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

I was a little shaky, and I greedily drank down the potion, sighing as energy flooded into my muscles.

“Thank you, Gil.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“I managed to bite about half their number, but depending on the individual people, they might still be able to fight even with the venom in their system. Thought the majority should start feeling the effects any moment now.”

He walked over to the window, peering out at something, and nodded. “All right. I bet when they see their men go down, they charge ahead and surround the town. That or call off the whole thing, but when has our luck ever gone that way?”

“What do we do?” I asked.

“We get set up, c’mon,” he said and left the room.

I followed after him, and we headed back downstairs to the bar. All the tables had been overturned, and Adam had summoned the shades again. They were in the process of dismantling the chairs and turning the chair legs into miniature spears.

Evelyn pulled out a few weapons: a shortsword, two daggers, and a longsword. She was in the process of deciding which one to go with, taking practice swings with each of them. A barbaric yawp sounded in the distance, followed by a war horn. Guess the venom finally took effect.

The others tensed at the sound, and Evelyn quickly chose her shortsword.

I looked around, finding one missing. “Where’s Makenna?” I asked.

A chuckle from above drew my gaze, though I didn’t see anything at first. It took me a second to spot Makenna hidden in the shadows on one of the support beams. What was even more surprising was that Tegen and Cheira were up there as well, grinning down at me.

Both of them had a singular dagger in hand, and I was terrified for them but wasn’t going to dissuade them of helping. They’re fast, faster than almost any human. I trust them if they think they can help. I didn’t like it, but if they could help, then let them.

The thudding of boots got louder until a mixture of new sounds joined the pounding feet. High-pitched screams and the clang of clashing steel. A battle raged outside, and too soon it reached the inn.

Pounding loud enough to wake the dead assaulted the door in front of us, and it was strong enough to force the cheap metal hinges to bend inward. Less than half a minute later, the door cracked and was forced out of the doorway. It crashed down to the floor, and half a dozen men and women flooded into the space.

Before they even took a single step further, Makenna attacked, flinging out with her poisoned needles. Four of them hit their targets, but the rest pinged off armor or missed and thudded into the soft wooden floor. While the enemy tried to figure out what had attacked them, Makenna withdrew a small knife with a curved blade and dropped from the support beam, slashing out with her knife as she landed in the center of the mob.

One of the men who hadn’t been hit with her poison dropped to the ground with his throat slashed open, spilling a fountain of blood across the floor. The others turned to engage Makenna, but she simply flowed around their weak strikes and consumed their entire attention.

Which is when Cheira and Tegen struck from behind. They were smart and aimed for the ones furthest in back and killed them with brutal efficacy. They dropped, killed their targets, and darted away in three seconds.

I was immensely proud of them.

The men poisoned by Makenna dropped to the ground, lifeless, and she deftly slipped back around our makeshift barricade. In ten seconds, we’d killed the opening wave of invaders, but there were still many more outside to deal with.

“Shades, scout ahead,” Adam commanded.

The three wispy doppelgängers marched outside and joined in the fray. A minute went by before a sharp crack of glass shattered through the sounds of battle, and the crystal flew back to Adams outstretched hands.

He sighed and pocketed the crystal. “That’s what I get for sending the newbies.”

Evelyn sauntered out from behind the bar, drink in hand as if she didn’t have a care in the world. She knocked back the liquor and smiled, her golden yellow eyes glinting in the firelight. “Let’s go join the fun, shall we?”

We exited the inn to a bloody victory. Even with their decimated numbers, the gang of bandits had made short work of the town. A few villagers who’d fought back were dead, slaughtered like livestock and left where they fell. No building was left unbroken or unlooted, and the few villagers who were left alive were huddled together in the center of a mob.

More than twenty bandits surrounded the inn, the last building standing. All of them had their weapons out and were half a second away from engaging. Gil, Makenna, and I went out first, and the leader of this gang of bandits stepped forward.

He was tall, burly and brutish with hair the color of fresh straw a day after harvest that trailed down to his lower back and a thick beard that obscured half of his face, though his hazel eyes were alight with bloodlust. He wore heavy plated armor and carried a giant sword that was bigger than I was.

He swaggered over to us and laughed. “Couple of fighters, eh? Well then, you’ll have the pleasure of facing Bandit King Cassimere in combat,” he said with a wide grin. “Who’s going to be my first victim?”

“I believe we’ll take you up on that offer, Cass,” Evelyn said, walking out with Adam by her side.

One look at Evelyn, and Cassimere deflated. His entire personality shifted, and pure and utter terror paled though him. His eyes widened, and his sword fell from his grip.

He dropped to his knees and held up