CHAPTER 18: CHAPTER 18: THE BREAKING POINT

The Queen did not rush. She did not need to. Her silence coiled tighter, pressing into Buzz and Zza until the battlefield around them blurred into shadows. The Scarabs’ drums dulled, the Glowbeetles’ light dimmed, the Centipedes’ coils slowed. It was as if the world had been pushed aside, leaving only the three of them.

Buzz tried to move, but his legs felt heavier than stone. He saw Zza beside him, breathing hard, hands shaking as silk slipped through her claws. He reached for her, but the space between them stretched, and her figure rippled like water.

The Queen’s voice slid into his thoughts, soft and steady. "She will leave you. She must. You bleed too much. You break too easily. What use is a leader who cannot fly?"

He blinked, and Zza’s face shifted. She stood taller, her eyes cold, her silk wrapped around another. Not him. A Glowbeetle, whole and shining. She laughed, and it was not her laugh. It was the Queen’s, twisted and hollow.

"No," Buzz growled. His mandibles dug into his own flesh. "That is not her."

The vision did not fade. Zza leaned against the Glowbeetle, smiling in a way she had never smiled for him. The Queen’s voice curled tighter. "You are nothing but a wound she tends until she finds someone stronger."

Buzz forced his claws into the dirt. "She chose to crawl with me. That is enough."

The image fractured. The real Zza was there again, crouched low, her threads binding another ally. But her eyes were distant, glassy, caught in her own prison.

Buzz staggered toward her. "Zza."

She did not answer.

The Queen’s power wrapped around her mind. Zza saw Buzz on the ground, lifeless, eyes dim, mandibles cracked. His voice came from the body, filled with accusation. "You bound me too late. You were never enough. You should have left me."

Zza’s breath caught. Her silk trembled in her claws. She wanted to scream but the silence choked her.

The Queen whispered into her ears. "He resents you. He resents every thread, every hand, every time you carried him forward when he could not stand. He hates that you see his weakness. You could be more without him."

Zza’s tears ran hot down her shell. She shook her head, though the vision clung like oil. "He is alive because I stayed. I am alive because he did not let go."

Her claws ripped through the illusion. The false Buzz dissolved, and the real one was there, his hand reaching for her. She took it, gripped it hard, grounding herself in the heat of his touch.

They turned together to face the Queen.

Her eyes glowed brighter now, wings pulsing with cruel rhythm. "So you cling to each other. Then I will break you together."

The battlefield returned in a rush. Scarabs cried out as more fell. Glowbeetles burst in flashes of light, their bodies cracking against stone. Centipedes writhed in coils that were beginning to unravel. The Elder dropped new threads, but they snapped as fast as they were spun.

The Queen stepped forward. Each move bent the soil, each beat of her wings cracked the air.

Buzz held Zza’s hand tighter. His voice shook, but he spoke anyway. "If you want her, you take me first."

Zza’s grip did not loosen. Her eyes burned against the Queen. "And if you want him, you take me too."

The Queen smiled. Not with warmth. Not with joy. Only with the patience of one who believed the end was already written.

The silence deepened.

The breaking point had come.

The silence broke with a sound that was not sound at all. The Queen’s wings pulsed once, and the air itself split. Buzz felt the shock tear through his chest, hurling him back against the roots of a fallen trunk. His shell cracked as he struck, pain spreading like fire through his body.

Zza cried out and rushed to him, but the Queen was already there, her shadow blotting out the dim light of the Glowbeetles above. One claw descended, long enough to split him in two.

Zza threw herself across his body, silk shooting from her claws. Threads wrapped around the Queen’s arm, glowing faintly in the bioluminescent haze. For an instant it slowed the strike, but only for an instant. The Queen’s strength ripped through the bindings as if they were mist.

Buzz shoved Zza aside and rolled to his feet. His legs trembled, his wing hung useless, but his claws still held sharp. He lunged, driving his weight forward, slamming into her foreleg with everything he had left. It was like striking stone. His body bounced back, ribs screaming, but the Queen tilted her head slightly, as if acknowledging the attempt.

"Still crawling," her voice filled him again, as calm as the grave. "How long before she sees it is pointless?"

Zza moved in beside him, standing firm even as her breath rattled. Her silk cut across the ground in sweeping arcs, tripping the drones that poured in at the Queen’s heels. She fought with speed born not of strength but of refusal. Every thread was defiance. Every movement was resistance.

The Queen swiped again, claws raking the soil. Buzz dragged Zza out of the path, but the edge caught him across the back. His shell split open. Heat rushed through him, dark and thick. He staggered, knees buckling.

Zza caught him before he fell. "Do not stop," she hissed, forcing silk into the wound to hold it together.

"I’m not," Buzz groaned. His legs shook, but he pushed against the ground and rose again. His blood dripped onto her hands, staining the thread crimson, but he stood.

The Scarabs surged forward, drums booming as they tried to flank the Queen. She turned, wings slicing the air. A wave of force swept them back, their shells shattering against stone. The Glowbeetles dove from above, their light blazing, but she swatted them from the sky, their bodies bursting like sparks against her carapace.

Still, Buzz and Zza held their place before her.

Buzz’s claws were dull. His breath came ragged. His vision blurred. But Zza was there, silk binding his wounds, her body pressed close to his, her eyes locked not on the Queen but on him. She anchored herself in his defiance, and he in her care.

The Queen lowered her head until her eyes filled his vision. Gold burned in them, merciless and cold. "You will end here."

Buzz’s voice broke, but he forced it out. "Then I end crawling."

Zza’s silk snapped tight across the Queen’s face. "And I end binding."

The Queen reared back, threads clinging to her mandibles, and for the first time her balance shifted. Not broken. Not defeated. But tested.

The clearing shook with the impact of her wings as she pulled free, drones surging around her like a tide.

Buzz gripped Zza’s arm. "We hold this line. No matter what comes."

Her hand tightened over his. "We hold."

The Queen struck again, and the ground itself seemed to split.

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