The clearing lay in ruin. Ash smoldered where Scarabs had fallen, the coils of the Centipedes still smoking, the husks of Glowbeetles scattered like burned stars. Even the Elder's web was gone, reduced to black threads drifting through the air.
Only Buzz and Zza stood, their claws sunk into the fused Queen's chest wound, their silk binding them both to her. Blood ran steady down their shells, dripping hot onto the cracked soil. Their breaths came ragged, shallow, but in rhythm together.
The Queen bent low, her mandibles dripping rivers of ichor. Her eyes burned, glow flaring in pulses like a heartbeat.
"You cannot win," she hissed. "You are already mine."
Buzz spat blood at her feet. His grin split wide, cracked and wild. "If I'm yours, why do I still bleed against you?"
Zza pulled her claws tight around his, her voice sharp through the tears streaking her face. "If we were hers, we'd have bowed already. We don't bow. We break."
