Hive Queen by Sinclair, Grayson (positive books to read .txt) 📕

“I’ll pay for it,” I replied taking a swig and trying not to laugh.

She shrugged, a short laugh building in her throat before she looked at Orryn and clammed up. “I’ll be in the other room if you need me.”

Mika and the hired muscle swept in behind Orryn, geared up with hungry glints in their eyes.

As soon as everyone settled around the table, I looked at each one in turn and smiled.

“All right, let’s go over the plan.”

Chapter 16 - Old Gods, New Monsters

Eris

As the thud of Misumena’s many limbs drew closer, I snapped out of the slithering dread that had sunk into my skin and nocked an arrow as fast as I could. I loosed it as Misumena reared her translucent head back and opened her chelicerae to reveal menacingly long fangs.

  My aim was true, and the arrow slid into her open mouth, and a thick spurt of pale blue blood squirted out and dripped down. Misumena screeched in pain, a grotesque whine that split the air like a whistle.

The shriek, however, was enough to break Gil, Makenna, and Adam out of their spell. They’d been standing still, staring at the gigantic spider approaching without even touching their weapons. Evelyn had drawn hers but was looking at me for directions. This is new territory for me! I don’t know what to do!

Even in a world filled with monsters, I guess even the humans chosen by the gods to come here could be baffled by something.

“We need to spread out, grouping up will only make us easier to catch!” I shouted, backing away from Misumena as she shook in pain before closing her mouth tight. A faint snap resounded, and when she bared her fangs once more, the shaft of my chitin arrow had been split in two.

I couldn’t just fire at will; my chitin wasn’t endless, and every arrow I fired weakened my defense. The arena was large, but Misumena took up nearly a third of the space by herself, and had good reach with her legs. We had to spilt up, but we would need to work together to survive.

“Evelyn, what do we do?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out!” she shouted back as she nimbly ran forward towards the spider. Misumena had her eyes on Gil, who lumbered sideways and drew his massive black battleaxe, keeping just out of range of Misumena’s claws.

She scuttled suddenly towards Gil, flashing out with her front limb. Her jagged pale claws deflected off the head of Gil’s axe just as he brought it up. The impact pushed him back, leaving two lines in the dirt, but Gil remained standing.

“Woo! Damn spider has some skill!”

Gil backed away, even more cautious of the bulbous beast.

“Don’t get your head torn off, darling. I don’t think I can love just your body,” Makenna said as she danced near Misumena as she scurried around.

“Not what you said last night,” Gil replied with a laugh as he twirled his axe to catch Misumena’s gaze.

She flicked her wrist, and four needles flashed in the midday sun as they streaked towards the center of Misumena’s body. They jabbed into the hard carapace with ease, but the tiny poisoned needles weren’t long or sharp enough to go any further.

“Damn it,” Makenna cursed as she took another handful of needles out of her cloak. “I can’t pierce her body, and even if I can, my toxins were designed for humans and normal creatures, not fucking twenty-foot-long giant spiders!”

“Having some trouble?” Reina shouted from the thick tree branch that hung over the battleground. She’d sat down and was dangling her legs over us, a broad smile plastered over her smooth sandstone skin.

“Fuck you, spider lady!” Makenna shouted, her face taut in distress. “Guys, I’m useless here.”

“Calm down, Kenna. Did you forget who we are?” Evelyn asked.

“We’ve got this,” Adam said cheekily and tossed three small black crystals into the center of the field.

The summoning crystals landed and cracked sharply, releasing a small cloud of glass that sparkled like hundreds of small rainbows before falling back to the ground. When they landed, three bane wolves joined us.

Each at least six feet long and rippling with lean muscle, black and silver fur rose as their hackles raised, and they bent low to the ground, growling at the massive crab spider.

“Bane wolves? Really? Why didn’t you summon the void golem?” Evelyn asked, her voice rising as she ran forward and sliced a thin groove across one of Misumena’s legs.

Her sword was unmistakably high quality, and the silver of the blade shone like a mirror, but even it wasn’t enough to do more than scratch the spider.

“Abby’s still on cooldown. I told you this weeks ago!”

“Like I can keep up with every single bit of your nonsense on a daily basis.”

While those two shouted at each other, I had to think of something. Evelyn was the best fighter and strategist here, but even her weapons weren’t strong enough to pierce the hard carapace, which meant her strength alone wouldn’t cut it. C’mon, think, Eris! None of them knows more about Misumena than I do. There has to be something I can do to help!

In the enclosed space, we were basically trapped in a cage. And sooner or later, we’d lose.

One of the bane wolves lunged forward and clawed at Misumena’s bright yellow eyes. Before it could even lay a paw on the crab spider, Misumena surged forward, wrapping her powerful front legs around the entirety of the bane wolf, sinking her fangs deep into the wolf.

Bones snapped as the wolf let out a pained howl before the venom took hold and worked its way to the wolf’s heart.

The bane wolf died a quick and very painful death.

When the life fled from