Page 33 of Make Me Bee-lieve

“Polina—” he starts, but I shake my head.

“N-No. No, no, no,” I choke out, and rush over to Evie’s side. Her body is mangled and twisted so that her head is looking to the left but her arms aren’t even in their sockets. They dangle in every direction as her blank expression looks on, frozen in time. “Evie.” I drop down to my knees and take her hands into mine. “My friend.”

Ser Beatrix drops down beside me and places her hand on my shoulder. “Your Highness, are you hurt?”

It takes me a long, long moment to look up at my knight’s face. Beatrix’s expression is stoic, as always, despite the terrible carnage that lies before us. “No. I’m not hurt,” I say.

She nods, then stands up and offers me her hand. “Come. We have to get you out of the palace.”

Calvin walks among the dead, searching the bodies, but for who or what, I don’t know. Survivors, if there are any, is my guess.

Ser Beatrix grits her teeth as she takes in the tragedy of the room. Corpses. Corpses everywhere. Calvin gasps, and we jerk our heads over to look at who he’s pulling out of the pile of bodies. He pulls on a small hand, grasping for life. Ser Beatrix is next to him in a wing beat.

“Allow me, Caretaker,” she says, and then grabs onto the survivor’s arm and pulls with all her strength.

Sylvie bursts through the mass of corpses as she sucks in a deep breath of air, and Ser Beatrix pulls her tightly against her chest to embrace her.

“Oh, my love. You’re alive,” Ser Beatrix rasps. Sylvie lets out a little sputtering cough as she’s whisked up into her girlfriend’s arms.

I dab at a tear that’s escaped from the corner of my eye and smile softly. At least there’s one small mercy today.

Calvin smiles back at me, and it’s then I notice that there are tears in his eyes, too.

CALVIN

The roar of yellowjackets buzzing throughout the colony is deafening. They’re still here, and still sound as hostile as ever. With Polina in my arms, I race through the gilded hallways streaked with blood, with Ser Beatrix at our front and Sylvie at our back, defending us. When a yellowjacket steps into our path as we reach the end of a hallway, Ser Beatrix cuts them down in a matter of seconds with such practiced precision that it’s alarming. My eyes widen as the yellowjacket’s body is sliced in two and falls to the ground. We waste no time, and I step over it.

Polina looks down at the yellowjacket’s face. Its opaque eyes stare up at the ceiling while its mouth is contorted in pain. They look so … so human, save for the mandibles under their chin and the antennae on their heads. But they’re larger, so much larger than the honeybees, and this one is stacked with a density of muscle I didn’t know was physically possible. Not normal insects, then. Other fae.

“Come on,” Ser Beatrix whispers harshly. “The secret doorway to the roof is just through here.”

Sylvie brings up the rear, and her normally jovial face is now uncharacteristically stoic, her lips pressed into a tight line as she pushes past us. “It hasn’t seen much use in the past few decades,” she explains. “But in times of emergency, it’s how the queen can get to safety without being seen.”

My throat bobs as I clutch Polina against my chest. I look down at her, and her lips twist up into a soft smile. Putting on a brave face, no doubt, because she’s trembling in my arms.

“It will be fine,” she says. Is she telling me, or trying to convince herself? I hug her again and nod. “Once we get to the roof, we will make our escape to the poppy fields and wait for … wait for the danger to pass, and your signal. You will come for us, yes?”

Ser Beatrix looks over her shoulder at us, and she nods curtly. “Yes. Wait for us, and we will retrieve you when it’s safe.”

I arch an eyebrow as we race through the twisting, turning hallway decked in hexagonal honeycombs. So many hexagons. I’ll be glad to be out of the hive so I can see the sky again, because all this geometry has been making my head spin.

Will the danger pass? Not likely, with an attack of this size. Ser Beatrix and Sylvie seem to be the only guards who weren’t included, and I’m not sure why. My heart pounds as we reach the end of another hallway. The buzzing of nearby yellowjackets makes my pulse rail against my eardrums, threatening to make me panic. They’re coming, they’re coming, and I can’t defend Polina. I’m next to useless…

“Caretaker.” Ser Beatrix’s voice cuts through my panic like a knife. “This way.” The captain of the guard knocks on a plain part of the wall three times. A partition slides opens to a stairwell just beyond the door. “Through here. Hurry.”

Sylvie’s brows slam together, and she rushes forward, her stinger blade at the ready. “They’re coming,” she yells. “Hurry, Caretaker! Now!”

I don’t think as I rush forward and place Polina down so she can get herself through first. We ascend the stairwell as Ser Beatrix closes the doorway again, leaving us in near total darkness. Polina gasps as we’re suddenly unable to see.

“Shh, sweetheart. We need to be quiet,” I gently remind her. We ascend each step one by one, taking care not to trip. Ser Beatrix cries out from the other side of the wall as the sounds of fighting begin. Polina lets out another whimper, and I nudge her forward. “It’ll be okay. We just need to focus for now and trust Ser Beatrix and Sylvie.”

When we finally reach the top of the stairwell, there’s another door, but this time, it has a latch to pull. Polina steps to the side, and I give the cord a hard yank. The door gives way to bright sunlight that nearly blinds me, and Polina lets out a sharp hiss. She tries to go out first, but I put my arm out, stopping her, and shake my head.

“Let me, Sunshine. Just in case,” I murmur.

She nods, and I stick my head out the doorway like a gopher and look around. The rooftop of the hive is covered in white flowers and cobblestone pathways. And above, the noon-day sun beams down on us.

“Coast is clear,” I say. Polina pops up beside me, then pulls herself up and out of the emergency stairwell. “Now what? Where are we supposed to go? We’re still in the hive.”

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