Page 37 of Heart of Dawn
Crap. Talk about doomed.
No! Stop saying that!
That was all well and good for my inner voice to say, but those yetis were fast and experts at crossing the snow, built for the cold. Not like me, my teeth chattering, skin numbing under the relentless iciness.
A buzzing in my pocket, a more twinkly sounding beep bringing me to a stop.
“Wendy?” I breathed.
Heat bloomed in my jeans, the buzzing intensifying against my thigh. I fished Wendy from my pocket, having to squint under the glare of her golden light.
“No!” Dawn roared.
My hand became one with the light, filling with heat just like the last time Wendy had?—
Everything became gold and sparkly, carrying me away from the snow, depositing me in the Forest of the Lost.
“We’re back here?” I questioned between catching my breath.
Wendy beeped at me, the golden bee on the screen fluttering with a crown on its head.
My heart twinged, her little sounds bringing tears to my eyes. She’d been my rock from the day I found her. Always by my side, always my comfort against loneliness. I’d spent plenty of time playing with her, cleaning her poop, feeding her, all those things you did with a virtual pet. And even though she didn’t speak, her beeps always felt like she spoke to me from her tiny digital world.
Only, she wasn’t tiny. She was a giant, a queen who’d come into my life to save my love.
Beep, beep, beep.
She sparkled in my palm, the gently falling snow never landing on us.
“What happens now?” I asked.
The bee disappeared, replaced with tiny text. I held her closer to my face to read it.
I’m awake now. Give me sixty seconds precisely.
“Until what?” I asked.
The text vanished, the bee back.
Okay. Fine. I could wait, even if my right foot jigged of its own accord.
Numbers appeared on the screen when the final stretch began. I counted with them, anticipation so thick it might suffocate me.
“Three. Two. One.”
The screen went dark, Wendy’s casing cracking like an egg. I held my breath, watching it wobble, tiny pieces of glass breaking off into my hand.
A wing appeared first, then a leg, then another wing, then more legs. Next came the stinger, the antennae, the mandibles, her eyes, the final piece of the glass falling off her back.
“Stars…” I whispered in amazement.
She resembled a honeybee, but every part of her was a different shade of gold. Her eyes were metallic-like, shining brightly. When she fluttered her wings, golden dust sprinkled across my skin.
“Wendy?” I said, completely flabbergasted.
Should I address her formally seeing as I was in the presence of a queen?
I tried it. “Your Majesty…” My voice came out as a squeak.
