Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1) by Grayson Sinclair (black authors fiction txt) 📕

finding a suitable candidate for bonding. Before my mother became queen, I was to be bonded with a nobleman’s son. The family wasn’t high in the upper echelon, but it would have secured my father’s place in the upper nobility.”

Eris spoke in a concise, mechanical fashion. Laying out the facts as if they had no meaning, but there was a deep pain in her eyes as she spoke. Her hands trembled as she finished speaking, breaking her façade.

Fury caught in my chest, raising a heat that put even Eris to shame. Hatred for a man who’d been dead a thousand years flowed out of me, and I gripped Lacuna’s reins tight enough to hurt.

Eris caught my expression, and her face softened; a tear spilled down her cheek. She could feel emotions, and she smiled at me. “Thank you for getting angry for my sake, but it was the way of life for my kind. Our society existed on favors bought and sold. It was straightforward and brutally efficient.”

“To treat a person like property to barter with is disgusting but treating your own daughter like a slave is unthinkable.”

“You’re probably right. He was my father, and I hated him, but I also loved him,” she said, sighing.

I laughed. It was sudden, and I didn’t mean to. Eris whirled around, looking a bit shocked.

“I’m sorry. I’m not laughing at you, I swear.”

“I know, but you don’t laugh much. It’s nice to hear. What made you laugh?”

I slowed Lacuna to a trot. She was strong, but we’d been switching from walking to cantering off and on all day, and we’d covered a good bit of ground already. Lacuna deserved a rest. The grassy plains around us rose to thick forest, and the burning sunlight fell to spotted twilight.

“What you said reminded me of my own dad. He was a hard man to love, but he did his best to raise Micah and me. For being father and son, we were like night and day. We had nothing in common and fought over the littlest of things. But at the end of the day, I loved him, and even if we couldn’t communicate, I knew he loved me too.”

“I saw the love he had for you. He gave his life for you and your brother, your mother as well. Your family loved you immensely.”

I hung my head. Letting the weight of what she’d said settle around me. She’s absolutely right. They loved me and trusted me to save Micah, and I couldn’t even do that. I betrayed their trust.

We rode for another few hours, talking briefly, but both of us had too many weighted memories rattling around our heads to continue a long conversation. As the light waned through the trees. We came through the small forest to an expanse of plains ten miles wide. A deep stretch of forest lay beyond them, but it was as good spot as any to stop and find a place to make camp.

I didn’t want to camp out on the open plains, not with the deep forest so close. Bandits used the forests as natural hideouts, and I didn’t want to give them an easy target. So, we pushed on until we came to a copse of thick trees amid the green fields. An oasis of dense trees to hide ourselves, and as we entered the thicket, I found a decent spot to make camp.

After hopping down from Lacuna, I set to work taking care of her and feeding her. Afterward she started to meander around. She never strayed far, so I wasn’t worried about her, and instead set about making camp. Eris sat on the dirt as if it were the most natural thing in the world and helped dig a fire pit. Clearing the rocks and leaves away, and then while I set about erecting the tent, she went to forage some kindling. Good thing I had the foresight to bring a two-person tent in my bag. Though hers is still available if she wants to sleep apart, but I doubt it.

I’d just finished with the tents when Eris returned, carrying a decent sized bundle of sticks in her arms. She deposited them by the hole she’d dug and sat back on the ground. Closing her eyes and letting more magic drip from her fingers. I watched for a second before turning back to my duties. I piled the pit with sticks and got a nice fire going.

That done, I stretched out and got comfortable, taking off my armor and stowing it away, and I set to the task of preparing dinner. We hadn’t eaten anything all day, and I was ravenous.

I set the small pot down and poured a generous amount of water in to boil. I’d decided to make a light stew, though we had only dried meat and potatoes to make up the bulk of it. I added a dried beef stock cube along with a liberal amount of powdered garlic and pepper and let it all simmer.

Once the food was done, we tucked in and made short work of the meager stew.

Finished, I leaned back with a satisfied sigh, staring up at the stars while the fire cracked and curled in front of me. Eris came over and sat beside me, leaning over and laying her head on my shoulder.

We stargazed for a time while our food settled, but before long, I was too tired to keep my eyes open, and we called it a night and headed for bed.

In the morning, we packed up camp and set off. I wanted to push past most of the wildlands if I could, but after two days hard riding, I gave in to defeat and started looking for places to camp.

An hour later, I’d picked out a pretty good spot, nestled in a clearing just off the main road, and