Yenn and Taipan blink at Solma with their mouths in a perfect ‘O’ shape. They’re holding hands. That’s new. Solma remembers the depth of Taipan’s scowl when she’d first met Yennevieve, realizing this girl in purple robes with a green streak in one eye understood Warren in a way she never would.
But now, Warren needs them both. No-one is an island.
Solma feels Olive’s warmth beside her and she lets their arms touch. Olive’s closeness electrifies her.
“What do we know?” Solma asks, addressing the younger girls. They look at each other.
“They got a parasite,” Yenn says. She holds out her palm, on which sits a little bee. The creature’s antennae droop. There’s a dullness in her fur and her eyes are cloudy. Yenn points to the blood-red lump clinging to the bee’s thorax. Solma stares at it a
