the bees moved across Honey’s flesh. They seemed to be inspecting her.
Nova started to cough. She used her sleeve to wipe away the snot from her nose. She could not stop shaking. She couldn’t think of much beyond the agony working its way through her system. Her body felt like a series of open wounds that someone had dumped acid into.
One bee left Honey, buzzing up toward the central bells for a moment and waiting there, uncertain. Nova moaned and shrank away from it, terrified, but the bee took no notice of her. The others began to leave Honey’s body as well. Only a few at first, then more, dozens at a time, dispersing through the open windows of the tower. Abandoning the cathedral. Abandoning their queen.
Only once the last of their buzzing had faded away did Nova know for sure that Honey Harper was dead.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
NOVA RESTED HER cheek against the rough wooden floor and sobbed. She was aware of nothing but burning and stinging and throbbing. She wished she could put herself to sleep. She would rather be unconscious and vulnerable than have to endure this. She would rather be dead.
Something clattered across the floor and bumped her stomach.
Shuddering, Nova peeled open her swollen eyes and saw her knife. Adrian was inching toward her on his knees. When he got near enough, he lay down so their faces were inches from each other. There was so much concern written into his features that she started to cry harder.
“Nova,” he said. Gentle. Kind. “I can help you, but you have to untie me. Can you do that?”
She bent her head and coughed into the floorboards. His words felt distant. Impossible. She didn’t even think she could sit up, much less handle a knife. Much less do anything useful.
But she had to do something. She couldn’t just lie here sobbing.
“I know,” he whispered, nudging his forehead against hers. “I know.”
She sniffled. Choked some more. Nodded shakily.
Though her skin was aflame and her muscles as sturdy as string, she worked her elbows under her head and forced herself up, then back, resting on one hip. She bit back a cry of pain as each movement sent the venom searing through her veins again.
Adrian sat up so she could see his hands. She stared at the ropes for what must have been ages. Her vision was blurry. Her mind refused to function.
“The knife?” Adrian said.
Nova picked it up and gripped it as tightly as she could with one hand. With the other, she held Adrian’s wrist as she began to saw through the ropes. It took her forever, but Adrian was patient. He angled his body as best as he could to make things easier for her, though the bindings must have been digging into his arms.
When the last rope fell away, Nova dropped the knife and collapsed with a groan. Adrian turned and swept her into his arms. She couldn’t return the embrace beyond burying her head into the space between his throat and his chest. She was crying again.
Keeping one arm around her, Adrian moved his other hand to her waist, searching for something along her belt.
A gurgling, hysterical laugh spilled out of her as it occurred to her that this, all of this, might be nothing more than Adrian preparing to betray her. He could kill her easy enough, or tie her up with her own rope, or pick her up and toss her from the tower.
It was probably what she deserved.
Instead, she felt the touch of a pen on the skin behind her ear. Adrian shifted slightly and she felt him draw something on the back of her neck. After a moment, she felt something cold and damp and soothing pressed over the puncture wound.
She sighed, practically in ecstasy at such comfort.
“The Vitality Charm is protecting you,” said Adrian. “Otherwise you’d probably be dead from having this much venom in your system.”
“It feels like I’m dying,” she said, the words slurred together into something almost coherent.
“I’m sorry it doesn’t do more to help the pain, but trust me, it would be worse without it.” Adrian unzipped her jacket and eased it off her shoulders, peeling each sleeve carefully away from her arms. She whimpered each time the material brushed against the swollen welts.
Setting the jacket aside, he shifted her body so she could stay cradled against him while he worked on her arms. Nova watched, speechless, as he used her own pen—the one she had long ago installed