CHAPTER FORTY-ONE Reckoning“Where are you, Mother?” I demanded. My voice echoed off the ruined walls and the structure swung against the wind in a precarious arc. “Are you satisfied?” I looked down at my balled fists and studied their translucence, blue veins standing out like the tributaries of a river. Prolonged winter had gobbled the whole of the far end of the hive since my last visit and I closed my eyes and forced myself to remember the glory of its former existence. I ached for my old life, the one in which I spent my days as a cosseted princessa and escaped to the hive for fun.
Even in the world which hovered behind the veil of the Outer, I wore breeches stained with Sorrel’s blood. My knees poked from between frayed edges where I’d crawled back and forth along the ramparts and ru
