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

Magnus began fixing the table, placing the toppled and scattered pieces back where they belonged with pinpoint accuracy. He worked with speed; in under twenty seconds he had replaced every one that I had knocked over.

As he situated the final piece, he spoke up. “To answer your question, I am waiting on Aliria…she is bringing something of importance. She should be here─”

The heavy door opened, and Aliria walked in. She’d changed into a radiant crimson dress, accented by a rather simple silver necklace in the shape of a honeycomb that draped across her slender throat.

She smiled at Magnus before turning her gaze upon me. “I hope you two weren’t waiting long.”

He shook his head, smiling at her. “Not at all. Duran was just looking at my collection,” he said, as if I hadn’t almost lost my life moments before. “Let’s get started. Did you bring her?”

Aliria nodded and placed two fingers in her mouth and whistled.

Soft footsteps from the door caused me to turn at the new arrival.

She was tall for a girl, as tall as Aliria, which put her just under six feet. Her thin black dress left her alabaster skin bare at the shoulders and hinted at the immodest with its plunging neckline revealing the curves of her sizable bust. The girl walked with her head low, hiding her face behind a veil of her jet-black hair.

But at that moment, her appearance didn't matter. Her gait as she walked in is what caught my attention.

The pace she walked and the set of her shoulders screamed nervousness. Her hands twined together in front of her, long, slender fingers playing over each other, again and again. She kept her eyes to the floor and refused to look at anyone.

The girl stopped just shy from Magnus and Aliria, kneeling in supplication.

"You called for me, Master?"

Her voice was heady and sweet, like honey, but it cracked with anxiety. I’d heard it before yet couldn’t place where.

"Rise. I have a task I need of you," Magnus commanded.

She bobbed her head in acknowledgment and stood, giving me my first proper look of her. She brushed her curtain of dark hair back and let it drape down her back where it rested just above her thighs.

Her face was soft and kind. Small chin, low rounded cheeks, and downward-turned raspberry lips that were made for smiling—something this room desperately needed right now.

However, the most profound aspect of her visage were her blood-red eyes. I'd have taken her for a vampire, but the red didn't stop at the iris. The color bled to the whites, staining them crimson, leaving only her small pupil and a thin black circle in an ocean of red.

My eyes widened when I realized what she was, and I grimaced.

Our eyes met. Sorrow and regret stared back at me before she hastily looked away. Though her gaze lingered on me when I turned back to Magnus.

A shapeshifter, fucking perfect. Been a long time since I've seen one of their kind, but what's she doing here?

"Why's the shifter here?"

The girl flinched at my words and dropped her head once more. Magnus glanced at me with approval in his eyes. "Raven’s here because you will need her help for your task."

Raven? Pretty name for a monster. I frowned, furrowing my brow as I tugged at my ponytail.

“So not only have you not told me what I’m doing, but you expect me to run a godsdamned escort mission with a shifter?” I resisted the urge to pace and placed my hands firmly on the cool wood of the map table. “Enough games and secrecy, what’s the job?”

“Nothing terribly difficult for one as talented as you. A simple retrieval,” Aliria said, her eyes smoldering with predatory delight.

I barked a quick laugh. “All right, what do you need me to steal for you?”

She smirked at my response. “Such a clever boy.”

Magnus tilted his head from the table and chuckled. “Told you,” he said to Aliria before turning to me. “You’re correct. What I require isn’t something I can purchase; the gods know I’ve tried.”

He paused, which set my teeth on edge. Magnus danced around the topic, refusing to outright tell me what I needed to know. And that worried the hell out of me.

All I know is it involves the shifter, which already isn’t a good sign. I don’t trust them, never have. The price for their power has always been too high.

Someone who’s made that bargain has nothing to lose and no line they won’t cross. She’s dangerous.

Aliria came over to lean against the table next to me. She sighed and placed a finger on the map. On top of Aldrust. “What we need is an emerald, rather large for its size.”

An emerald? Why─oh, no. My heart jumped up in my throat, and blood pounded in my ears. You can't be thinking…oh, by the nine kings of hell. I stared at her pale finger, at the blood red fingernail pointing at my death.

“You can’t be serious. That’s a suicide mission for even the most experienced thieves. I’m worse than a bull in a china shop. No,” I said, my mouth drier than the sands of the Badlands.

Magnus sighed, disappointed at my answer, but it wasn't a shock to him. He knew exactly what he was asking of me, and he understood. Aliria, on the other hand, wasn't having any of it. Her face clouded with anger at my flat-out refusal, while the shifter stood ramrod straight, not looking at anything but the floor. The tension in the air was so thick, I could’ve drowned in it.

"You're just backing out?" Aliria asked.

"Damn right, I am. You know what you're asking, right? Lachrymal’s Heart, really?"

"Are you afrai─" Aliria began, before Magnus cut her off.

"We