Chapter Twenty-Two: The Enemy of My Enemy
The creature stepped fully into the chamber.
It was taller than any Hiveborn I'd ever seen — its limbs thin but impossibly strong, its eyes like molten bronze. Behind it, dozens more poured from the tunnel, their movements eerily synchronized, their armored feet clattering in a rhythm that made my skin crawl.
—First Queen— the voice echoed in my skull again, sharper this time, like a command.
"I'm not—" I started, but my knees buckled. The pulse inside me was syncing with theirs, my heartbeat no longer mine.
Vire was already moving, resin forming along her arms like jagged blades. But instead of charging at me, she positioned herself between me and the tunnel.
"This isn't your fight," the man warned her.
Her laugh was short and bitter. "When the Legion comes, it's everyone's fight."
The first of the Hollow Legion moved, blindingly fast. Its clawed hand lashed out toward me, but the stranger tackled me sideways, sending us both crashing into the wall.
Vire intercepted the creature's second strike, her resin blade screeching against its armor. Sparks flew. She gritted her teeth. "You called them, girl! Now you're going to help me keep them from tearing this colony apart."
"I didn't call them—"
"Yes, you did," the stranger snapped, hauling me to my feet. "And they think you're their Queen."
Another Legion soldier burst forward. Vire drove her blade up under its chin, but it didn't fall. Instead, it grabbed her wrist, twisting until resin cracked and shattered from her arm.
The man shouted, "We can't kill them fast enough!"
"They're not here to kill," Vire said grimly, shoving the soldier back. "They're here to take her."
And in that instant, I realized she was right — every Legion head had turned toward me.