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

So you’ll have as much backup as I can provide, but unfortunately my scrying magic doesn’t work underground or indoors, so I don’t have more actual intel to give you.”

Damn, this isn’t good. I untied my hairband and ran my hands through my hair before quickly retying it. “Not inspiring a ton of confidence, Magnus. Your team might work for you, but not here. I want my guild in on this. Wilson is one of the best thieves in the business. He could handle this much better than I could.”

“Absolutely not. Your Gloom Knights have quite a reputation, and barring a few exceptions, like yourself, I’d sooner do it myself than allow your guild anywhere near this.”

Indignation flared through me. My fingernails dug into the soft wood till it hurt. “I trust them with my life, yet I have to work with a team I’ve never met and a godsdamned shifter to steal one of the most heavily guarded artifacts in the world?”

“In a nutshell.”

“Oh, fuck this,” I said and pushed off from the table, heading back to the stairwell. “Come get me when you want to stop tying my hands while asking the impossible.”

The door was an inch away when a scorching hand grabbed on my arm; it spun me around to face Aliria, whose face was set with a stubborn determination. I jerked my arm from her grasp. “I’m not your plaything. Don’t put your hands on me.”

Aliria leaned into me, placing her hand on my shoulder this time. My first thought was to pull away again, but something about her demeanor stopped me. She got right up to my ear and whispered, "If you leave now, Eris will die."

“What did you just say?”

Absolute pitch-black rage exploded from my chest in an unrelenting tide. Before I could stop myself, I picked her up by her throat and slammed her against the iron door with a resounding clang. I hadn’t called it, but chitin came with my fury.

Subtle scents of the forest flowed around me as it oozed over my forearm and coated my hand and fingers in jagged obsidian.

I squeezed tighter, tearing into her flesh and splashing drops of crimson over my hand. It snaked from her throat to run over my arm to drip to the ground. “Don’t you ever fucking threaten her!”

She smiled at me through the pain, which only made me squeeze tighter. I wanted her dead, but first I wanted her to suffer terribly, and I split her pale skin open, drawing even more blood.

Aliria’s smile never wavered. She reached out a hand and tapped one finger on my chest, right over my heart. As the first time, my world shattered with pain. The chitin around my arms dissolved to black rain and slunk back under my skin.

I dropped her as my strength waned and blood dripped from my eyes and nose. It spilled metal into my mouth, and I spat it out to join the growing puddle on the floor.

She smirked. Her eyes flashed victorious as she backhanded me. I hit the ground, my cheek landing in nearly scalding blood. I tried to stand, but her foot connected with my ribs and turned me over.

“You don’t have the first clue how to use your power do you? What a waste of a knight.” She scoffed and walked over to Magnus. “Would you be a dear, love?”

“Of course.” He snapped his fingers, and her wound closed as if it’d never been there at all. “Now go apologize to him. You provoked him on purpose.”

I stood up, glaring death at her. I hated her, hated her more than I'd ever hated anyone before, in the real world or the virtual. She was nothing but the incarnation of cruelty. And I promised to see her dead before I let her anywhere near Eris.

"You would threaten your own daughter’s life, just to force me to cooperate with you. You disgust me."

She barked out a laugh so cold, it chilled my very bones as she wound her finger through Magnus’s. "I don't have to lay a finger on her, abomination. You’ll kill her long before that."

Her words struck cold fear in my heart, and I wanted to ignore them, storm up the stairs, and flee this place…but I couldn't, and Aliria knew it. Godsdamn it! If she's lying to me…

The thick stone floor cracked with every heated step I took. My fury this time, however, burned with cool detachment. My face nearly touched hers when I spoke through clenched teeth. "No more fucking games! Tell me what you mean right now."

"Or what?"

"Or I tear myself to pieces to kill you, bitch. Now tell me!"

Aliria breathed through her nose at me, relaxing her posture to drop her cruel gaze, she stared at me with very human emotions on her face. "I'm not so heartless, you know, to treat my daughter so."

"Could’ve fooled me."

That garnered me a quiet chuckle. She backed up and looked at me without all the pretense, without her air of superiority. As the cruelty and darkness left her face, she looked so much younger. She actually had a kind face, a face that haunted me.

"I would never harm Eris, not ever. But you will. Whether you want to or not. You’re not entirely in control anymore."

Denial was on the tip of my tongue, and I was a millisecond away from denying it with every fiber of my being. But she was right, and I couldn't say otherwise. I'm not in control of myself anymore, not since I made a deal with the Aspect.

"But the Aspect is part of the Hive; it can't harm the queen."

"It was part of the Hive, but like you, it's not entirely pure anymore. It's corrupted, and the more power it gains over you, the less it has to obey. One