When Mirelle Brandt inherits her late grandmother's remote smallholding on the outskirts of Willowmore, she also inherits something far older—and far more dangerous—than bees.
Raised in silence and shadow, Mirelle returns to a land steeped in ancestral memory, only to discover she carries the same rare gift passed down through generations: the ability to commune with bees. What begins as an act of protection—guiding the hives to defend women and children from abuse—soon spirals into something darker. The bees no longer wait for her command. Word spreads. The hives multiply. Justice becomes vengeance.
As wild colonies awaken across the Karoo, connected by a hive mind built on pain, Mirelle realizes the swarms are no longer targeting the guilty alone. The innocent begin to fall.
Haunted by her past and burdened with the Hive's memory, Mirelle must journey into the heart of the swarm—where rogue queens rise and judgment takes flight—to stop the spread of violence before the entire land is consumed.
But the Hive does not forget.
And the Queen always returns.