Page 167 of The Dawn of the Cursed Queen

He shook his head and flicked his wrist, summoning another sword. “And you think I wouldn’t do the same for you?”

“I love you. You are it for me and have been for a very long time.” My sword whipped over my head, blood spraying as I lopped the head off one of the bugs. Samkiel and I were fighting, yet our eyes were only on each other.

“Well, you’re it for me,” he yelled back, thrusting his blade to my side, impaling one of the creatures as it reached for me.

“I’m stupid.” I kicked my foot out, stomping on the chomping head that neared me. “I was wrong. I would rather fight every day with you than be without you.”

Samkiel raised his hand, light heating my cheek as it whizzed past my head. I felt the splatter of warm moisture as the creature charging at my back exploded. “As would I.”

I spun around him, going back to back as the bugs chattered, wings flaring. “Good.”

“Great,” he huffed before we pushed off each other.

We cut and maimed, limbs and wings flying. Soon, the floor was covered in corpses and twitching legs. Samkiel’s head lifted midstrike. I heard it, too. More bugs scurried in from our left. The holes there, that’s where they were coming from. That was the main port.

“Sami.” I pointed toward the main opening. It was the largest, allowing them to swarm.

“On it,” he answered.

He flicked his ring, returning his ablaze weapon to it. In the next heartbeat, a silver bow formed in his hand. Thick in the middle and curving up, it was nearly as tall as him. He pulled the string back, and an arrow made of light appeared. The creatures near the tunnel paused.

It was all he needed. Samkiel released, and the arrow hit right above the main entrance. The wall shook, and the stone split. Rocks fell, crushing the bugs that tried to scuttle back in. I stared at the twitching legs sticking out from between the boulders in disgust, listening to the deep rumble echo through the tunnels. For a moment, I worried the cavern would collapse, but it remained intact.

Samkiel stared at me, his eyes molten behind his face shield. The chill of battle had retreated, his eyes burning with the same heat I always saw in his gaze when he looked at me.

“You found me.”

“You find me, I find you,” I panted back, handing him his sword. It collapsed into his ring as soon as it touched his hand. “That’s how we work.”

His lips twitched in a barely there smile as he looked around. The scurrying in another section above us was a welcome distraction, our previous conversation a dead weight between us. “The hive is a labyrinth.”

“Yeah, I gathered that much,” I said.

“Don’t take an ablaze weapon from me again,” he said, nodding to my burned palm. “How’s your hand?”

I raised it, the skin knitting together slowly. “Right as rain or whatever. I didn’t hold it that long.”

Samkiel nodded, his hand clenching as if he wanted to reach for me to check. His boots crunched over bug remains as he stepped forward. He didn’t come to me, but around. He lifted his head, inspecting the cavern and the tunnels where the beasts had come in, making sure that all were clear. I knew what he was doing. He was avoiding eye contact and all contact in general.

Samkiel craned his head to the right, looking at a particularly wide hole. “This hive has to run through the entire city.”

“It would make sense. I found cocoons back there with bodies. A lot of them.” I moved to his side, and he deftly stepped around me.

“Her hive must have taken the city. They burrow as we have seen, but the last I knew, they stayed in the Otherworld. There is less sun exposure there. Someone must have brought them here. I don’t see how they could get this far on their own. Maybe a transport or something.”

“Hmm, that would make sense. I wonder who would bring them here, though, and why.” I sighed, folding my arms.

“I don’t know, but she’s been nesting here a long time. There is no telling how many eggs have hatched. We need to find the queen. We kill her, and the horde dies. If we leave her alive, she will just rebuild and repopulate.”

“Sami.”

He turned, but pain filled his eyes, not hope. He held his hand up to stop me, but his fingers slowly collapsed into a fist. “Not here. Or now. We can talk about it once we leave, but we need to find—”

“Ask me again,” I snapped, cutting him off.

Samkiel turned toward me, and his helmet rolled back, disappearing into the collar of his armor. Confusion marred his expression. “What?”

“Ask me again.”

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