Chapter Fifteen: Three Against the Hive
The first click echoed through the chamber — sharp, metallic, too precise to be human.
The man stiffened. The stranger only tilted their head.
"They're here," he muttered.
From the darkness of the tunnel we'd crawled through, shadows began to move. The Death-guard emerged one by one, their bodies caught between flesh and chitin, faces hidden behind smooth black plates. Their mandibles clicked in perfect unison — not in warning, but in certainty.
They'd come to take me back.
The stranger's voice was quiet, almost amused. "Eight of them. That's generous."
"You can fight?" I asked.
They smiled faintly. "I can erase."
Before I could ask what that meant, the man grabbed my arm. "Don't listen to them. We run—"
Too late. The Death-guard surged forward.
The stranger moved like smoke. One moment they stood in moonlight, the next they were between me and the guards, touching one of them lightly on the chest. A soundless wave rippled outward, and the guard's mandibles went still. Its body shuddered, then collapsed — not dead, but… empty.
The others hesitated, their hum faltering.
"Go!" the stranger snapped, their voice sharp now.
The man didn't argue. We bolted into another tunnel, the stranger following close behind. The hum of the Colony grew distant again, but not gone.
When we finally stopped, my chest was burning and my hands were shaking.
"We can't keep running forever," I said.
The stranger's gaze was unreadable. "No. Which is why you're coming with me."
The man stepped between us. "Over my dead body."
The stranger's faint smile returned. "If you stay near her long enough, that may be exactly what happens."