The monster nudged me.“Do something.”
Talking wouldn’t help. I wasn’t good at using my words like weapons. But I knew how it felt to be dismissed. An idea formed, and my grip tightened on the hot knife we’d been using to slice off the comb. As nonchalantly as I could, I plucked a new frame from the top of the pile, setting it in the clamps. The monster helped me keep my gaze calm and even, the message clear.We have work to do,my body language said.So, kindly remove your sorry ass.
Lenny’s expression flickered with annoyance, but he tried to ignore my subtle dismissal. “So long as you’re not avoiding me.”
Beside me, Eva’s comb knife slipped into the bin below. “Course not,” she said, a little too fast. Overhead, the half dozen honeybees that had trailed after her all morning seemed to buzz a little louder. Their agitation made the hairs on the back of my neck rise.
Lenny, however, didn’t seem to notice. If anything, he looked relieved. “Of course not.” He smiled, and I immediately hated it. I wanted to shove a palmful of honeycomb right into his teeth. “Why would you?” he said with a laugh.
Eva made a sound like she meant to laugh it off too, but the little cheep that came out of her more closely resembled that of a wounded bird. For a painful moment, the monster’s awareness of her discomfort made my heart pound harder in my chest, too. Her bees frenzied faster as I shared in her silent anxiety, looking between her and Lenny.
He continued to lean against the wall of the workshop, mouth crooking in a confident smile. “Let’s go out tomorrow,” he said, as though I weren’t there at all.
“Oh. I-I can’t,” Eva said, stumbling over the words.
But Lenny bulldozed on. “Eight o’clock. There’s a drive-in movie down in the valley. I’ll pick you up at—Ow!” Lenny reared back,holding his wrist against his chest. His cavalier swagger bled into shock, then anger. “The hell?”
Even from here, I could see the pink already-swelling center of a bee sting.
“Oh, sorry,” Eva said in a near monotone. “One of our queens mated with a hot-blooded drone. They’ve been pretty aggressive. The next brood cycle should calm down.”
“This fucking hurts!”
I flinched back at his sudden outburst, at the sheer volume of anger. The bee girl, however, stacked her spine. “Do you have any vinegar back at the farmhouse? You’ll need to put some on that right away.”
The asshole looked between us again, eyes furious. “Vinegar?”
“Mm-hmm. Quicker the better,” Eva said.
I looked at her, struck by the sudden change in her pitch, the way her eyes wouldn’t quite meet mine.
She was lying.
“Lenny! We need you!” his older brother called from the house, just out of sight.
With a scowl, Lenny stepped back. His eyes landed on me again, and I had the impression that he was seeing me differently than he had when he’d first arrived.
“Eight o’clock,” he repeated, keeping his eyes on mine even though he’d spoken to Eva. I bristled inside but held his gaze. The monster helped steady the squall of my emotions, allowing me to simply lift a brow.
His answering scowl felt good. It stroked something wretched inside me that wanted to see him displeased. When his brother called again, Lenny strode away, hugging his wounded arm to his chest.
The instant he left, Eva’s shoulders dropped. A strand of blond had escaped her braid, obscuring her expression from view.
The monster spun around my spine.“I didn’t like that,”it said quietly.
Neither did I.
“Vinegar, huh?” I asked nonchalantly. Eva’s gaze snapped to mine. I pretended her eyes weren’t suddenly red, as though she were holding in tears. She plucked the knife from the bin, nicking a bit of gooey honeycomb off the blade before she thrust it toward me.
“Eat this,” she commanded.
And because I was glad the fire had returned to her eyes, I didn’t fight her. I accepted the sticky mess, careful not to let our fingers brush, and cautiously brought it between my lips. The sweet, pungent honey glazed down my throat. I chewed until the wax shrank to a gum that made my teeth squeak.
“Really good,” I said.
The knot between Eva’s brows unknit. “Nothing like it,” she said.
I couldn’t help but think that there was nothing like her, or anyone in her family. The Moreaus weren’t supposed to be like this. Kind. Funny. They weren’t supposed to distract me from the ache in my chest.
