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

she trampled over a few trees as she broke free from the woods. She had changed color slightly. Her translucent white body was now a very light shade of green that matched the forest that surrounded us. But it was wasted on us—we were in open ground, and her camouflage was useless against us.

Her body still bled from the wounds we’d inflicted, but her eyes were open and utterly enraged. As before, she didn’t move fast. She inched forward towards us, rightfully cautious and calm. The small wounds we’d dealt her already had trickled, leaving light streaks of blue on her leg and chelicerae.

She didn’t change her tactics, which I was thankful for.

Because it played right into Evelyn’s hands.

An arrow launched from the massive tree just overhead from Misumena and struck the top of her head, taking one of her eyes. She writhed in absolute pain, letting out an inhuman squeal as one of her many eyes ruptured, spraying azure blood into the air.

Misumena lashed out in unhinged rage, slamming her leg against the tree Evelyn was in hard enough to crack the wood. Splinters of wood and bark coated her leg when she retracted it and scurried faster than she’d ever moved before. She tried to return to the forest, but Adam had prepared for that.

A shrill roar echoed through the valley as a great winged beast swooped down from the clouds. It was long, serpentine, draconic.

Thick scales the color of fresh moss glowed in the summertime air. It whipped its reptilian head around to glare at Misumena with too-bright yellow eyes. The beast had a thin, spiked tail and powerful legs with long ivory claws at the end, but it was missing arms. Where they should’ve been were two leathery wings that it tucked in as it dropped from the sky.

The wyvern was terrifying to behold, but having met an actual dragon once upon a time, it couldn’t hold a candle to them.

Still, Adam assured us that it was the right creature for the job.

The wyvern dipped low, and like a bird of prey, extended its legs and sunk its talons deep into Misumena. The wyvern attempted to pick up Misumena, but the weight of the creature was many times more than the wyvern, and it couldn’t lift it high. It groaned and let out another roar as it kept attempting to follow Adam’s orders.

With a sudden twist, Misumena snapped its front legs and wrapped around the wyvern.

It struggled in vain against the powerful legs of Misumena, and it couldn’t escape. It couldn’t fight back as Misumena sank her fangs into the wyvern and began using her chelicerae to tear into the flesh of the dragonkin.

“Damn it!” Adam cursed as he held out his hand.

The wyvern dissolved and returned to its housing before Misumena could kill it.

“I thought you said it would work!” Evelyn screamed.

“How the hell was I supposed to know the thing was strong enough to take out Wynonna? She was my best flyer!”

“What about one of your golems?”

“I only brought Abby and Lawrence!”

Evelyn screamed while holding her breath, and her face turned a very unflattering shade of purple. “Just use the damn lava golem!”

“And burn down the entire forest?”

Evelyn mimed choking Adam and then threw her hands up. “Anyone got any brilliant ideas? I’m all ears.”

Misumena was wary now, and she’d stopped her advance, afraid of any more surprises, but we had none. Our game plan was to get her over the waterfall using the wyvern, but now we were back to square one.

Well, nearly square one.

“I really hope this works,” I said and took off toward Misumena.

Gil and the others shouted at me, but I ignored them and raced across the grass until I was right in front of Misumena. My chitin wormed from under my skin and crept over me in half a second. Fire burned in my limbs as the power of the Hive strengthened them. I leapt high, putting the entirety of my strength into the jump. I sailed over Misumena’s head and landed on her abdomen. She reared back as my weight settled on her, and she tried to shake me off, but as soon as I had my balance, I formed spikes on the bottom of my feet to keep me anchored. They sank in only a fraction of an inch, but it was enough.

I knelt down on all fours and crawled my way toward her front. Misumena’s legs couldn’t reach me, and I didn’t have any trouble as I reached her head. Evelyn’s arrow had done its job and punctured through at least two of her eyes, but I needed her blind for what I was about to attempt.

I said a quick prayer to my goddess, because despite everything, Misumena was still of the Hive, and she deserved respect.

With a grimace, I summoned dagger-like shards of chitin in my hands and sank them into her remaining eyes. Her bloodcurdling scream tore at my ears, and I curled in on myself until the pain stopped swirling through my eyes. I wasn’t in any danger of falling off, thanks to my chitin, so I just had to endure the screeching pain until it ended.

As blood gushed from her torn and gored eye sockets, I withdrew the chitin around my fingers and dug them into her. I reached for my control magic, let it spill through my fingers and enter Misumena. She was not a descendant of the Hive, was not a creature that technically fell under my bailiwick. She was a goddess of the Arachne, a being worshipped by tens of thousands at one point. But Misumena was Hive, and that put her under my control.

My consciousness slipped from my mind and traversed into Misumena. Her consciousness was expansive, a twisting, convoluted maze buried underwater. Misumena was aware of me,