Music is "Rainbow" by Sia.

Picture is Claudia Doumit as Sarai.

}0{

Bombus Terrestris

Commonly referred to as the buff-tailed bumblebee or the large earth bumblebee, Bombus Terrestris is one of the most numerous bumblebee species in Europe, the main species used in greenhouse pollination, and can be found in many countries where it is not native. B. Terrestris is a eusocial species with a monandrous queen, which means she mates with only one male. They are extremely clever bees and are able to learn flower colors.

}0{

Chapter Twenty-One: Terrestris

He told me to run, but there's nowhere to go. No doors, no windows, no crawlspaces of any kind. The room is in darkness, and the magical, spherical cage hums with power. Stephen and Loki slam against the interior, trying to fight their way out, but it's no use.

Rurik Maximoff has us all.

I run towards the wall with the door, trying with everything I have to open it before something even worse happens. No matter how hard I try, it doesn't budge at all. My breathing hikes, and I feel anxiety overwhelm me.

I have to get out. I have to find Wanda. We'll come back, save the boys, and defeat Max. I need to escape.

I step back and close my eyes, trying to connect with the heritage from my grandmother. I can feel the power coursing through my veins, but it's being blocked by Max's dark magic. I fight harder, pushing through it. I won't let him win, not this time.

I break through the magical wall with a feverish determination. My mind connects instantly with the nearest hive of bees, and in a split second, I feel them on their way. They're not the bees back at the occult shop, nor are they honeybees at all. These species are exactly what I need right now.

Carpenter bees.

A moment later, I feel them swarming, burrowing into the walls like the bees that they are. Carpenter bees are famous for building nests in hard materials, like wood or trees or even the ground. Not much can stop them, and I'm counting on that determination now.

The wall facing the side of the building is where I sense them coming. When I place my hand against the surface, I feel the material rippling and crumbling from the outside. I back up, knowing that the carpenter bees are close.

They burst through, digging a hole that grows by the second. Tens of thousands of them fill the room, and ten thousand more are on the outside, continuing to burrow in. This nest doesn't know me, and yet they came to help me all the same. I owe them my life.

The door to the lab opens, and Max stands at the entrance. From the firm and grim look on his face, he's not at all the man I've known as my professor for the past two months. I turn to the hole, getting a running start. My feet leave the safety of the building just in time to dodge a blast of dark magic.

As I fall through the air, I realize that I'm going to fall over a thousand feet without anything to break it. The ground is coming closer all too quickly, and even the carpenter bees that swarm around me aren't strong enough to stop gravity.

"Your Majesty!" they shout in unison, but they know there's nothing they can do.

But something that my grandmother told me rings in my memory. "You can fly," Vai said, "if you really wanted to."

I open my eyes and stare up at the sky above me. It is a brilliant cornflower blue, and the clouds are wispy and low. It's a perfect day to fly, so I'm going to fucking fly. I clench my fists and make a mental picture of the thing I need to have happen so badly.

"Fly, damn it, Sarai," I shout in my mind. "Fly!"

My fall halts, and I feel a splitting pain spread across my back. My shoulder blades move on their own, and I feel something growing from my spine. Sounds of fabric tearing causes me to stumble, and the pain nearly takes my breath away. If I could, I would scream.

Just as soon as the pain comes, it's gone. In its place is an eerie feeling of something extra. When I turn to look over my shoulder, to see why I've stopped falling, my eyes widen in wonder. Attached to my back, in between my shoulder blades, is a pair of wings. They're nearly clear and veiny, separated into two hindwings and two forewings. They're just like Melizza's.

They buzz almost too quickly to see, creating a halo of wing from my back a few feet out. The carpenter bees keep a distance, as to not be blown away by the gusts. I grin widely, a sigh of relief coming from my mouth. The absolute wonder and awe only lasts for a moment as I stare back at them, but in that moment, I forget all the bad that's going on. The only unfortunate thing to have happened is the two tiny slits on the back of my lavender sweater.

I shake away my smile and turn for the skies. I adjust my wings and let them take me higher, above the cloud cover, and out of Max's magical reach. The carpenter bees follow me up, and I can only wonder what those who have seen me are thinking.

When I get above the clouds, I turn to the hive of bees and smile. "Thank you for your help," I tell them through the hive mind. "I wouldn't have been able to escape without you."

"We heard you and came right away, Your Majesty," one of the workers tells me. "Is there anything else we might do for you?"

I shake my head and thank them again. The carpenter bees turn back towards their hive, and I turn towards the occult shop. I thought I had all the answers I needed, but now I see that I don't. I might've figured out how to consciously summon the bees and fly, just like Vai promised I would, but there's still so much I don't know. All I need is five minutes, five minutes with her to ask a few questions and get some insight as to what this all means.

I need help, and before I go asking Wanda or anyone else, I need my grandmother's help.

I land in front of the closed occult shop, pushing my way inside after unlocking the door with the key Stephen gave me before we left. Instantly, the honeybees from Melizza's hive greet me through the hive mind. "You're back, you're back!" most of them cheer, flying up to me with near smiles on their faces.

I try to smile back, giving a small greeting back before pushing through the swarm to the back room. "Where's Melizza?"

"Right here," Melizza states, appearing from the crowd. "What happened?"

"Max took Stephen and Loki," I tell her. "I need to get back to the astral realm. I need to talk to my grandmother again."

Melizza follows me to the back room, and I tell the other bees to keep out. The last thing I need is one of them to catch on fire from all the candles I have to light. "But you are no witch!" she exclaims worriedly.

I brush her concern away, running to light all the candles and set up the crystal grid in the pattern from Stephen's leather-bound spellbook. "I'll wing it. I don't have another option."

Melizza makes a buzzing noise of unease as she lands on my shoulder. "Oh, I have a very baddest feeling about this, Sarai."

I flip to the page of the incantation. "Not as bad a feeling as I'll have if I don't get some help. I'm not enough on my own, Melizza. I'm just...I'm not enough."

Melizza leaves my shoulder to sit on the edge of the bookshelf. I quickly recite the incantation in my mind, hoping that this is just as good as spoken word, and then I take a seat in the center of the crystal grid. I close my eyes and repeat what I did earlier in the semester.

I feel the familiar wave of vertigo wash over me, then follow my mind's eye sight as it brings me closer to the astral realm. I'm so relieved that it actually worked that the colors and dizziness don't bother me this time around. The feeling of falling and flying still makes me sick to my stomach, but I hardly care.

Memories fly by, but this time I don't attach to any of them. I see Lebanon, I see Hal, I see the beach cabin that Hal lived in during the busy season, and I see the house in the Roanoke Valley that he cherished.

My mind holds onto that picture for a second too long, and I'm sucked into it like I was sucked into the thought of my grandmother. I try to resist, but it's too late. I feel myself fall into the image of wide, rolling fields with wildflowers and oak trees. Everywhere I turn, I see bright blue skies and mountains covered with greenery. The little house that sits in the middle of it all is quaint and perfect and just like I remember it.

I find my footing outside the house, staring straight at the entrance. I look around, trying to find my grandmother, but I know she isn't here. She never was. I held on to the thought of this childhood paradise for too long, and now I'm stuck here.

"Hey there, sunshine. What brings you here?" I turn on my heel, back to the front door. Standing just inside the charming home is a smiling African-American man with long dreadlocks and the clothing style of a lumberjack. "Come to visit old Hal at last?"

The sight of him nearly takes my breath away. He's exactly as he was when I was sixteen, but this is no memory that I can recall. He didn't start calling me sunshine until later. "This isn't a memory," I say aloud, realizing I've found my voice in the astral realm again.

Hal chuckles, steps from the doorway and onto the porch, and nods. "Not a memory, but damn kid, you picked a good setting." He leans against the posts of the porch, dark eyes staring out across the front yard that rolls right into the mountains. "I loved coming here, especially after I found you. I don't know why we didn't just move here."

"Because you loved being a captain," I reply, taking careful steps closer. "Because you loved being on the sea, and every time you were on land for too long, you went crazy."

Hal turns back to me and laughs. "My ancestors built ships. It only makes sense that the ocean's in my blood."

I shake away the shock of seeing Hal alive and well. "I need to talk to Vai," I state. "I need her help."

Hal nods once. "Oh, I know why you came to the astral realm. I can see it all in your head. Your friends, that son of a bitch who took 'em, the little Sokovian girl you can't stop thinking about." He cracks a sly smirk. "You were always easy to read, sunshine."

I roll my eyes, shaking my head with the smile I can't help. "You're just the same as always."

He shrugs. "Probably worse." He pauses, his face turning serious, which it hardly ever did. "But you're not here because you need help, Sarai. You're here for Vai because you don't think you're enough. You think you're not enough for this task, this mission, the thing you know you have to do."

"I'm not," I counter, stepping up to the porch to face him. "I'm just a kid with weird bee powers. I don't know how to be a Queen, not like Vai was. The way the bees talk about her, she was perfect. Max is more than I can handle, Hal. I need her help."

He shakes his head, his brown eyes remaining kind. "You think you're less than you are, that you don't know everything you already need to know. Vai could teach you, yes, but her help isn't the help you need. Vai was far from perfect, trust me. I never knew her, but I know for a fact that no human is, and no person is born with all the knowledge, strength, or abilities we need. We get those over time."

I run my hands nervously through my long hair. "I can't do this alone."

"And you shouldn't, but Vai isn't who you need. She's just a spirit in the astral realm, like me. We're good at talking, but as for actual help? Completely useless." We both chuckle at that. "You need your friends help, maybe even that cute Sokovian witch you like so much."

My momentary smile fades. "That's exactly why I need Vai, Hal. The witch we're going up against, he's a nasty piece of work. Stephen and Loki are gone, and I'm not sure Wanda will help me at all--let alone make the hard choice between the world and her uncle. I might have to make the hard choice, and I know I can't beat him. He's too strong. I don't know enough about Queen bee magic to stop him, or even slow him down. I just got my powers. How the hell am I gonna defeat someone who's been practicing magic for longer than I've been alive?"

Hal looks deep into my eyes and places both his hands on my shoulders. "You don't need to beat him with magic, Sarai. You need to outsmart him, make him break down on his own. What did I tell you about getting into fights with bigger bullies?"

"To always use their strength against them," I quote. "But how can I do that against someone with magic?"

"He has your friends, right?" I nod. "And he thinks Wanda is on his side?" Again, I nod. "Then he probably thinks he's won. He thinks you're going to do exactly what most people have done when they came up against him: they ran and hid and didn't fight because it cost them something. Tell me, sunshine, what's the one thing he's counting on going perfectly now that you and your friends aren't a threat?"

It only takes me a moment to sputter, "The Eco Innovations Fair. He's been planning this for a while, and it's tomorrow. With the magicians out of the way and Wanda refusing to act, he probably thinks it's as good as done. That's where he's going to unveil his bees."

Hal smiles and drops his hands from my shoulders. "There you have it, sunshine. That's your moment to strike. His guard will be down, and the bully will stop swinging for a moment. It'll give you the time you need to get the help you need, and tomorrow, you'll strike back with a blow he won't see coming."

With happy tears in my eyes, I jump up and wrap my arms around his neck, pulling him down towards me in a tight hug. He chuckles and embraces me back. "Looks like it wasn't a mistake coming here after all. I didn't need Vai; I needed you."

"I'm always here if you need me, sunshine. You just gotta believe in yourself as much as I do," he replies, pulling back with a proud, fatherly look in his eye. "Now, go get 'em."

END CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.