Page 53 of Make Me Bee-lieve

Florian sputters and feigns offense as he presses a gloved hand to his clavicle. “What? Me? I did no such thing. Those were your majordomo’s machinations, not mine. I never wanted our people to suffer.”

“That’s a load of cow dung,” I snap, pointing my blade at him. “And you know it. Now, be a man for once in your life and fight me, you coward.”

Florian’s eyes soften, and he tuts. “Oh, very well. If you say so. But you can’t say I didn’t try.” He readies his blade?—

—and is knocked clear out of the sky, sent smacking into the concrete down below. The surrounding humans watch, their mouths agape in horror as … as…

I squint. Hard. Sylvie hits Florian over and over again with her fists until his nose is bloodied.

“Sylvie!” I cry. “Stop! I command you to stop this once!”

Ser Beatrix buzzes loudly and rips through the air, grabbing her girlfriend with all four arms to pull her off Florian. Florian writhes around on the ground, bleeding thanks to the beating he just received from Sylvie. Impressive of my guard, and normally I would let her have at it. But Florian is my fiancé and I’ll be the one to deal with him. Ser Beatrix drags Sylvie back as she curses and snarls.

Calvin is at my side immediately. “Po, are you okay?” he asks, looking me up and down quickly.

I nod. Physically, I’m fine. But mentally? Visions of Florian’s broken body dance in my head. A future I’m all too eager to see come to fruition. “I’m fine, but I won’t allow my retribution to be taken from me again,” I say, stepping toward Florian as he scrambles to his feet. He lets out a pitiful whimper and tries to stagger away from me as I make my way toward him, my blade down at my side.

“My stinger blade hungers for your blood. I was going to take my time with you,” I say, and close the distance between us. Florian lets out a gasp and shoves his back against the brick wall of the building. “But I think I’ll take your head instead.”

I lift my chin, and Florian covers his head with his arms, like that’s going to save him. But then, just as I’m about to raise my blade, a bright red bolt of electricity fires forward, hitting him and sending me hurtling backward.

“No!” Calvin screams. “Who pushed the button?!”

Everything happens so fast. One moment, I’m lying on the ground eating the pavement, and the next, Kyle and Maurice are running around the rooftop, waving their arms as a swarm of yellowjackets descend upon them.

Calvin helps me to my feet, and Ser Beatrix points at the Shrinkatron. “There,” she says. “The yellowjackets.”

An enormous swarm of yellowjackets hover over the big red button—the one Calvin told the humans to press in order to make him big again. But the Shrinkatron’s beam didn’t hit him, did it? It hit…

I swallow the lump in my throat and turn slowly to find my now-human-sized ex-fiancé towering over us, a sneer plastered across his face.

“Well, well, well,” he says. “Today is just full of fun surprises, is it not, my dear?” Then, staring down at me and Calvin, he lifts his foot.

CALVIN

Ishield Polina with my body, preparing for the worst as the giant bee-foot comes flying down toward us. This is it. There’s no way I can save my love, so the best I can do is hold her like this and stroke her hair.

“I love you, Po,” I whisper in her ear. Tears fall freely down her cheeks as she looks into my eyes. She kisses me right then and there. It’s a hot, frantic kiss. One rife with longing and regret. One that says this is probably the last time she’s ever going to kiss me.

“I love you, too,” she murmurs. A thick, blinding shadow covers us both as Florian’s boot closes in on us, and I clench my eyes shut. I did my best. I did my best … I did my?—

A sizzling arc of blinding red hits us both, jolting us apart. Polina pulls away from my grasp as I scream her name.

“What’s going on?” I cry out. When I look down at my hands, I notice they’re … growing? Actually, come to think of it, all of me is growing. The world spins like I’m on a merry-go-round from Hell, until finally my vision clears and I can see … I can see Kyle behind the Shrinkatron, grinning at me like a madman. He shoots me a thumbs up.

I whirl around just in time to see Polina scrambling to her feet, now a few inches shorter than I am but still very much human-sized.

Oh my God. I’m big again. But so is Polina.

“Do you really think being bigger is going to save you?” Florian hisses. I whirl around to see he’s still there, all four hands balled into fists at his sides, his double-breasted jacket is still in perfect condition despite everything we’ve all been through. “You were pathetic bee-sized, and you’re just as pathetic now.” His iridescent wings unfurl and beat behind him to create a high-pitched buzzing that makes us all clap our hands to our ears.

Polina loosens a snarl as she stomps forward, getting ready to fight him. I put myself between my beloved and her fake fiancé immediately and shoot her a dark look.

“No, Po. I thought I almost lost you just a moment ago, and I don’t ever want to feel that way again,” I murmur. Her eyebrows shoot up into her hairline, and her bottom lip trembles.

I turn back around and stalk forward, clenching my hands into fists. My steps are sluggish, like my body is instinctively trying to turn tail and run away like I did during company sports. Run away from the ball, don’t get hurt. Don’t do anything too dangerous. Keep your head down.

Well, fuck all of that. This asshole just tried to kill my woman.

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