The leech needed to be over fed to clear it out of the three others, but that wouldn’t work with the bees. Nix looked at me. “I need help.” I nodded as I ran over, earning a sting myself. Both my wolves howled as I screamed, but they looked more awake. “Help me get him on my back.” Nix nodded to the wolf below her. I wrapped my arms around his middle and hefted him onto her back. Once he was secure, she started to run the circuit with him on her back. Megan ran behind them, taking any bee stings when she could.
“Nix!” She looked at me. “Find out where the bees are coming from.” I looked, and every time one bee struck, it dropped, but another replaced it. The ground was littered with their bodies.
“Somewhere in the woods.” She called back. I turned to run the way we came, but Nix called back to me. “To the north. They all come from the north.” I spun around to the opposite side of the clearing and ran. Every few seconds I screamed, but I kept pushing. The dark trees were hiding secrets I needed to unravel. I threw up a ball of light, and I saw a bee zipping towards the clearing. I ran the way it came until I stumbled upon a huge hive.
The hive stood as high as high as a telephone pole. There were thousands of bees. If not more. There was a searing pain as a bee decided I was a target, but the boost just gave me energy I was missing.
I looked around the clearing, trying to find something to help me, but there was nothing. “Amy…this is stupid, even for you.” I mumbled as I walked over the ground searching for anything that I could use to kill the bees. But I how the fuck are you supposed to fight an entire beehive? I knew my wolves couldn’t run that stupid circle here indefinitely, and there was no other way around these fucking bees. They only died once they stung someone.
The hive was becoming more agitated and as I walked closer, I noticed that something was agitating the bees. They were starting to swarm around their hive. Three quick stings nearly drove me to my knees. But then I heard it.
“They are gone Verity.” Vince sounded panicked. I looked around the clearing, but we were still in Rick’s mind. Vince wasn’t anywhere near here. “I know they should have been here, but obviously someone got them out.” He screamed his frustration. “Obviously.” I was missing half the conversation, but somehow I knew he was screaming about this right now. I walked closer. Another three bee stings, but I was right next to the hive now. I bit my cheek to keep from screaming out. I needed to hear the rest of whatever was happening.
“What are you up to?” I whispered. I looked around the clearing, but there was nothing other than this hive. I pulled some magic to me and created a raven. “Search, see if there is another hive hidden in the forest.” It let out a deep croak and then took off. I was able to turn back to the hive, and Vince.
“Verity, I’m serious. Rick, Shelly, their fucking dead kid. All gone. They even took the fucking Omegas!” Vince growled. “What’s the big issue?” He snarled. “Yes, I know they are fucking useless, but I needed Rick.” He paused. “What did you just say?” His voice dropped very low. He was trying not to lose it. “Not you Verity, Brandon, what?” Vince let out a growl. “The Omega was pregnant? How can you be so sure?” Brandon said somethingbecause Vince let out a dark laugh. “When we find them, I am going to enjoy taking out the punishment on her. She was only this lucky because she found her mate before I could get my hands on her.” Verity had obviously said something because he snapped out. “No! I can’t trace them. I fucking tried. That’s why I called you!” I snickered. He was losing it. Over a few people, he deemed useless. “The power was cut off. So no, I can’t just take everything from them. Are you stupid? You said it yourself the kids weren’t fucking ready…AGAIN.” Goddess, I wish I could hear the other side of the conversation. “Yes, I am still connected to the rest of the pack. Those connections are still in place, thank the Goddess.” I growled that time, earning a new sting. Vince giving thanks to the Goddess like this was in any way a part of her plan made me angry. “The Rick one? What are you talking about?”
“Fuck.” The hive was becoming more agitated with me being so close to it. But Vince’s voice kept fading in and out, and I could barely hear him over the buzzing of the bees. I stepped closer, earning another angry welt. Nix and Megan’s howls hurt me, but this was the only way.
“I haven’t checked if Rick’s power rune was still active. What would that do for us anyway, other than waste fucking power?” There was a pause. “I haven’t even thought about him. But we might as well. I don’t need him opening his fucking mouth. If Gavin was still alive, I would be more worried, but what is he going to do?” Vince’s laugh was cut off. “What do you mean the king is still keeping track of Amy? I thought you had him under your fucking control?” The whole hive started to vibrate. “So if Rick somehow gets closer to the king because of that bitch, we are fucked?” Vince growled again, louder this time. “Fine, kill him, but make it painful.” At his command the bees all started moving at once.
The hive started to shake. The entire colony was getting ready to swarm out and if I let that happen without somehow distracting them, then Wraith was going to die. I searched the ground again and my foot kicked a thick branch under the hive. I crouched and wrapped my fingers around the club. The buzzing got louder as I stood back up.
I took a step back as the first bees flew out of the nest, and I swung.
The bees swarmed me. I was the new threat. They would kill me first and then move on to Rick. Or so they thought. I kept swinging. The hive was still paper thin, so each swing took out a section. But I was taking sting after sting.
My body was on fire. I felt like my skin was melting from my bones. Each sting was a new ember on the pyre that was my broken, exhausted body. But still I kept swinging. I heard howls off in the distance, but it was the screams that would haunt me for years to come. I thought it was the wolves at first, but then I realized whose screams ripped through the air.
They were my screams.
The buzzing from the bees had morphed into a windstorm, but it was my screams that shook the trees. My screams that darkened the sky. My screams that sounded like what the humans called hell. My screams echoed around the forest, and bounced off the trees back to me, creating an echoing chamber of terror and desperation.
I was being tortured, but I couldn’t stop. If I stopped, Rick died. And I couldn’t let down his little girl. Her face was the only thing that kept me swinging. Tiny larvaes were falling like acorns around me as I attacked the hive. Their tiny bodies hitting the ground sounded like a soft rain. The bees kept stinging; I kept swinging until I saw her.
The queen.
She was three times the size of her drones, and her stinger looked to be as long as my middle finger. Her wings looked too weak to hold her up, thank the Goddess. She vibrated angrily at me as I took aim. I swung the stick, and I was stung ten times at once. I dropped to my knees. My blood had turned to molten metal in my veins.
I screamed so loud my jaw cracked. The burning pain was blinding, but the energy that came with it was like a match. It ignited the surrounding air. My body, my magic, my life had whittled down to the white hot pain. My skin must have burned away, leaving the muscle open because every breeze felt like knives.
The hive was swarming around me, pulling in tighter and tighter, trying to kill me. But they underestimated how much power I can take in. I screamed again as a bee stung me in the eye. I had thought I knew pain, but that one made my brain shut down for a minute. The fire under my skin was building, and I didn’t know how I was going to release it.
“Amy!” I heard Nix call, but I was burning. I could only scream. “Release it!” Release it? Release what? All I had was fire. I tried to open my eyes, but only one opened. I could see a tired Nix, welted and limping at the edge of the clearing through the gaps between the bees. Megan, I could only assume, was still running with Rick’s wolf. I couldn’t tell. Their pain had faded as mine took over. That thought cleared my mind for a second. My wolves were in pain. Nix caught my gaze. “Release the fire.” She screamed at me.
“I can’t.” I screamed back. More bees found bits of flesh to sting but the pain was starting to dissipate. It was as if my body was stripped bare, nerves burned away.
“Yes, you can. You have the ability to do anything. You have two wolves, you have magic, and you are the strongest person I have ever met. You can do anything.” Nix reassured me. I couldsee her wince at every sting, but she was able to stand still, and I didn’t see how. She must have seen the confusion on my face, because she called out. “You shut down our link. You are keeping most of the pain away from us. Just let it out.”
“I don’t know how.” I cried back, frustration and pain warring in my system.
“Burn Amy, burn it all.” She yelled, and that flipped the switch.
Between one breath and another, the fire that was under my skin exploded from my lips. The scream that had built behind my teeth turned into a column of fire that ignited the bees and the nest alike. Bodies fell, the nest flaked away, and the queen caught on fire. Vince’s voice reached my ears past the burning.
“What do you mean you can’t reach Rick? How is this fucking possible?” There was a pause. “NO!” His voice faded as the nest burned away.
I dropped like a sack of potatoes. The remaining bees that had somehow survived were still dive-bombing me, but their stings barely registered anymore. Nix came over and she nudged herself under me. Once she was sure I was secure, she ran.
