Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1) Grayson Sinclair (book recommendations website .TXT) 📖

She chooses her master, so that means she could have been freed before now. “Why stay imprisoned if you could have been free?”

She scoffed at me. “It’s exceedingly rare for anyone to touch the crystal, as it requires a tear in the void to allow me to escape that wretched place. You are only the eighth person to hold it since I was sealed away.”

“Seven others, so surely one of them would have been better than me.”

A harsh bark of laughter echoed from her lips. “How wrong you are. You may think yourself a monster, but your actions have nothing on them. Tainted souls, all of them. Murderers, betrayers, thieves, and rapists. Those who would have used and discarded me without a second’s hesitation.”

She crossed the room to stand before me, the top of her head barely reaching my chest, and she was forced to stand on her tiptoes to reach my cheek. Her hand was like fire on my face, a few degrees away from burning me, but I didn’t mind the pain.

She smiled at me, a truly genuine smile, with respect in her eyes. “You are the first person in a thousand years that wouldn’t have abused me. You are worthy of being my master, as distasteful as we both find the prospect.”

I sighed, being the best out of thieves and killers wasn’t much to boast about—I’d been both of those at one point or another—but I’d already resigned myself to fate. I didn’t want to be her master, but nothing she told me reeked of deception.

She wasn’t lying, or if she was, she was better at it than anyone I’d ever seen. Either way, I wasn’t willing to risk her death by saying no.

“Fine. I hate it, but I’ll do it.”

A bittersweet smile flickered as I spoke. “I need you to say it.”

“Say what?”

“That you accept me.”

I grumbled at her, which cause a snort of laughter. “I...I accept you.”

The moment I uttered those words, a bitter chill rose from my chest to squeeze my heart and freeze my blood. As if a hand made from pure ice was trying to crush my heart. After a second and a lifetime, the hand released me, and I fell to my knees, trying to catch my breath, clutching at my chest, where the frost lingered still.

I looked up to see her in similar straits; she wore a pained expression as she stumbled, trying to keep from falling over.

“By the nine kings of Hell, what was that?”

She gasped, trying to speak. “The accepting of the pact. It should fade in a few moments…hopefully.”

After that, the strain was too much for her, and she toppled over. I was clumsy in the catch, just managing to grab her before her head cracked against the stone. On instinct, I cradled her against me and fell on my shoulder, knocking the side of my head on the table in the process. After the fall, I managed to scoot up to lean against the brass table leg.

The girl was still in my arms, eyes shut, breathing deeply. I let her rest. Besides, she was deceptively heavy. For a girl who looked like she weighed little more than a hundred pounds, she had some heft.

A good portion of her skin was uncovered from her threadbare clothes, and her legs were smooth and looked soft. Curiosity got the better of me, and I poked her leg. It was just as I thought and as heated as her hands, but below the softness of her skin, lay something firm, much harder than any muscle should ever be.

“Hmm.” There’s more to her than meets the eye; it feels like armor beneath her skin, but how?

My question would have to wait, as I found her looking up at me with a peculiar expression on her face. My hand still very much on her thigh. I jerked away, flushed with embarrassment. “Ah, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.”

“I don’t mind. Your hand feels nice, and you are my master now. You can touch me as much as you want.”

Nope! Nope! Nope! I pulled away from her, she seemed to have regained enough of her strength to sit up by herself, so I hurried out from under her and slid a couple of feet away. “Let's get one thing straight, what I did, I did to save your life—nothing more, nothing less. I am not, nor will I ever be your master. So don’t call me that.”

She beamed at me. “Excellent! I knew you were the right choice.” She stood up from the floor, still a little shaky, using the lip of the table to balance herself.

“Wait, was that a test?”

She slid me a wink. “Maybe.”

 The girl found her balance and moved away from the table, stretching languidly, her arms outstretched and back arched. “Oh, by the void, that feels amazing. You have no idea how good it feels to be able to feel my body again after all this time. Now, let's try this again.”

She concentrated, bringing her hands in front of her, focusing on her fingers. Once more, green smoke dripped to the ground, bringing more scents from the forest. Slowly, second by second, it grew from a trickle to a stream. Still small, but enough that she smiled.

“I can feel them. They recognize me and are excited.”

“You lost me, who are you talking about?” I asked.

“My little ones, all the descendants of the Hive.”

Suddenly a veritable horde of insects and spiders came crawling out of the stone—hundreds of all kinds of creepy crawlies with too many legs and eyes. Spiders and ants, with a few centipedes and cockroaches thrown in the mix for good measure. The slithered and swarmed from beneath the stone to scurry towards their queen. The Hive Queen.

“Fuck me!’ I screamed, jumping back