Trixter by Alethea Kontis

Author:Alethea Kontis [Kontis, Alethea]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Coming of Age, Fiction
ISBN: 9781942541035
Publisher: Alethea Kontis
Published: 2015-05-02T16:00:00+00:00

7

THE WASP QUEEN

Trix needed a new word for pain.

Pain had been the pointed swords of the poison army in his stomach after consuming the bad stew that had enabled him to flee. Pain had been the cracking of his bones when the earth broke beneath him and chaos had reigned. Pain had been his heart breaking from the guilt of betraying a family who loved him.

The Wasp Queen’s sting was something beyond pain. It was wildfire, exploding through his body and rendering every muscle inept, every mental command useless. He caught a glimpse of himself in the V of ebony eyes looming above him: his neck muscles tense, the screams tearing his mouth open so wide that he could see his back teeth.

There was a golden flash, and the crushing weight of the black monster left his chest. Small bundles of fur nudged at the side of his spasming body, first two, then more, pushing him through the thick grass and half-rolling him down a slight incline. He tasted the rich soil that found its way into his screaming mouth. A stone cut his cheek. His arms bent awkwardly beneath him. Trix felt nothing but the fire.

Suddenly he was in water—the stream they had been following?—too shallow for diving, but deep enough to drown. Something hard—a turtle?—held his head above the water so that Trix could continue breathing. And screaming. Minnows—tadpoles? Undines?—removed the tattered remnants of his shirt, swarmed his wound, sucked out the poison, washed it clean.

Somewhere, deep down, Trix wished to thank his wild friends for their assistance. The rest of him kept screaming, in tones of every register, until he had no more voice left to scream.

“You will not have him!”Lizinia’s cry sounded muffled, or far away, or both.

“I do not know what armor you wear, human,” buzzed the Wasp Queen, “but my warriors will crack you like a nut and suck out your insides all the same.”

Lizinia would not have understood the Wasp Queen’s rebuttal, but the intent to harm was certainly implied. If only he could get control of himself enough to help his new friend…if anything should happen to her, on top of everything else he had done to hurt people he loved recently, the guilt might very well kill him.

The small bit of bright gold Trix had glimpsed through the leaves was consumed in black in less than a moment. Trix’s back arched and he cried out in hoarse frustration.

He needed to stand. He needed to find a weapon with which to beat those giant insects off Lizinia. He needed whatever idiot was screaming to stop so that he could think. Except that he was the idiot.

“Annoying, isn’t it? The being helpless part?”

Trix turned his head enough to see Tesera perched on a rock in the stream above him. Her long hair fell in cinnamon waves down to where her blue-green dress of water lilies pooled in the stream about her. Dragonflies lit in a row like a tiara on her brow. A small, colorful tree frog perched upon the large ring on her finger.

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