Hive Mind: The Sovereign Code by Heidi Catherine & Tamar Sloan

Author:Heidi Catherine & Tamar Sloan [Catherine, Heidi & Sloan, Tamar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sequel House
Published: 2023-01-19T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

RIVER

River isn’t sure whether the tear tracking its way from the corner of his eye and down his cheek is because his eyes are stinging from being open too long, or because his heart is slowly, painfully cracking.

Either way, he doesn’t blink.

Echo asked him to not look away, and if that’s what he can give her during these seconds where her life hangs in the balance, then he will. With the total commitment the moment deserves.

Even as the moment stretches out to feel like a lifetime.

Even as the burning sensation intensifies, both over the surface of eyes and deep in his chest, fueling a matching line of moisture down the other cheek.

Even as Chase draws in a sharp gasp.

The queen bee must be getting close. Flashes of the last time River watched this stab, unwanted and unrelenting, through his mind. The queen in a furious frenzy once she realized she wasn’t alone. That a threat was inside the Alphadome with her. The brutal, swift attack as she targeted the girl’s face, her most open and vulnerable area.

The instant red welts. The immediate swelling.

The scream that was drenched with terror, then abruptly cut off by a bloated throat.

Oren had thought the girl was Echo.

And now it’s really her, possibly about to endure the same thing.

River locks his muscles. Despite what Flora agreed to, there’s no way he’s standing here and watching once Echo’s stung. She may react too fast to be able to administer the adrenacure herself. At the first sting, he’s going in, ready to jam as many of those canisters into Echo as needed.

“She’s dead!” Chase cries.

This time River blinks, wondering if his mind has been firmly gripped by denial. Maybe he’s only seeing what he wants to see. Except Echo’s staring back at him, terrified and stoic, most definitely alive.

One bat of his eyelids and the burning lessens. A second and it’s gone, revealing Echo’s still there. Surely Chase isn’t being so callous as to play out the worst-case scenario. While Echo can still hear…

Chase drops to his knees, his hands pressing against a hexagonal pane of glass. “No,” he moans.

And that’s when River sees it.

The glass case that holds the queen bee lies on the floor flat and open. And in the center lies the queen bee herself.

Lifeless.

Dead.

Echo bolts to her feet, having registered the same thing. “What the…”

All it takes is two steps and she’s beside it, jolting River’s heart into an unsteady canter. The queen may just be stunned, or even resting. Echo’s inviting death far more completely than she did just by stepping into the Alphadome herself.

But the queen doesn’t move. A closer inspection reveals one translucent, laced wing is slightly askew.

“What happened?” Flora cries out, darting to River’s side as she stares at the queen in horror.

“She’s dead,” Chase repeats, looking stunned. “How?”

River replays the moments after the queen was caught, ready to travel the short distance from the cylinder to the Alphadome. He barely glanced at her or the prism she was encased in.

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