19. Calvin

CALVIN

I take her hand, and she yanks me hard against her chest. I'm surprised by her strength, but then again, I guess I shouldn't be. Though she be but little, she is fierce. The adrenaline is probably turning her into a super bee right about now.

Without warning, she kicks off into the air, her brilliant wings buzzing so loudly my ears ring. Suddenly, we're high in the sky, shooting for the clouds. When I look back down—a rookie mistake—the hive is already the size of a dollhouse as we soar through the sky.

We slice through the air, back and forth, in erratic movements that make my brain turn to gelatin. And when you're going as fast as we are, it doesn't matter if it's the Sahara Desert or the inside of an oven—it's going to be a brisk ride. I shiver against her body as she hugs me against her ample chest. Not even her breasts can keep me warm now.

As we pass over the treetops of the Sugardove City Central Park, Polina says, "Look, Cal. Open your eyes! Is this the first time you've seen your world like this before?"

I unclench my eyes and force myself to look down. My head swirls like a jug of water, and I let out a soft whimper. "Y-Yeah … I'm not the biggest fan of heights." Ugh. I must sound like such a loser right now. Some Caretaker I've turned out to be, can't even handle a little flying when it's necessary.

Polina laughs as we zip through the air. It's like she's a different person, like the carnage back at the colony isn't even happening right now. "When Ser Beatrix and Sylvie have dispatched the yellowjackets, I will take you out for a joyous flight so you can get used to it."

She said when they dispatch the yellowjackets. Not if . When the chips are down, I don't think I'd trust even my own brother to get his head out of his ass long enough to help me sort through a disaster. And definitely not one of this magnitude. It's amazing how much faith she has in her own people, that the thought of them not winning hasn't even entered her mind.

But Ser Beatrix and Sylvie were gravely outnumbered, and from what I could tell? They were the only two who weren't in on the coup. There wasn't a single knight fighting for the crown.

The outlook is grim, but I probably don't need to tell her that.

Soon, we begin our descent toward a robust field of poppies, lavender, and aster. We must have flown several miles within seconds, but how is that even possible? More fae magic? I've never seen a field of flowers like this before, so it's nowhere I've ever been. Then again, I'm not exactly the outdoorsy type. This could be my own backyard and I'd never know it.

It's painfully obvious that I really, really need to get out more. If I ever make it back home in one piece, I'll do just that.

We land in a bright orange poppy nestled in front of a small farmhouse. Polina releases me on the plush petal, and I stagger forward before catching my balance. Beyond the flower field, a donkey rolls around in the mud in its pen, and a few chickens cluck and peck at the ground, looking for food. The second the flower's pollen hits my nose, I let out a torrent of sneezes while Polina stares at me like I'm about to keel over and die.

I take my handkerchief from my pocket and wipe my nose with it. "We're not in Sugardove City anymore, that's for sure," I mutter.

Polina folds her wings against her back and shakes her head.

"W-Where are we?" I ask.

She takes hold of my upper arm, steadying me, and says, "The Scarlet Valley. Sometimes my foragers will come here when everything is in bloom." Her cheeks are flushed, either from the flight or from the poppy reflecting off of them, giving her a rosy look I'm not used to. She's gorgeous, even after everything that's happened to us. "The Valley of Orchids is somewhere to the southeast, where our praying mantis friends live. To the north, the Plains of Coleoptera is where the beetle kingdom rules."

I blink. "Um. What?"

Polina nods. "We aren't friends with the beetles."

"But you're friends with … the mantis kingdom," I say, rubbing the back of my head. Okay. This is a lot to take in. Up until a couple short days ago, I didn't even know fae existed. Oh, sure, I'd heard the old wives' tales about not angering the fae in your gardens. But I always thought it was generally understood they were not real -real. And now there are other kinds?

"What now?" I ask, running my fingers through my hair, which is whipped into a tangled bird's nest from the flight.

"Now, we wait patiently for Ser Beatrix and Sylvie to come and retrieve us and escort us back to safety," Polina says with a shrug. She plops down on the flower petal and lets out a long exhale. I sit down beside her and lean back on my palms. The warmth from the sun feels amazing, especially after that freezing flight we just took.

But that was an ordeal. All that death. All that betrayal. She must feel awful right about now. I look over at her, study her beautiful face far longer than socially acceptable, and ask, "Po? Are you okay?"

Polina is silent for a long moment. "No, I don't think I am." She hugs her knees to her chest and sighs. "How did the yellowjackets even enter the colony? We have wards in place for this very reason. Not once have those wards ever failed us. Not ever."

I swallow the lump in my throat. I'm pretty sure I know who took those wards down; it doesn't take a genius to come to my particular conclusion. That's not a dig at Po's intelligence, either, because even though I've only known her for a couple of days, I have a pretty good idea of where she's coming from. She wants to see the best in others, and doesn't want to believe that someone close to her might be trying to hurt her. An admirable trait, but it puts her at risk of being taken advantage of. I know what that's like. To have co-workers ask you to stay late and miss out on events you were looking forward to.

To have your boss ask you to come in on your day off. But this is different, of course. This is life or death, not missed concerts and birthdays.

"Po, before the attack … Majordomo Elza and your fiancé were nowhere to be found in the banquet hall."

Polina doesn't say anything, continuing to stare ahead as she hugs her fuzzy knees tighter. After what feels like hours of waiting for a response, for anything at all, she murmurs, "You think they're behind it."

It's not a question. I nod. "Yes. Yes, I do. All the red flags were there, Po." When she stares at me, her eyebrow arched in a question, I say, "Warning signs. They weren't acting normally."

She lets out a scoff. "Trust me. That is how they act normally. Standoffish? Rude? Patronizing? Condescending, overly involved. Yes, Cal. That is how they act."

I frown. "Okay. I get your point. But they're still the two with a probable motive."

"My majordomo has served the crown for a thousand years, Calvin," Polina says with an eyeroll. "Why would she overthrow my rule now?"

A good question. And one I can't answer, because I've only known about the bee fae for a whopping two days. In those two days, I've learned some of their traditions and politics, but not enough to go flinging accusations around. Still, the engineer in me knows there's something there. Something we're both missing, and all I want to do is figure out what.

I turn toward her on my side. She's not going to like this question, but we just escaped near-death. I think we're past comfort at this point. "Polina, tell me about your mother."

Polina's mouth falls open, and she pushes a strand of hair back behind her ear before looking away. "I don't want to talk about my mother. Not now. Not while my kingdom is falling apart."

"But this is precisely the time to talk about her. Because your kingdom is falling apart, and sometimes we need to look back in order to move forward."

The fur on Polina's shoulders stands on end, and she puts her chin down on the tops of her knees. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

"How did she die?" I ask.

She quirks an eyebrow again and lifts her shoulders. "I told you before. A bird … a bird ate her."

Yes, she did tell me. But that was the end result, not the sequence of actions that led to her untimely demise. "And how did she end up getting eaten by a bird if she was supposed to remain in the hive? That is what the queen does, right? They stay inside the hive?"

"Yes…" Polina says slowly as suspicion flickers across her face. "Aunt Elza told me that it was an accident. That she was out on the balcony of her personal chambers and it dove down and gobbled her up."

I nod. Okay, we're starting to make progress here. "But you have wards. Do the wards block out predators, too?"

She nods. "Yes, of course. They repel birds, insects, mice, and other rodents." Her eyes widen as realization sets in. "The wards were down when she was eaten."

My throat tightens. It brings me no joy to see the pain flash across her face. To see how much reliving her mother's death—no, her murder—is taking a toll on her.

"You think someone took the wards down?" she asks finally.

I shrug. "Maybe? Who has the power to remove the wards?"

Her rosy face goes pale as a sheet. "My … my majordomo is one. Yes, she can. I can. And so can a couple of my drones, hand selected by my mother, but they're all dead now. It's not something everyone in the colony can do."

She goes quiet for a long moment, and I don't say anything while she processes the information. Her gaze reaches mine, and she says, "Aunt Elza killed my mother. But why? Why would she do that?"

I shake my head. "I don't know, Po. I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I can't answer that for you. But it seems she also got your jackass of a fiancé involved."

Polina crosses her arms in front of her chest. "Now he doesn't surprise me. Not one bit. He has the most to lose."

"Exactly," I agree. "Aunt Elza probably offered him something too good to pass up."

"We need to go back," she says, and pushes herself up to stand. "We need to go back and help Ser Beatrix and Sylvie!"

I stand up beside Polina and pull her against my chest. Her heart pounds against mine like a hummingbird's, and I press my lips to the top of her head, taking care not to irritate her antennae. "It's too dangerous. We can't go back. Not when the hive's been taken over by the enemy."

Polina lets out a deep sob against my chest, and I hold her until the sun lowers over the horizon in brilliant, oozy streaks of sienna and azure and the crickets begin their nightly serenade. We stand together like two lost souls out at sea, with nowhere to go and nowhere to hide. Not really. We can't stay in the flower field forever, I know that. But there's a part of me that wishes we could. Things here are peaceful. There's no politics. No court. No coups. No fires at work to put out. Just this strange, compelling woman with the most beautiful pair of eyes I've ever seen.

And then there's me. A scrawny, overachieving engineer with zero social life to speak of. What a literal princess could see in someone like me, I haven't a clue. But when she looks up at me with those soft, enormous eyes of hers, my pulse quickens and my … oh no.

My palms are sweating. It doesn't matter how much we've already done with one another. Our moment in the library, in the alcove back in the palace. I'm still just as anxious around her as the first time I saw her.

Without hesitation, Polina tilts her face up to meet mine and kisses me. The tender brush of her lips is so unexpected that I let out a strangled whimper. Pathetic. I'm pathetic, and now she knows it. My heart thunders in my chest as my brain tries to catch up to what's happening.

Her mouth is warm and inviting, and she tastes vaguely of the nectar she had for breakfast. Sweet, with notes of lavender and clover. Oh, goodness gracious. She tastes like a flower in summer. I run my fingers along the fur of her arms as I deepen the kiss, and then she wraps all four of her arms around my midsection.

What started as our lips timidly seeking one another soon turns into a ravenous hunger. When her tongue flicks inside my mouth, my cock twitches in my pants, demanding my attention. No, cock . Not the time. Definitely not the time for that. We're kissing right now. That's all this is, right? But oh, how I wish it were more than just kissing…

Polina pulls away, and I let out a strangled groan of frustration. And, for the first time in history, my brain and my cock, which aches something awful right now, are finally thinking the same thing. I need more of her.

Polina's eyes glisten as she looks up at me. "That was amazing," she murmurs. "No, scratch that. I misspoke. You are amazing, Cal."

I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. Her lips are swollen and red like a pair of cherries, and all I can think about is kissing her again and again until she's sick of me.

"I love kissing you," I mutter, and rub the back of my neck. "It's one of my favorite things to do. From the moment I laid eyes on you, I've wanted to kiss you."

"Truly?" Her eyebrows rise. "You've only known me for a whole … three days, I think? But who's counting?" She winks, and my heart flutters in my chest.

I smirk. "Yeah, I know. And somehow, these three days have felt like three years and three seconds all at once."

The wind plays with our hair as we stare into each other's eyes. Do I kiss her again? Do I wait for her to make the move? Do I … do I ask? I ask, right? What's the protocol, here? Because I know that just because a woman kisses you once, it doesn't mean you're free to do it again whenever you want to, right?

Ugh. Why am I like this? Sweat slides down the back of my neck despite the cool, summery breeze. I'll ask.

"Hey, Po?—"

Polina opens her mouth to answer me just as another powerful gust of wind tears through the field. Only this time, our poppy is hit at a strange angle. The wind is too strong, and before I know what's happening, I'm being ripped out of Polina's arms and falling, falling, falling toward the ground.

Everything happens so fast that my brain hasn't even been informed of the danger, that I should be terrified right now. Polina screams my name as she reaches for me, but it's too late. The ground rises to meet me, and—fuck.

I'm a goner.