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

a small, very sad smile on her face. “Hello again, Sampson Acre. My name is Edna, but you would know me better as Ouroboros. I am the governing A.I. for this world.”

Chapter 31 - Fallen

I marched around the banquet table and slapped Edna across the face.

She stumbled back from the force but remained standing, a small reddening welt rising where I’d struck her. Her green eyes wide, she raised a hand to her cheek, wincing as her fingers brushed her tanned skin.

“That hurt,” she said, her mouth agape.

“You know what that’s for.”

Edna nodded, dropping her hand. “I assume that settles accounts with us.”

I heaved a sigh, already tired of the headache that wasn’t quite yet here, but I knew was coming. “Yeah, we’re good now.”

“Sam, what the hell? Why’d you slap my A.I.?” Adam asked, staring at me like I’d lost my mind.

“We had business to settle. It’s settled. Let’s move on.”

I went back to my chair as Edna shook her head and stood by Adam as we all returned to our seats.

“Now that Edna is here, we can continue,” Magnus said.

“I’m afraid you’re mistaken, Mister Parks. You used a loophole in my programming last time to initiate the purge, and it has since been corrected. You will not be able to repeat the actions of the past.”

Magnus sighed, tugging at the hairs on his chin. “Why must everything be so complicated?” he muttered before he looked up at Edna. “You refuse to help me?”

“I refuse to help you kill any more innocents.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Shit!” Adam cursed as he turned to me. “Sam, take Eris and get away!”

What? I rose from my chair just as Magnus snapped his fingers, freezing me in place. Freezing all of us in place.

“Magnus, what the hell?” I asked, moving my neck to face him. “What are you doing?”

He looked up at me, his eyes haunted and pained; they must have weighed a thousand pounds for how heavy they looked in that moment. “Truly, I am sorry. You’ll never understand how much I wish I didn’t have to do this.”

“Do what?”

“I was counting on us being able to resolve our differences and work together on this, but even with the override, I’m back to where I was before, but I still don’t have full access. If Edna is unwilling or unable to assist me, then I must take alternate measures to achieve my goal. I’m sorry, Sam. But I need Eris.”

“Why?” I shouted.

“Because I need access to Edna’s root programming, but she’s blocked my access and since she won’t help, I need the codes.”

“What does that have to do with Eris?”

Magnus laid his palms flat on the table, thumbs curled around the edge. “Eris is the last of the original NPCs created when this world was built. She’s different than all of the others because she, and all the others of that time, were created by using a cloned version of Edna. Think of them like her children. As time went on, Edna started using the brain scans and personalities of the humans we introduced to create the NPCs. Eris is the only original left.”

I struggled against my invisible prison but couldn’t move anything but my neck. I jerked my head around the room before my eyes landed on Aliria. “Use Aliria instead!”

“Do you think I haven’t considered that?” he shouted, slamming his fist on the table. “Why do you think I brought her back in the first place? She’s incompatible now. My magic changed her code when it was introduced to her. I’ve already tried!”

“And you! Are you just going to stand there while he takes your daughter?”

Aliria couldn’t meet my gaze, her eyes fell to the ground as she hung her head. “I do not wish to die again.”

I turned to Magnus. “Can you get the code without harming Eris?”

After an eternity’s pause, he shook his head. “It would destroy her. I’m sorry, Sam. I’d give anything not to take her from you. I know what she means to you, but it’s the lives of all of us versus one girl. I will make that trade, so you don’t have to.

“It’ll be quick, painless, like falling asleep. It won’t hurt her, I promise.”

“I don’t give a damn about your promises, they mean nothing! I won’t let you fucking touch her!”

“You don’t have a choice, I’m afraid.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” I snarled, and activated Aura of the Antimage.

It dispersed off my skin and swirled around the table, shattering all of the magic that kept us frozen. As soon as I could move my body again, I pulled Eris to her feet and drew my sword.

Magnus stared at me in shock, his eyes wide, mouth agape. “Antimagic? But how?” He looked over at Evelyn and cursed. “Him? You chose him?”

“He’s as worthy as any I’ve found these many years. You won’t be able to hold us again.”

Magnus sneered at her, kicking over his chair as he raised his hands, and ethereal green pentagrams appeared in his palm. As soon as they formed, they sputtered and died, fizzling out to nothing.

“Aliria,” he barked.

She nodded and stepped onto the table, letting her chitin flow over her pale skin as two wicked swords appeared in her hands. “I’m afraid I must restrain you, my little fly.”

Eris stared down her mother, her emotions so overwhelming that she was drowning in them. “You were going to let him kill me?”

“It’s the only way for us to survive. I wish it weren’t so, but it has to be this way.”

I raised my sword, ready to charge her, but Adam grabbed my arm tight. “It’s time to run, not time to fight. We need to get away before Nick’s magic returns.”

Adam tossed two crystals at the