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  Was a virgin, she thought. I was, but not anymore. I’m no longer intact. The Sisters always said no proper male would want a female if she wasn’t intact.

  “I don’t care if she was a virgin or not—she’s still a little slut. Consorting with a slave no less!” the Queen hissed, shaking her. “You’re lucky your father and I found a husband for you, young lady—if not I would be casting you out on the street.”

  “Mother please—I’m sorry!” Brynn cried. “I can’t help it—I love Varin! Please…please don’t make me marry Sovereign X’izith! If you don’t want me anymore, just disown me and let me go. But don’t force me to join with a male I don’t love!”

  “The deal is done—you’re bought and paid for,” her mother snapped. “And speaking of deals, the one you made with me is off.”

  “What?” Brynn looked up at the Queen with wide, wet eyes and felt a tremble of dread run through her. “What do you mean?”

  “Your Kindred slave is as good as dead.” The Queen gave her a look of cruel satisfaction. “I hope you enjoyed saying goodbye to him, Brynnalla because you’ve signed his death warrant yourself.”

  “What? No! Please, no!” Brynn gasped and struggled, trying desperately to get back to Varin. He had risen, still chained to the wall with blood dripping from his wrists. There was a look of pure rage in his eyes—a hate so deep it could only be born of love.

  Love for me, Brynn thought miserably. But I killed him—it’s my fault he’s going to die!

  “I might be a slave,” the big Kindred growled, glaring at the Queen. “But I care more for your daughter than you ever did. You’re supposed to protect your children—not fucking sell them off to the highest bidder!”

  “No more of this!” the Queen declared. “I will not stand by and be insulted by a—

  “What is the problem? I expected the Princess delivered to me some time ago. Where is she?”

  The buzzing, familiar voice made Brynn’s skin crawl. With dread, she looked up and saw the thin, awkward form of Sovereign X’izith coming down the dungeon hallway. He was so tall he had to stoop, crouching over in an almost insectile way with his elbows splayed awkwardly out to the sides as he rubbed his filthy hands together.

  “Oh, my deepest apologies, Sovereign!” the Queen exclaimed. “I had just finished taking care of the matter with the Princess and I was about to get her cleaned up and bring her to you.”

  “You will do this at once! You have your payment and I tire of waiting,” X’izith hissed. “You will prepare the Princess and place her—with the proper tribute of a new bride going to her husband—in the ship I have waiting just outside your balcony. It will take her to my home planet.”

  “Oh, of course, Sovereign.” The Queen dropped a little curtsey. “And…if you do not mind me asking, where will you be?”

  “I will follow shortly thereafter,” X’izith hissed. “But first I would have words with this male who disrespected and attacked me.”

  “Oh yes.” The Queen’s face hardened. “Do just as you please with him—he is under a death sentence anyway.”

  “No!” Brynn struggled in her mother’s grip but she couldn’t break free. “No—don’t hurt him!”

  “Do not worry yourself, Princess…” X’izith’s strange purple eyes jittered in their sockets and his thin lips twisted into a parody of a smile. “I will not touch your beloved slave. I wish only to speak to him.”

  “No!’ Brynn cried again. “Varin!”

  “Brynn!” he shouted but then, with the Queen on one side and the captain of the men at arms on the other, Brynn was being dragged down the dungeon hallway, separated forever from the only man she would ever love. Though she fought and cried and kicked, she couldn’t get free.

  As they rounded the corner, she felt her heart die inside her.

  Never, she thought. I’ll never see him again…

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Now then, slave…” X’izith buzzed, staring down at him. He was a tall son of a bitch—Varin would give him that. The Sovereign reminded him of a death mantis—a predatory insect that came out at night to catch other, smaller bugs and eat them alive.

  “What is it you want to say?” he demanded. “Or did you just want to take a shot at me while I’m chained up and helpless?”

  “Oh, I doubt very much you are ever completely helpless,” X’izith hissed. “You seem most resourceful to me. Which is why I wanted to talk to you. It will give me great pleasure to show you that no matter what you do or how resourceful you are, you will be unable to change the course of events which I have planned.”

  “What in the Seven Hells are you talking about?” Varin demanded. They were alone now, the two of them—everyone else had left the dungeon to go with the Queen and Brynn. So his words echoed emptily against the stone walls.

  “You shall see what I am speaking of.”

  X’izith rose suddenly to his full height so that he loomed over Varin even more. Reaching behind his head, he seemed to be doing something to his scalp. Then, with a sickeningly meaty sound, his face came off, hair and all, to reveal a visage so alien…so wrong…that for a moment Varin struggled to comprehend it.

  Huge compound eyes stared at him unblinking and long, gold-tipped antennae unfolded to scan the air. In place of a nose and mouth the thing had curving, serrated mandibles that looked sharp enough to bite off a finger…or a hand.

  Goddess above—it’s a fucking insect! he thought, his heart seizing in his chest. A huge one—like the one that carried off Amalthia!

  “You—” he choked, and then couldn’t get out any more.

  “Yes, me.” the insect thing buzzed in a high, hissing voice. He sounded enormously pleased with himself—if insects could have emotions, that was. “I, Sovereign Ysldred X’izith of the Hive, wish to declare myself to you before I go.”

  “Declare what? What…what do you want here?” Varin demanded, his voice sounding hoarse and unreal in his own ears.

  “What do I want with Galen Prime, you mean? Why to harvest it, of course.” X'izith’s gold-tipped antennae twitched. “The Hive have had their eye on this ripe little world for some time, but I had to be certain the females were compatible for breeding purposes first.”

  “Breeding purposes?” Suddenly Varin felt sick—so filled with horror that he couldn’t contain it. “The Princess,” he whispered. “Brynn…”

  “Will be my latest bride—filled to capacity with royal grubs.” X'izith clicked his curving, serrated mandibles together and Varin could have sworn the bastard was giving him a self-satisfied grin.

  “You can’t,” he growled. “Leave her alone! Stay away from her!”

  “I will breed her, slave—do you hear me?” X'izith hissed. “Breed her and fill her with my grubs. They will fill her, growing and growing until they eat their way out of her slender little body and she dies in agony. Do you hear me?”

  “I’ll kill you!” Varin raged. A red curtain of pure fury dropped over his vision—surging forward, he yanked against his chains. “I’ll fucking kill you, you son of a bitch!” he roared.

  “You will not live to see the light of another day,” X'izith buzzed in smug satisfaction. “Nor will any who live on this little planet. As soon as I have word that the ship with the Princess on it is on the way to my Hive, we will descend on this little world and pick it clean. There will be nothing left—not a single inhabitant will survive our culling. The females will be taken for the breeding and gestation of common grubs and the males and children will be thrown into the flesh pits for food. All…shall…die.”

  “No…no!” Varin shook his head, unable to take in the enormity of what the tall, insectile bastard was saying. “You can’t do that—can’t kill so many innocents!”

  “I can and I will.” X'izith stood back and cocked his head to one side, staring at Varin with his black, soulless eyes. “I just wanted you to know that before I left, slave. I wanted you to die in agony…and now I am certain you will.” He clicked his man