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

By force? You gonna take your knife to my skin to spill my blood and secrets?” she asked, her voice lifting ever so subtly.

Her tone was light, but there was a dark undertone to it when she spoke. I ignored the tone and focused on the question as we passed out of the gate and back onto the main street of Hightown. I was quiet for a few seconds as we passed a crowd of wealthy dwarven nobles on a shopping spree. The dwarven butler was breaking his back to carry about a hundred pounds of parcels behind the group.

When they were well out of earshot and the street was mostly clear again, I spoke. “Through our bond, I could order you to tell the truth.”

Raven paused as her teasing eyes dropped. Didn’t think of that did you? She shook her head slightly and smiled again, drawing closer to me. “There’s no need for that, master. I’m yours to do with as you please.”

“Watch the m-word!”

Raven chuckled, her crimson eyes sparking a fire as she covered her mouth to keep from laughing. “Then don’t threaten me with commands unless you actually intend to follow through with them.”

I snorted. We both knew I wouldn’t ever make good on my threat. “Fair point.”

By the time we reached the Low Road, I was dying for an ale, and I still had to plot the heist before we went later that night.

It was far too early for the bar to be open, but Orryn told us we had access anytime. I unfurled one of the earth scrolls he’d given us, and with a flash of sandy brown light, the Script circle flared to life and disintegrated in my palms as it activated, and my slight mana bar took a hit.

The door opened as if on hydraulics and slid seamlessly into the wall, and we walked in. The bar was desolate. The stone tables were clean, and the chairs were empty. No one there.

Tel wasn’t behind the bar, and she couldn’t stop me from slinking behind it and grabbing two bottles of beer.

Raven sat down at a table in the center of the room. I handed her one of the bottles and pulled out the chair opposite her. I popped the top and drained half of it before leaning back with a satisfied sigh.

“All right,” I said, pulling out our bag of supplies for the heist. “There’s a map of the cathedral in the bag. Let’s compare it to what we just witnessed.”

“If we had a map the whole time, why did we need to go and see the place for ourselves?”

I opened the bag and pulled out the thick, rolled canvas. With a flick of my wrist, it unfurled, and I used our beer bottles to weigh down the sides.

“Never rely on what someone or something says. Always verify for yourself. This map could be outdated, and if we based everything solely on what we thought we knew, we’d be screwed when we got there and found things different. It’s the same principle I’m taking with the plan. There’s no sense concocting a complex plan, because it will all go to shit the moment a complication arises.”

Raven stood and bent over the table looked the blueprints over. It was simple, drawn by hand, but by an expert’s hand, and it matched what I remembered from the Iron Cathedral to a T.

“It looks the same to me,” she said, tracing her finger along the rough fabric as she stared at the entrance until she got to the Vault of Tears. “And why do you think there’s going to be a complication?”

“Because Magnus has already sent men after the Heart before, professional thieves that were probably incredibly skilled in their fields. They all failed, which tells me there is something none of them considered—the same thing I’m not considering—that got them killed.”

“Any idea what it could be?”

“Could be any number of things, but I’m betting a trap, something the thieves couldn’t see, and they tripped it on accident.”

She nodded, sitting back down. “Makes sense, but what do we do about it?”

“Nothing we can do but have each other’s backs. A lot is riding on this. Can I trust you?”

“With your life.”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing. You’ve got skill, and you’ve maintained your composure well so far, but when our backs are to the wall and all hope is lost, I need to know you’re in my corner.”

She nodded, holding my gaze as she dipped her head. “I am yours.”

An uncomfortable weight settled in my chest but faded as she broke eye contact and started pulling out the items in the bag and cataloging them once more.

“There isn’t anything we need that we don’t already have,” she said, as the table filled with our gear. “I’m assuming we’re going in from above?”

“Of course. It offers the best avenue for infiltration.”

“So we have the gear, the map, and a semblance of a plan. What are we waiting for?”

“The others. We need to go over the plan with them. I don’t know about the others, but I’ve trusted Mika with my life before. I know I can count on him.”

Raven rubbed at her chin, huffing as she leaned her elbows on the table. “Well, he needs to hurry the hell up.”

“Antsy?”

“A little. I don’t like sitting still. My bones start to ache if I don’t move around every now and again.”

Footsteps sound on the stone outside, and I turned in my chair as Orryn walked through the door, followed by Tel.

“Ah, good you’re here already,” he said, tersely.

“Good to see you again, Duran,” Tel said, smiling as her wings appeared in a shimmer of rainbow light and she flew over the bar top. “And I see you’ve helped yourself to some of