Chapter Seven: The Smile
He shouldn't have been smiling.
Not here. Not at her.
The Queen's antennae brushed over him like a mother's hand, and he didn't flinch. Didn't pull away. He leaned into the touch.
"Elias?" My voice cracked.
His head turned slowly toward me, his smile still fixed but his eyes… different. Darker.
"You made it," he said. "Just like they said you would."
My stomach dropped. "They?"
He didn't answer. Instead, he looked past me to the soldiers who had escorted us in. "She's ready."
The hum inside my head surged, sharp and blinding. My knees buckled, my vision narrowing to a tunnel. The Queen's scent flooded my senses — resin, iron, soil — thick enough to choke me.
Elias stepped closer, lowering his voice.
"You've been hearing him, haven't you? The voice."
I froze.
"The Hive wants him silenced," he continued. "They can't control you if you keep listening. So they sent me to bring you in."
My mark flared so hot I thought it would burn through my skin. Plates rippled beneath my arms, crawling toward my hands. I could feel the shift fighting to break free.
"Why?" I whispered.
"Because you're not just Hiveborn," Elias said. "You're—"
The hum cut him off.
No — not the hum. Something deeper. A vibration that rattled the walls, the floor, my teeth. The Queen's voice.
It wasn't words, but I understood.
Kneel.
Elias dropped instantly. Every soldier bowed low.
I didn't.
And the Queen noticed.
Her antennae lashed through the air, her head tilting with a slow, insect patience. And in that silence, the other voice returned — faint, but urgent.
> If you kneel, you're hers forever. If you run, you might still be mine.
The cavern swam before my eyes.
The Queen's scent pressed in on me.
Elias's smile was gone now, replaced with something sharper.
I had to choose.