale lips.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking control of the situation,” Magnus said as he rose from his chair. “You don’t want to be responsible for the lives of everyone on Nexus. I get that, so once again, I’ll do what you can’t.

“Give me the override.”

“Or what? You kill Jess? You wouldn’t hurt either of us. I know that for a fact. I also know you can’t hold her for long.”

Magnus lifted his head and stared at Adam. I knew the look in his eyes well, and Adam was wrong; he’d kill Evelyn if that’s what it took.

“I can either release her or kill her. And you can either save her or watch her die.”

Adam rose from his seat, crystals in hand. “I’ll stop you!”

“How? I’m your counter—you know you can’t win against me.” Magnus sighed; the lines on his face aged him ten years. “Don’t make me do this, James. Give me the code!”

Adam raised his hand, his fingers twitched as he was about to throw his summon, but he stopped and lowered his hands. “Epsilon, forty-two, seven, three, nine, Delta.”

“Thank you. Was that so hard?”

He scowled, his brows furrowed. “You’re going to kill thousands, and you don’t even care, do you?”

“Of course I do,” he said, his hands clenched tight. Magnus picked up his nearly full wine glass and downed it in a single gulp. “But I do this for the good of the many, not the few.”

Magnus snapped his fingers, and Lachrymal’s Heart appeared, suspended in the air over the table. He reached out and touched a single finger to the brilliant emerald. “Epsilon, forty-two, seven, three, nine, Delta.”

With those words, the Heart shuddered, and a chime rang through the dining room. A crack split the gemstone, which was followed by even more cracks as it shattered into a thousand pieces. They rained down to the table but disappeared before they touched the wood. We all stood and stared transfixed at where the Heart once resided.

In its place was a girl.

She had deeply tanned skin, a thin delicate face, and curly brown hair that stopped at her round chin. Her glazed eyes were green, the exact shade as Lachrymal’s Heart. She wore a plain gray dress that stopped at her calves.

The girl hung in the air for a second before dropping to the table, folding her legs under her as she rested on her heels. After a time, she lifted her head and stared around the room, her jaw clenching and unclenching as she worked it around, trying to find a way to speak.

“Ah, there we go. I’m not used to this vessel yet,” she said, her voice deeper than I was expecting from such a small woman.

She rose and climbed down off the table before walking over to Adam. “Master Bell, it has been too long,” she said, bowing.

“Edna? Since when do you have an avatar?”

“I’ve had this form since the very beginning; there was just never a need to use it before. But it was the easiest option to converse with all of you.”

“Who is she?” I asked as I got out my chair, letting go of Raven and Eris in the process.

Edna turned to me,