Page 50 of The Hive Queen

I glance over at the sludge demon I’ve been trying hard to ignore.

Despite its semi-liquid form, the Librarian managed to tie it up in a series of intricate cross knots that brought all its solid bits together, and I really don’t want my imagination processing what else they were getting up to before I interrupted.

It’s my fault for ignoring the signs when I headed for our personal Library portal in our garage at home. Since Reese first set up the spell, the painting has slowly come to life, and what the swan maidens are doing is a good indicator of how welcoming the Library will be.

When I arrived home in the early afternoon with a mission to hunt down this monster terrorizing Clearhelm, I completely ignored that the swan maidens were all in hiding.

I deserve to be bubbled at by a thwarted sludge demon.

Enyo waggles wiry eyebrows at me. “You’re tempted, aren’t you? I have another set of ropes somewhere around here.”

“Not my thing.” I frown as my familiar creeps closer to the sludge demon. “If you’re looking for a bondage partner, hit up Marc.”

A glob of mud plops onto the floor, and Anny wags her tail as she lowers her head to sniff it.

“Leave it alone.” I snap my fingers, for all the good it does.

My familiar cocks one pointed ear in my direction just to make it clear she’s ignoring me. Foxes are technically canines, but she sure has a cat-like attitude when it comes to listening.

Frustrated at my lack of progress with her, I rub the bridge of my nose.

Next time, I’m leaving her in the garage. There’s far too much room for her to get up to mischief here.

“You look stressed, kitten.” Enyo pats my hand in sympathy. “You need to get laid.”

“Not right now.” I return my focus to the book in front of me. “Gotta hunt down this awesome penis-blasting monster.”

“I’ve blasted a few penises in my day.” She cackles, exposing a pointy, black tongue. “Best remedy for a wandering eye.”

I shudder and cross my legs. “If only you were unique in that. There are a distressing number of penis smiters out there.”

Far more than I ever could have imagined, in fact. Removal of male genitalia is high on the list for a lot of creatures, as is the removal of other body parts or straight-up consumption of the entire male.

But so far, nothing that blasts holes through the pelvis while leaving the genitals intact.

She scrapes her claws on the wooden tabletop. “How’s the dark prince settling back in?”

I peek at her from the corner of my eye. “You should know that better than anyone.”

“He does like to pour over his history book, even if he doesn’t want to properly remember it.” She drags a volume over and flips open the cover. “Fae like him don’t exist anymore. Then again, he doesn’t exist anymore, either. Not in his current form. Maybe that’s a good thing.”

Sharpe’s true self is a fae prince of the dark sithe, but his last reincarnation set him back to the fae equivalent of a child. He won’t gain full use of his power again until he turns forty, which gives us a little time, but not a lot, and the only other fae we know of still on the human plan slipped out of existence through a mirror.

Curious, I turn my head to stare at her. “Have you been to the fae realm lately?”

“Honey, I’ve been toeveryrealm.” She fluffs up the rags around her short neck. “The places I’ve been would break your mind.”

I lean on my elbows. “Anywhere nice and quiet, without conflict?”

“Sure, if you count uninhabitable, dead worlds.” She pushes the book she opened across the table toward me. “Stop trying to run away and just fix what’s wrong here.”

Depression seeps in. It will never be enough, and the weight of that knowledge drags me toward darkness. “We’ve been fixing for a long time. It’s not working.”

“Hard to run at peak performance with an incomplete deck.” She slides off the chair and waddles toward her sludge demon. “And stop trying to give your familiar a new name before you’ve even accepted her as yours.”

Anny gives a sharp bark of agreement.

Great. Cryptic words of wisdom. My favorite.

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