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“As do her creatures,” the archdruid adds. “They are the same monstrous evil as before. They want us dead. What more proof do you need?”
“I just thought . . .” Her lyrical tone wilts.
“You are here because we lost Keepers during slumber. Do not presume to know what is needed. We need time to adjust, to come up with another solution, that is all.”
“The archdruid is correct,” Titania replies, a note of panic in her voice. “We cannot risk it. Oberon has arisen, too. He must not learn they have survived all these years. He mustneverlearn.”
“On this, we agree. Always.”
It was only hours ago that our life’s dream became a nightmare. Only hours since our star realized her full potential, battled another slaver queen, and bled for us... scarred for us... but when she laid eyes on what she’d claimed, she called us monsters like so many before.
Our anguish is strong enough to pierce our hearts.
“Oh my,” Titania coos and slows her pacing to stare at us. “My my my...”
“Your Radiance?” the archdruid asks.
“This might be easier than we thought. All these years, under the guidance of weaker queens, these monsters finally dared to dream... now I glimpse the fault in their hearts. Now I know which walls to crumble so this collective state falls.” She strokes one of us on the jaw. “Show me her face.”
“NO,” we bellow as one, surging against our restraints. Our fated queen might not want us, but we would rather die than give her up.
The druidic chanting increases in intensity. The fire against our throats flares, but our defiance grows hotter, too. For her, for our true queen, we will enter oblivion. We will grow dark enough to swallow every other star, so she burns brighter.
As one, the hive strains against our leash. We each rise onto trembling feet and glimpse the terror in Titania’s face.
“Yes, you should be afraid,” we hiss, cackling with triumph. “Before, we did not know what we missed... but now... now we have tasted freedom, and she is magnificent.”
A bloody, fanged grin splits across each of our faces. Our skulls illuminate beneath our skin, flickering with the urge to release our wraith forms and consume their souls, but her power infuriatingly blocks us.
“Start!” Titania screeches, backing up. “Start the binding ritual.”
Robed and masked druids bustle around us, lighting candles, setting herbs on fire. They call on the feylines beneath the earth’s crust streaming directly from the Cauldron’s Wellspring.
They place a stone disc at the First's feet, sealing the door on his hive-mind space. With one door closed, we are no longer united. The hive is broken. We are thrown back into our individual bodies.
Fox
I am myself again.It takes a moment to acclimate, to acknowledge the skin I exist within—a tail lashes behind me. My tattered, taloned wings expand to fill the dark cave with increasing shadow. My mind gropes for the hive space, wanting to fling open the mental door and unite us once more. Together, we are invincible. Alone, we drift.
The hive space is just out of reach. If only I could grasp the doorknob and yank it open, we could break the seal blocking Legion from the rest of us. But he stands in our circle, confused. Dark, long hair falls from a widow’s peak, hiding his face. His wings are gone. His eyes have switched from wholly black to white with an iris and pupil.
A druid’s robe brushes my tail in passing. My taloned wing slices like a blade, aiming for the head. The queen’s collar restricts my range. I miss. A squeak behind the druidess’s wooden mask is satisfying. She almost drops her stone disc.
“Fox!”Varen’s voice punches into my mind.“Listen to me. We have but moments to plan before our minds are not our own.”
My gaze whips to the left. Beside me, inches of dark hair veil his eyes as he hunches. He hides something. I look harder and glimpse white, meaning he ransacks timelines of the future... searching for a path to freedom.
His slumped weight presses his neck into the invisible collar restraining him. Blood oozes from his throat, pooling on the ground. When he enters this state, he forsakes his well-being. I must protect him. I claw at my choker, heedless of pinpricks of metaphysical fire stabbing into my bones.
“I’m coming,”I send him, mind-to-mind. We, Sluagh of the Morrigan’s first hive, are almost impossible to kill, but we can grow weak. We can suffer, oh yes, we can suffer.
“One of us must retain the truth in order to catch our falling star,”he sends privately.“One who must hide in plain sight, take sustenance to feed the others, and protect our secrets until she arrives to complete her claim on us. To free us, once and for all.”
Bodin’s steady presence evaporates when another door slams closed in the hive-mind space. A blanket of normalcy hides his monstrous side. Long braids sway as he cranes to check where his wings have gone.
“Fox,”Varen urges.“We are almost out of time.”
With horror, I realize he intends for me to be the sole member of our hive to retain memory.
