The queen's fangs opened wide enough to take Andre's shield between them. A wad of chewed leather fell from the joint of her mouth and struck the floor beside his foot.
He recoiled from it, catching sight of the boot buckle still attached.
Quinlan closed his hand around [Soul Reaper]'s hilt. The little spiders on the road had given him no idea there would be a thing like this waiting below them.
Wet folds worked inside a slit behind the queen's fangs. Her clicking slowed, grinding around the sound that forced its way out.
"Mine."
Marielle stared at the moving slit.
"It talks?"
The queen struck the doorway with her foreleg. Kaelira pulled back as the hooked tip gouged through the jamb, ripping out a block where her head had been.
"Mine!"
Her shriek sent the smaller bodies inside the feeding pockets scrambling over one another. Outside, legs began rattling against the gallery walls from both directions.
Blossom turned toward the way they'd come.
"More behind us!"
