Her hazy vision landed on the bare skin of Honey’s ankle. Her power pulsed through her, more desperate than she had ever felt it before.

She only needed to touch her—

She threw herself forward, arm outstretched.

Honey lifted her foot and slammed her heel down onto the back of Nova’s hand. Nova screamed.

“Nice try,” said Honey. She lifted her shoe and kicked Nova’s hand away. “Ace gave you an order, and if you can’t follow through, then I will. Captain Chromium took everything from us. Everything! And now…” She rounded on Adrian, still leaning against the wall, his hands bound behind his back. “Now I will take everything from him.”

She lunged.

Adrian sidestepped. Honey crashed into the window ledge, knocking over the oil lantern. The flame extinguished as it fell and rolled a few feet across the timber floor, oil spilling behind it. Honey pivoted, swinging the knife gracelessly through the air. Adrian kept backing away, dodging her swings as best as he could, watching his footing on the uneven boards. The blade nicked his shoulder.

Nova tried to focus, but her thoughts were dull with pain, her movements involuntary as she contorted and writhed, trying desperately to escape the swarm.

Her blurry attention landed on the gun.

Her brain was slowed by the agony, the way her entire body felt like it was smoldering from within.

Adrian’s back hit a wooden support beneath the bells.

Honey grinned.

Adrian buckled forward suddenly, crying out in pain. A black wasp was crawling over his shoulder. He spun, trying to knock it away—driving himself right toward Honey.

A howl tore from Nova’s throat. She raised the gun, sweat dripping into her eye.

Another stinger stabbed Nova’s wrist.

Honey lifted the knife, preparing to drive it into Adrian’s chest.

Nova locked her jaw around another scream and pulled the trigger.

The kickback sent her flying into the stone wall. The gun blew out of her hand, ricocheting off one of the smaller bells with a resounding clang before it careened out of the tower window.

Nova fell onto her side, just as another sting shot through her knee, and she whimpered, wishing it would stop, pleading for it to stop.

And, suddenly, it did.

Not the pain, but the volley of stings, at least.

Nova sobbed and trembled as the hornets covering her body began to take flight.

They returned to Honey. Returned to their queen, whose body lay crookedly across the old wooden floor. A small pool of blood was forming beneath her cloud of yellow hair. Nova blinked back her tears, watching as 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 a secret blow-dart compartment into—to draw a fat teardrop around each swollen wound, before tenderly rubbing it in with his thumb. The sketch became a cool salve under his touch. Then he drew a series of neat bandages, covering each sting.

“This is an ointment against the venom,” Adrian said, finishing up with the first arm and starting a new teardrop on the other. “Honey and antihistamines. And this”—he drew another bandage—“is an icy-cold compress, to bring down the swelling and take away some of the pain.”

Her lashes dipped. They still felt damp and heavy from the tears, but she wasn’t crying anymore. Though her body ached and burned, the pain on her neck and arms had already dulled significantly.

“Okay,” he said, finishing her arms. He cocked his head and she could feel him watching her, but she kept her attention on the compresses that now dotted her limbs. “Where else?”

She grimaced and bent forward, peeling up the bottom of her shirt so he could see the welts along her back. He worked his way through them, steady and meticulous, and when it was time to do her legs, Adrian looked away while she wriggled out of her pants, hissing and flinching the whole time. He handed her the jacket to cover herself as much as she could while he treated those wounds, though she felt the modesty was for his benefit as much as her own. She didn’t much care what he saw, so long as he made this agony go away.

Distantly, she recognized the thunderous cacophony of a raging battle. Though they sounded miles away, she knew it was much closer than that. It didn’t sound as if the Renegades had yet breached the makeshift barrier over the cathedral, and she imagined the villains standing at the western towers, waiting to see if Ace’s structure would hold. Ready to defend their newly earned territory, with their lives if necessary.

That had been the plan. In the event that the Renegades did make it through Ace’s wall, the villains would hold the cathedral at all costs. Ace had been insistent that they not lose their sanctuary. The Renegades were weak, anyway. Nearly half of their numbers were neutralized. Holding the cathedral should be easy.

Nova found herself hoping that the Renegades never made it inside. She couldn’t stomach the thought of another battle that nobody would win.

By the time Adrian was finished, the pain had become a distant, dull thrum throughout her body.

Again, Adrian allowed her privacy while she stood and pulled her pants back on, busying himself with finally addressing his own wounds. Nova swiped the backs of her hands across her cheeks.

“Thank you,” she murmured, and felt tears welling up again. Tears of gratitude, but also tears of guilt. A part of her wanted to lie down on this dirty, ancient floor and do nothing but sob until this whole miserable ordeal was over. It was all she could do to stay standing. “You didn’t have to … after everything…” She buried her face in her hands. “I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. I don’t know what’s right or wrong or—”

“Nova, stop. Listen to me.” Adrian took her wrists and pulled her hands away from her face. “I can only begin to imagine what your life has been like, but none of that matters right now. What matters is that you are good and strong and brave and willing to fight for the people you care for. Right?”