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

hours of the morning. Tegen and Cheira had huddled close to me, scared to sleep with all the new humans around.

“It’ll be okay,” I whispered into their hair as they nodded off to sleep in the saddle in front of me.

Lacuna huffed and snorted as we left Odelpha, wary of the new additions to our little group. The bandits had stolen all the surrounding horses and joined around us, herding us as we left town and skirted along the marsh.

I don’t think any of us, other than Evelyn and Adam, liked having the scruffy men and women close by. They talked too loudly and about the crudest of things. I developed an instant distaste for them, but there was nothing I could do or say to get rid of them.

It was Evelyn’s show now.

So I kept close to Makenna and Gil. They were nearly as unhappy as I was about the situation and kept talking in hushed whispers, so I trotted Lacuna close to them.

“I don’t like this. We were fine by ourselves,” Makenna hissed.

“Yeah, I know, but fuck else we can do about it.”

Gil eyed me as I approached but relaxed when he noticed it was just me.

“Morning, Eris. How are you and the kids?”

“Tired, and more than a little concerned, if I’m being honest,” I replied.

He nodded and swept his eyes over the dozen or so bandits. “Bad luck on our part, but they won’t dare defy Evelyn, and hell, they’ll take a few arrows for us, so I’m not going to complain too heavily if it means we get to keep ourselves safe.”

I pondered his words while we rode past endless gray trees and long stretches of muddy road. Gil’s right about that, as callous as it sounds. But am I okay with people I dislike dying in the place of my friends and family? Does it make me a bad person if I am?

His words had brought up a question I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer to. And I shied away from it, focusing on Lacuna and the road and making sure the bandits weren’t about to lead us into an ambush.

A few drops of magic pooled out of my fingers as I took control of the scant few insects in the trees and burrows by the road. I tried to expand my reach as far as it could go, pushing my consciousness a few miles in every direction, but there was nothing but more miserable swamp and a few shades too far away to notice us.

“There’s nothing into the woods but a few monsters, and those are too far away to be threats,” I told Gil, leaning over in the saddle to whisper to him.

“Thanks for keepin’ an eye out, but the bandits won’t dare try and go against Evelyn. She’d tear them apart if they tried.”

“Yeah, I’m beginning to see how dangerous she actually is.”

We rode in mostly uncomfortable silence for a few hours, passing out of the last of the marshlands and back to stable ground. The stench of salt fled from the air as a cool breeze blew through the grassy plains we rode onto.

I breathed in deep and couldn’t help the smile that broke upon my face as the wind swept my hair back. Our time spent in the brackish swamp had reminded me that even after centuries in the void, I had taken fresh air and sunshine for granted.

We continued for a few more hours until we were well and truly away from the Salted Mire. By the time the sun was highest overhead, I think we were all ready for a break. Luckily, I wasn’t the one who complained first.

“All right, I’ve had enough of this godsdamned saddle,” Gil bemoaned, twisting side to side and stretching. “Hey, oh mighty empress, let’s break for lunch!”

Before any of us could react, a sheathed dagger flew like an arrow and struck Gil in the center of his forehead.

Gil’s head rocked back from the blow, and he nearly careened off his horse. “Ow, fuck!” he shouted, rubbing his forehead where a welt was already forming.

Evelyn didn’t react further, and we pressed on for another hour before she deigned to allow us to stop and rest.

We stopped in a glade of tall trees, and with a single whistle from Evelyn, the bandits got to work setting up a fire and getting lunch going. There were a few dead trees that had been knocked over in a storm, their roots pulled up from the ground like veins. I walked over and sat down with the children.

Makenna came over and sat beside me. Tegen and Cheira had gotten used to our group, and Cheira crawled into Makenna’s lap while she laughed.

“Seems they don’t mind us so much anymore. Shame it’s only when we’re about to arrive at their home.”

My heart fell at hearing that. I hadn’t realized we were so close. “How much further?” I asked.

“Maybe a day, maybe less if we keep pushing like we have. We’ll be there tomorrow at any rate,” she said, letting Tegen hang off her arm like a monkey.

“I see…”

Makenna looked over to me and smiled, rubbing my shoulder. “Cheer up. It’s not like you’ll never get to see them again. I bet once we take them home, you’ll be allowed to visit them whenever you want.”

Despite her obvious attempts, her words did make me feel better, and as I watched them play together, I smiled. This isn’t the end. It’s the beginning of something great. The Arachne still live, and that means that the other Hive could still be out there. Maybe they’re even with the Arachne.

The apocritans and mantearians were the weakest of the Hive and would have likely taken refuge with either the Arachne or the scorpius clans. Maybe more of the Hive