29. Polina

POLINA

I am going to kill Florian. When I get to my hands on him, I am going to rip him to pieces until he's unrecognizable. All the terror he and my traitorous majordomo unleashed on my beautiful hive, I will return to him tenfold. And I will make the end slow and painful for him.

I hurtle toward Florian with my blade out and at the ready, but he barrel-rolls away at the last second and hits me in my back with the pommel of his own blade.

"Polina!" Calvin screams from down below. This is going to drive my love crazy, I know that, but I can't allow myself to get distracted. Distractions mean death. Ser Beatrix cries out as she slices through the air, her blade out and ready to come down on Florian in an arc.

"Stop!" I bellow. Ser Beatrix whips her head around to stare at me, eyes wide, and I snarl, "He's mine."

Ser Beatrix nods and launches herself up into the air before Florian has a chance to get the drop on her. Despite being a simpering fool the majority of his life, my fiancé never did skip his training sessions. Too bad. This would be a lot quicker if he had put less effort into his swordsmanship and more into … well, every other aspect of himself.

"Polina, dear, why don't we stop it?" Florian jeers in a sickly sweet voice. I want to rip his vocal cords out of his throat and feed them to the birds. "Come, now. We don't have to do this."

"Oh, trust me," I say, narrowing my eyes as I flutter closer to him. "We definitely do. You killed dozens of my people. You killed a visiting royal."

Florian sputters and feigns offense as he presses a gloved hand to his clavicle. "What? Me? I did no such thing. Those were your majordomo's machinations, not mine. I never wanted our people to suffer."

"That's a load of cow dung," I snap, pointing my blade at him. "And you know it. Now, be a man for once in your life and fight me, you coward."

Florian's eyes soften, and he tuts. "Oh, very well. If you say so. But you can't say I didn't try." He readies his blade?—

—and is knocked clear out of the sky, sent smacking into the concrete down below. The surrounding humans watch, their mouths agape in horror as … as…

I squint. Hard. Sylvie hits Florian over and over again with her fists until his nose is bloodied.

"Sylvie!" I cry. "Stop! I command you to stop this once!"

Ser Beatrix buzzes loudly and rips through the air, grabbing her girlfriend with all four arms to pull her off Florian. Florian writhes around on the ground, bleeding thanks to the beating he just received from Sylvie. Impressive of my guard, and normally I would let her have at it. But Florian is my fiancé and I'll be the one to deal with him. Ser Beatrix drags Sylvie back as she curses and snarls.

Calvin is at my side immediately. "Po, are you okay?" he asks, looking me up and down quickly.

I nod. Physically, I'm fine. But mentally? Visions of Florian's broken body dance in my head. A future I'm all too eager to see come to fruition. "I'm fine, but I won't allow my retribution to be taken from me again," I say, stepping toward Florian as he scrambles to his feet. He lets out a pitiful whimper and tries to stagger away from me as I make my way toward him, my blade down at my side.

"My stinger blade hungers for your blood. I was going to take my time with you," I say, and close the distance between us. Florian lets out a gasp and shoves his back against the brick wall of the building. "But I think I'll take your head instead."

I lift my chin, and Florian covers his head with his arms, like that's going to save him. But then, just as I'm about to raise my blade, a bright red bolt of electricity fires forward, hitting him and sending me hurtling backward.

"No!" Calvin screams. "Who pushed the button?!"

Everything happens so fast. One moment, I'm lying on the ground eating the pavement, and the next, Kyle and Maurice are running around the rooftop, waving their arms as a swarm of yellowjackets descend upon them.

Calvin helps me to my feet, and Ser Beatrix points at the Shrinkatron. "There," she says. "The yellowjackets."

An enormous swarm of yellowjackets hover over the big red button—the one Calvin told the humans to press in order to make him big again. But the Shrinkatron's beam didn't hit him, did it? It hit…

I swallow the lump in my throat and turn slowly to find my now-human-sized ex-fiancé towering over us, a sneer plastered across his face.

"Well, well, well," he says. "Today is just full of fun surprises, is it not, my dear?" Then, staring down at me and Calvin, he lifts his foot.