Hive Queen by Sinclair, Grayson (positive books to read .txt) 📕

Attack Damage. Might think about removing it and choosing something else.

But that can wait till I’m not so exhausted.

We stayed there for a few hours, just gathering our strength and napping in shifts. The threat of being discovered was mitigated by the knockers. Even if anyone from Tombsgard found the hole we’d made, the knockers would keep them from following us.

When our strength returned, we set off again through the forgotten and abandoned ruins. They were falling to pieces; some of the very stone itself crumbled under our feet when we stepped on it. It took nearly a full day of exploring the maze of streets and buildings, but we finally found a passage that connected to a section of the new Lowtown.

It took some digging and Maus using Layout nearly fifteen times over the course of eighteen hours, but we finally broke through the stone and reached civilization again.

As the dust cleared, we climbed through the wall and stood in the warehouse district for Lowtown, only a few miles from the pleasure district, where I had a score to settle.

The two of us dusted ourselves off and made sure no one was around before moving.

Before we’d gone three steps, Maus turned, holding out his hand. “Thank you for all your help, Duran. I’m glad to have made an ally in that misery, but this is where we part ways.”

“You sure?” I took his hand and gave it a firm shake. “I can’t convince you to come back with me? Could always use someone like you in our guild.”

He laughed and clapped me on the back. “Coming from the leader of the Gloom Knights, that’s a fine compliment, but you’ve got a score to settle, and so do I.”

I knew the look in his eye, knew I had no chance to convince him otherwise. So I didn’t even try.

“All right, but it’s an open offer. And I won’t forget you pulling me from that place. You ever need help, just call,” I said, handing him my contact card.

With a final wave, he vanished into the stone. Good luck, Maus.

Okay, time to go settle accounts.

Chapter 23 - Return

I kept to the shadows as I made my way to the Low Road. But there were hardly any citizens out at this time of night. Through the stone window, I found Orryn and Tel sitting by the bar, drinking.

The stone door was closed, but it was thin, easily broken if I put my all into it.

Ready?

“Drink her dry, drain them both.”

I was angry enough that the Aspect’s words were tempting, enticing even.

The heat of a furnace brushed my skin, and soon I was covered in the obsidian armor. I dug into the stone with my claws and pulled it from its frame with a grunt and resounding crack. It crumbled to nothing in my hand, and I stepped through the cloud to stare down the man who’d wronged me.

“Hey, Orryn. We need to talk.”

Both turned when I ripped the door free, but Orryn didn’t panic till he heard my voice. He knew it was me, even if I looked like a demon. He knew what awaited him.

His fear was palpable in the air, sweat and adrenaline drifted out with every hitched breath.

“Duran?”

“You remembered me, though it has only been a few days. Glad to see your memory is intact.”

“I had no choice, I swear!”

“Doesn’t matter. You betrayed me. For that, you die.”

He sold me out, and I refused to let that stand.

I walked toward them, calm in my steps. There was only one entrance or exit, and they would have to get past me to escape. The end of the line.

“Fuck you!” Orryn shouted, hands outstretched as he began muttering in Script.

Tel followed his lead and dropped her illusion over her wings. With a shimmer, her dragonfly wings beat faster than my eyes could follow, and she rose to float over the bar. Her bright blue eyes shone in the candlelight as she scowled at me. She mirrored Orryn and began her spellcraft, both speaking in rolling tongues.

As their Script circles appeared in front of their hands, I chuckled and activated Aura of the Antimage. It blew across the room and shattered their nascent spells before they could finish. They stared in shock as their colorful magic dissolved back into the ether before their eyes, and they gaped at me.

“What?”

“How?”

I just laughed. “Easily.”

With their magic broken and their mana drained, Tel could no longer hold herself up, and as the rainbow glimmer dimmed along her wings, she lowered back to the ground. Orryn snarled a curse and charged me. His wiry black hair clung to his sweaty face as he attacked.

Orryn swung aiming for my chin. I leaned back as his punch went wide and raised my jagged talons. As his arm sailed past, I hooked my fingertips into his bicep, just above the crook in his arm. Resistance tugged at my hand before giving way and sliding deep into his flesh.

Blood rushed from the wound, fleeing from his severed artery.

Before he could fall or retaliate, I kicked the back of his knee and brought him to his knees. “I cut your brachial artery. You’ll be unconscious in less than half a minute, dead in under two. It’ll be quick.”

Blood pooled at his legs from the river soaking into his once white tunic. Orryn shot a final look at Tel and then back to me, his eyes unfocused and distant. “Sorry…don’t hurt her─”

Orryn collapsed over to the floor from the blood loss, his eyes closing one last time.

I left him to his fate and crossed the room to stand in front of Tel, who stared at Orryn’s body with tears streaming down her face. Only when my shadow darkened