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

It dawned on me that I didn’t know how Sam and Gil met. Sam called Gil his best friend, and I could see why, but I wanted to know their story.

“How’d the two of you meet?”

Gil laughed and tugged on his ear, but his eyes looked away from me. “Um, when he tried to rob me.”

I snorted. “Really?”

He nodded but looked at me sideways. “You don’t seem surprised by that.”

“I’m not. I know Sam used to be a bandit. I don’t like it, but it’s in the past, and he’s not that person anymore.”

“True, but anyway, back to how we met,” he said and sat beside me. “I was working as an adventurer in the Compass Kingdom. Ran with a guild of gold-ranked players, so we started taking more dangerous quests, trying to earn as much as possible. One day the leader comes back with a quest to guard a caravan of elven merchants delivering goods to and from Yllsaria. The pay was good, so we all agreed and teleported to Siltfall and met the merchants as they came out of the Emerald Ocean. Two days out, and things were quiet.”

“Until they weren’t,” I said.

“Until they weren’t. Caravan gets ambushed, and Karen takes an arrow to her throat…she drops, and all hell breaks loose. I rush in with my axe, but it’s clear that we’re outnumbered. My guildmates are dropping like flies, and then out comes this kid, a wild glint in his eye, sword stained with my friends’ blood.”

My heart sped up as he told his story, cotton in my mouth. “Duran?”

He nodded. “He fought like a devil, but you’ve seen what he can do. Second best swordsman I’ve ever seen.”

“What happened next?”

He looked up and to the side, staring off into space. He stood up quickly. “That’ll have to wait. We’ve got to get a move on. Evelyn just sent me a message, and I’d rather not keep her waiting.”

Gil gathered up his bag, which hung next to a rack of swords. He took a look at the swords and back at me. “You need a weapon.”

I shook my head, standing and going to rouse the children. “I’ve got magic, so I don’t need to carry a sword.”

“Magic alone won’t help you if an enemy gets close. You need something stabby, just in case.”

I chuckled and ruffled Tegen’s hair as he tried to go back to sleep. I appreciated Gil’s concern, but I’d gotten stronger at controlling my magic, and I didn’t need to carry a weapon.

“It’ll be easier to show you,” I said and held out my hand.

I pulled at the magic that thrummed through my veins. The magic that flowed through time and space, connecting me with my ancestors.

The magic of the Hive.

My hands pooled with smoke and brought the scents of the Nymirian forest spilling through my fingers. The smoke dripped down my hands to cascade around my feet and pulsed with the energy of every living creature under my bailiwick. The descendants of the once-proud Hive.

My children.

I let them rest in their safe havens; I had no need to call them to me. I pulled much deeper into the Hive Mind, drowning myself in verdant smoke and the echoes of the Mnemosyne. I’d never dug this deep into my magic before, and I let the shades of the past whisper to me and guide me to where I thought I needed to be.

A brush of my own Aspect guided me to the spell I wanted. I had never used this spell before, but I tugged, and it came without resistance. The Aspect wished for to me to stay, immerse myself in power at my command, but I couldn't; my magic was fading quickly, and I needed to see this done. I had to prove I could do this.

I brought the spell I wanted with me out of the Hive Mind and departed. As I came out of it, the spell activated, pooling chitin over my skin, burrowing out of every one of my pores. Black chitin wrapped itself around my arm and crawled up my hand to form to my desires—a blade of darkness, sharp enough to sever the very air in two.

Throughout the process, Gil had stood there silent, dumbfounded at my display of power. As the chitin sword finished constructing itself, he whistled appreciatively. He looked at me with a sly smile on his face and wonder in his eyes. "Badass. I've never seen magic used like that. I mean, you didn't even use Script."

Oh, right. Sam voiced the same thought when he first saw my magic, but I didn't see why it was all that special. Liam could use magic without spells, so why was my magic any different? The Hive was ingrained into my soul; why would I need to use an incantation to use a part of myself?

"Hive magic doesn't require such things."

Gil laughed, his eyes still wide at the lingering smoke that drifted down my hands. "Yeah, I can see that."

He once more stared off into space and cursed.

“All right, all right. Jeez, have some patience, woman,” he muttered as he turned to me. “I know I promised I’d help you get ready, but I’ve got some last-minute preparations to handle.” He opened the door and pointed at a building across from us. “Head into the storehouse and take whatever you need.”

I nodded, but he’d already gone around the corner. I glanced at Tegen and Cheira, who’d woken up from their nap and were now drawing in the dirt, completely disregarding how filthy their clothes were getting. “I’ve got to go next door, do you want to come with me or stay here?”

“I want to finish the drawing,” Cheira said, her