Page 13 of The Pixies' Chosen

I shudder at the thought but wave cheerfully goodbye as Inika gives me one last look and leaves with Dishan. I consider her words, however, as I take a long look around my living room. My once comfy chairs are enormous and lumpy-looking. My kitchen, which always felt suffocatingly close to my living room in what had been a tiny apartment, now feels like a walk to the corner market.

Hell, even walking across the coffee table is more effort than I’m currently feeling the energy to tackle. So I sink down onto the wooden surface right where I’m standing and stare morosely at the stains on the rug beneath the table. My brow beetles alittle because I never even saw those particular discolorations before, but now they’re so glaring that it bothers me. This just altogether massively sucks. Not only was I mistakenly shrunk by a male who doesn’t even want me, but I’m stuck with a life where everything I once loved is at once hideous.

A melancholiac sigh escapes me but Tryst crouches beside me, his wing grazing me in the process. I peer up at him in defeat, but he just draws me to his huge chest and gives me a hug. It feels so good to be hugged that I don’t even notice his hard chitin anymore as I sink into his heat. He also smells good, like nutmeg and a woody scent that teases my nose. I like it.

“It will be okay. Havoc and I will make you a comfortable place to rest and then we will go find food. There is no reason for you to have to confront more than you are ready to handle.”

“Wewill?” Havoc replies.

I can’t even get upset at his attitude because I don’t blame him for not wanting to be volunteered into babying someone he didn’t want to begin with. Tryst is my hero, though, because with one last cozy but brief squeeze, he releases me to rise to his full height, his wings snapping up threateningly with a soft chiming sound whispering from him.

“Weare,” he reiterates.

The dark scowl on Havoc’s face is his only response as he peers at the other male for a long moment as the tension in the room suddenly skyrockets. Finally, his wings snap with definite annoyance as he spins away with a sharper chime, dropping from his chitin as he turns to storm toward my apartment’s new miniature doorway.

“Fine.”

Never was I so relieved and so concerned to hear that single word.

CHAPTER 11

HAVOC

The world is against me. Even Tryst, who I have loved and cherished above all others, has sided against me—and for what?

I growl privately to myself and glance over at him as we work to cut the long lengths of straw. He is ignoring me now, his dark wings fluttering like a shimmering shadow behind the black stream of his hair. Tryst always was a most beautiful male, and a creative source of beauty too, as the colony’s best singer and musician. Although he was not chosen during any of the mating flights, the young queens never failed to gather around him to fawn over him as he sang or played his flute. But in the hollow of our nest, when night fell over the forest, he was always mine. I never once worried that he would abandon me. He may have glanced at me with expressions of annoyance or exasperation, but it was never more than that. Even when our embraces grew fewer as I seethed with bitterness and refused to chase after the queens anymore, he never turned me away.

It is extremely disconcerting that he growls and rebuffs me now. Even as we gather supplies, he maintains a careful distance, his flirtatious nature dimming into an unnatural coldness. My eyes follow him as I cut more straw, my lips turning down when he does not so much as glance my way as he works.

This is her fault. That much is evident. Not only is she getting between me and Tryst but she will be doing so in a very real way as I suspect that he will also demand that she sleep between us. We had always talked of the day that we would have our mate between us, her small body wrapped in our loving care while we exchange gentle touches as we hold her. But that female is not what we have, and I do not understand why Tryst does not see that. Instead, he has latched onto her stubbornly, even going as far as defying me and ordering me around when he has always followed my lead before.

A frustrated growl escapes me, and the straw releases its musky fragrance as I crush it in my hand out of a rush of anger. I should simply do this whole situation a favor and murder the female, and the Tryst and I can go back like this never happened and?—

“What are you doing?” Tryst scowls at me from the top of a husk of a sunflower he has dropped onto and is currently standing on, its few remaining golden petals curled in on themselves and clinging with a remarkable resilience.

I shrug as I swoop down to shear off another long rope of straw. I think it is quite obvious. “Doing exactly what you demanded,” I retort as I look up and nearly drop my load at the sight of the grotesquely grinning face looming overhead.

Its lumpy shape is not only horrifyingly unnatural but its face and neck are also pierced through with blades of straw that makes my stomach churn sickly even as the hollow pit of its eyesseem to pierce right through me. I swear my heart stops beneath that chilling gaze as I give a shout of warning.

“Tryst, escape from here! Now!” I bellow as my wings flutter wildly.

It is not enough to escape falling from the air. I realize that even as I drop and tumble hopelessly. It is only by some miracle that I manage to regain control of my wings before hitting the ground. It barely catch myself so that I am able to touch down and curl protectively into myself with my wings flattened to minimize damage and make myself as invisible as possible. I freeze there, for once grateful for my dark wings that help me blend into the darker shadows on the ground more successfully. I am barely daring to breathe as my mind frantically wonders if my nest brother made it to safety. That is, until scornful laughter falls upon me from above.

I look up and find Tryst just above me, crouched upon the head of the creature, his deep blue wings splayed widely behind him as he grins down at me, his amusement dancing along our bond.

“Tryst,” I warn softly as I move my hand, gesturing for him to come down before the creature notices him there.

He shakes his head in amusement and raps a fist on its head. His hand makes a dull thumping sound, but the creature doesn’t react. I stare for a long moment, my brows drawing downward as I slowly straighten.

“It is not real, Havoc,” he scoffs. “If you had been paying attention at all at Ammayi’s home, you would have noticed that it is full of things such as this. They are merely decorations for their holiday. This one, as it happens, is just sitting here a short distance away from similar decorations going up to the human dwelling over there.”

He nods to the left, and I rise into the air to peer in that direction. Sure enough, there are other such creatures aresupported by large collections of straw, and some dangle from sticks where they are hoisted among numerous lit-up faces leering out of carved pumpkins… and these are not the least of it as grim forms stand in front of the house, reaching with clawed hands to pluck up anything that they may see to devour. It is as if they come from the deepest part of the Dark Forest.

“None of it is real,” Tryst continues in a voice flat with boredom. “This is just how these humans celebrate their Halloween traditions at this time of the year. Which you would have known if you had been the least bit attentive to our queen.”

I… see. I concede that perhaps I should have paid a little more attention to Ammayi’s dwelling. I scowl at the source of embarrassment and level a kick at its head that barely jostles it. More than that, I am infuriated that he is showing me where his loyalties lie—and it is not with me.

“Why would I? She is—” I protest and falter as my ever-gentle Tryst’s expression grows exceptionally dark.

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