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“The worker bees control the hive,” he tells me.
“Of course,” I mutter and go to the dresser, fill a bowl with water from the pitcher, and locate his shaving kit. When he doesn’t answer, I prompt, “Go on.”
“Important decisions are made when the colony votes through collective behavior.”
When I return, I notice Bodin and Legion at the doorway.
They know the routine. Bodin brings another chair to the fireplace while Legion pulls over a side table for my bowl. As I sit and prepare the shaving cream, Bodin undresses Varen, carefulnot to use harsh movements, or he’ll send our fourth into a fit of panic. Legion leans against the wall and pins me with all-knowing eyes.
“What was that?” he asks softly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My knuckles whiten on the badger brush.
“Come now, Fox. Your foul mood was palpable, as was hers.”
Swallowing, I whip the cream into a frenzy and refuse to meet his stare. “She is vexing. That is all.”
I already attempted to tell them she is our queen today. It didn’t stick. But they believed me when I said she was imperative to our plan to free Styx.
“Well, she is here now,” Bodin points out as he slips off Varen’s shirt, folds it, and places it on the settee by the windows. “As Emrys would say, the djinn is out of the bottle.”
As if summoned by his words, the Wild Hunt scampers into the room and crawls beneath Varen’s bed. Sounds of destruction filter out. He’s found something to chew. Bodin sighs as he walks into the bathroom. He returns with a cloth and wets it in the bowl. “The pest is not my responsibility tonight.”
Legion’s jaw clenches. “I have reports.”
“You always have reports.”
“Because I am the Knight Commander.”
Bodin sighs. “Fine. Then you take over here.”
He hands the wet cloth to Legion with a dark look, and then leaves with the wildling. He is the only one of the Six whom Legion occasionally submits to. For millennia, I took offense—as did the rest of us. But now, all I want is for them to remember who we are to each other without having to remind them daily.
I shift my chair to face Varen. Firelight creates hollows in his cheeks and shadows over his naked, thin body.
I am no longer envious of Bodin’s influence on Legion, for now I understand it is a burden. Legion takes the weight ofresponsibility into his soul. Bodin is his balance, ensuring he is not consumed by duty. Legion has borne that weight since the Morrigan spilled her seven first sons from the Cauldron’s Wellspring eons ago. The goddess created us from chaos, but she is only one of eight manifestations of the Cauldron, or the Well, as Willow calls it.
A brief smile touches my lips when I think of her. But then I recall how she has been used by the deities too. A war as long as time itself has raged between the them. In the beginning, the Morrigan used us to tip the balance of power in her favor... Then, the war spilled from the Cauldron and into this world.
We are the battleground.
Through countless shackling queens, Legion has only lost one of our hive—the Seventh. But his loss was not in vain. We used it to break away from Maebh’s iron fist, enough to make our own bargain with the gods.
Dabbing the brush into the cream, I raise it to Varen’s jaw.
“Not yet.” Legion’s commanding tone stops me.
He drops to his knees, soiling his crisp suit, and wipes Varen’s face with slow, gentle strokes from forehead to jaw. Our fourth sits through it all, eyes unfocused as he watches the fire dance. Legion rinses and cleans his body, meticulously washing every inch of skin. He pauses over the chipped and dirty fingernails. I ache to know what he’s thinking. I ache to be one with all of them, but the seals veil access to our innermost selves. They close the doors on the mindscape we have shared for eternity. When we speak mind-to-mind, it is all through me.
“What is it?”I send.
He glances at me and replies, “He wastes away.”
“I know.”
“If he refuses to feed again, you must force it down his throat.”
My eyes widen. They call me Fox because I am cunning, but Legion is deceptively devious behind that stalwart façade. He resumes cleaning, then stands and gestures for me to begin. I take Varen’s jaw and dab cream onto it.
