'The Hive Queen' is the twelfth book in the New York Times bestselling series Wings of Fire and the second book of
the third arc. The main protagonist is Cricket. The book was officially
released on December 26th, 2018, and the book cover was released some
time prior on September 17th, 2018.

The Hive Queen follows The Lost Continent and precedes The Poison Jungle.

## Summary

The truth is a powerful weapon.

Growing up in the hives, Cricket has always had a million questions. Why
are trees forbidden, even in art? Why do her parents seem to hate her?
And the biggest, most dangerous and secret question of all: why is
Cricket immune to Queen Wasp's Othermind|powers? Whenever the queen
takes control of all the HiveWings, speaking through their mouths and
seeing through their eyes, Cricket has to hide, terrified of being
discovered.

Now she's hiding again, wanted for stealing the Book of Clearsight along
with her new SilkWing friends, Blue and Swordtail, and the fierce
LeafWing, Sundew. The fugitives need answers, and fast, in order to
prevent a LeafWing attack. But Cricket has more questions than ever. How
can she stay hidden and discover the queen's deadliest secret? And if
she does succeed — can a powerless dragonet really do anything to topple
a regime and stop a war?

## Dedication

"For Wendy and Fiona, a pair of kind hearted funny bookworms with dragon
hearts — Cricket and the bears and I think you are kindred spirits!"

## Quote on Back of Hardcover

"You think Blue is going to be useful… for the LeafWings?" Swordtail
said in a dangerous voice.

"How?" Cricket took an instinctive step closer to the cocoon, as though
Blue might sense her protection through the silk. "What do you think he
could do?"

Sundew flicked her wings back. "He's going to burn down all the Hives
for us."

## Plot

### Prologue

At the opening of the book, Moon sat on the beach near Jerboa
III|Jerboa's house, contemplating the fact that there were really other
dragons and another continent across the sea. She then thought about
Luna's declaration that the dragons of Pantala needed her help, although
she doubted that she could, as she believed it was her fault that
Darkstalker had done what he did. Luna then came up to her and inquired
as to why she is out there alone. The two talked about their names — how
Moonwatcher's name meant she liked to watch the moons, and how Luna's
name had meant "moon" in the Languages#Pantalan|old language before it
was used to refer to a type of moth.

Hearing this, Moon asked about the old language and discovered it was
the dialect spoken before Clearsight's arrival. Luna then asks Moon if
she was having any visions yet, to which Moon says no, much to Luna's
disappointment. Moon apologized and Luna confided in her that she is
worried about Blue and Swordtail. After this, Moon finally picked up the
courage to tell Luna about a The Lost Continent Prophecy|prophecy she
had been hearing for a while, although she was not sure if she should
tell her. The SilkWing insisted that she could handle it, and Moon told
her.

Qibli, Turtle, and Tsunami then arrived with Moon greeting them. Turtle
told them that his and Anemone's Animus magic|magic had not been
working, and he theorized that animus magic has "broke". Tsunami later
told them all that the only way to get to the Lost Continent was by
swimming there.

### Part One: The Glittering Hive

Inside the cave where they hid while waiting for Sundew, Cricket awaited
Blue's emergence from his cocoon. She began to regret her promise to be
there when he came out, as watching a non-moving cocoon was proving
extremely boring. As she sat there, her mind wanders, and she had a
flashback of her childhood.

The flashback began with Cricket hiding in a cupboard, reading one of
her mother's Literature|books, hoping to figure out a quick way to get
from the Cicada Hive to the Wasp Hive efficiently so she could see the
Wasp Hive#The Temple of Clearsight|The Temple of Clearsight. While she
was reading, her mother entered the kitchen along with Katydid. Queen
Wasp spoke through their mouths briefly, and Cricket was confused as to
why Cadelle "sounds all wrong". Katydid and Cadelle exited the house and
Cricket debated whether to follow them or not, eventually deciding to go
see what was going on from her mother's balcony. From her vantage point,
Cricket witnessed a mob of white-eyed HiveWings — her sister Katydid
among them — corralling an elderly dragon who was insisting that he was
not a threat. For as much as he plead, it proved futile, and the
blank-eyed HiveWings took him away regardless.

Later that day, when Katydid returned, Cricket asked her sister what
happened to her and the other HiveWings. Katydid, who was worried and
perplexed, was shocked when she realized Cricket could not be
mind-controlled. Cricket asked more questions about mind control and
Katydid told her that you just "suddenly want to do" whatever the queen
was asking. Cricket objected and reminded Katydid that she was forced to
drag away an elderly, crying dragon, and Katydid responded, "She is the
queen, Cricket", and told Cricket that she would never refuse the queen
in real life. Cricket thought otherwise, but she did not voice her
opinion. Katydid agreed that they would not tell anyone Cricket's
secret, and the flashback ends.

Following the memory, Cricket recalled that the first thing they did
together when they were in a new location was scout out a hiding place
if the tribe was mind-controlled. Cricket then remembered that Katydid
was always the one to care for her, not her mother and father. It was
Katydid that had noticed that Cricket's vision was poor and took her to
the eye doctor to get her glasses. Cricket remembered wondering why her
mother did not like her and why her father did not seem to care. Cricket
snapped back into the present and focuses on how to solve her boredom.
She amused herself by imagining that she could read the Humans|reading
monkey's books. Cricket then laughed at herself and admitted that her
talons would be too big for the tiny book and the reading monkeys would
have a different Languages|language. She thought about the four more
agonizingly slow days she had to endure with nothing to read. Cricket
considered leaving the cave, but she recalled the promise she made to
Blue about when he started his Metamorphosis. She had sworn to be there
when he came out of his cocoon with his new wings. Cricket's thoughts
then swooped to Sundew, Luna, and Swordtail, and she hoped for their
safety and return. Suddenly she heard talonsteps, and Cricket realized
there was someone else in the caves.

The dragon turned out to be Sundew, dragging along an unconscious
Swordtail. Cricket was delighted that she is here, though Sundew did not
have the same feeling. When Swordtail awoke, he admitted he could not
find Luna. Sundew explained that she wanted Blue to burn down the Hives
with his flamesilk when he got out, but Cricket did not like the idea at
all and they bickered for a while. Swordtail took Sundew's side, which
made Cricket miserable. Sundew then went off to look for her parents,
and Swordtail left to search for Luna again, leaving Cricket alone.

A little while later, Blue emerged from his cocoon. Cricket then shared
a flashback of when her mother moved away. The group decided to go to
Jewel Hive, where they could search for the Chrysalis. The group donned
disguises in order to make it in, with Cricket pretending to be a
HiveWing with many servants. They found a note that led them to the
library at midnight, a step closer to finding the Chrysalis. While
waiting for midnight, Cricket took the group to one of her hiding spots.
As they waited, she spied her sister, Katydid, sneaking into her
mother's house with Scarab. Cricket then left to see her sister. When
the two met, they embraced, and Cricket tried to get Katydid to believe
Wasp's evilness, although her sister did not buy it. Katydid then
revealed that Cadelle and her husband were not Cricket's parents.

### Part Two: A Trail of Silk

Cricket tried to focus on what "5" meant on the note while she, Blue,
Swordtail, and Sundew walked to the library. When they got there, the
library doors were locked so they waited a bit to see if the Chrysalis
would come. After waiting for some time, Cricket and the others thought
that the Chrysalis would not come. Cricket began inspecting the
Clearsight statue outside of the library. She then noticed that the
Clearsight statue had five spikes on the back of her head, and on the
fifth spike, there was a key. She tested to see if the key could open
the library doors, and it worked. While Cricket, Blue, Swordtail, and
Sundew walked into the library. Sundew then grumbled on about the number
of trees that were killed in order to make the library and books.
Cricket quickly replied that the book pages were mostly made of silk.
Soon enough, they heard shouting coming from the second floor of the
library. They quietly walked into a room with one large window, where
three SilkWings, Morpho, Tau, and Cinnabar, were arguing about someone
named Argus. Swordtail introduced himself awkwardly after listening to
them for a few minutes. Then, he talked about finding Luna and said he
had other friends with them. When Blue stepped out of the shadows, all
three Chrysalis SilkWings got excited and recognized him from the Wanted
posters. Blue explained that a nice HiveWing named Cricket helped him
escape, and motioned for Cricket to come out. However, when the
Chrysalis saw her, they screamed and covered their faces with pillows
and blankets. Cricket tried to explain that she could not be
mind-controlled and she was a good HiveWing, which did little to ease
Morpho's suspicion.

Finally, Sundew came out, shocking the Jewel Hive Chrysalis, and said
that she had an army prepared for them to help their cause. After the
SilkWings came over their shock and Sundew explained a few things,
Morpho immediately said that he would ally with Sundew and the LeafWings
to destroy the HiveWings. This shocked Tau, Cinnabar, Cricket, and Blue,
who did not want to burn the Hives. Throughout the conversation, Cricket
saw silver flashes coming through the window but thought it was nothing.
She turned around and saw a reflection of the armor that HiveWing
soldiers wore. Sundew immediately shushed the dragons, and Cricket could
hear a faint jingling as if someone was trying to find the right keys to
unlock the library door.

Sundew quickly asked Cricket if she had a hiding place in the library.
This is due to Cricket always trying to find a place to hide when Queen
Wasp begins to control the other HiveWings. Cricket led the Chrysalis
and her friends to the first floor of the library and was surprised that
the Chrysalis trusted her enough to follow her. She showed the dragons
book drops, in which dragons put their returned books in. Tau and
Cinnabar got into one, Swordtail and Morpho into another one, Blue and
Cricket in the next, and Sundew hid alone in the last one. Just as
Sundew shut all the doors of the book drops, the key clicked and the
door opened.

Queen Wasp was talking through the mind of one HiveWing soldier, but she
did not control the other ones. She told them to search every corner of
the library. However, the HiveWing soldier could not find Cricket's
friends and the Chrysalis. This angered Queen Wasp who knew she saw
dragons in the library and threatened to kill the soldiers and burn all
the books in the library. Cricket was terrified and was thinking of
turning herself in because she thought she was not as important as Blue
or Sundew. Just when the HiveWing soldiers were about to start the fire,
Tau and Cinnabar leaped out of their hiding places. Cinnabar made up a story about how she and Tau were hiding from Jewel (THQ)|Lady Jewel
because she said they were reading too much and not working enough, so
they had been sneaking into the library after hours to read.

Queen Wasp asked if anyone else was with them, and Tau lied by saying,
"No one, your Majesty". Queen Wasp said she saw blue wings, and Cinnabar
quickly replied that her cousin, Morpho, had come earlier to scold them.
Queen Wasp was satisfied by this answer, and Cricket could hear
talonsteps walking out of the library. However, Cricket decided to not
come out yet. A few minutes later, a HiveWing soldier came back into the
library and told the Queen Wasp-controlled HiveWing that they think Lady
Scarab was hiding a dragon.

Queen Wasp said they should, "pay Lady Scarab a visit", and with that,
they left. Cricket immediately got out of her hiding spot, knowing that
Queen Wasp was going to find Katydid, but Sundew said it was a really
bad idea since Cricket would never make it in time. However, Cricket
stubbornly replied that she was going anyway, so Blue volunteered to go
with her, which made Sundew want to come, too. Swordtail and Morpho's
got out of their hiding place, and Morpho said he needed to go back home
or his dad would worry. Sundew said that when he gets back home, he
needed to tell everyone in the Jewel Hive Chrysalis (four of them did
not come to the meeting) to meet her in the farthest stall of the
Glitterbazaar at noon.

When Sundew, Cricket, and Blue reached the street where Lady Scarab's
mansion was, they heard Queen Wasp ordering Lady Scarab to open the
door. The trio joined a party near the building to eavesdrop on the
exchange. After some time, Lady Scarab opened the door and told Wasp she
did not have the dragon she was looking for. From their exchange,
Cricket realized Scarab could not be controlled. Lady Scarab still
denied Wasp access to her house and the dragon she was keeping there.
This angered Queen Wasp, and she then started controlling all the
HiveWing's minds. Lady Scarab used her odor power, which was even more
powerful and unbearable than the other times she used it. Katydid
finally woke up and told Lady Scarab she did not want to get her in
trouble. Since Queen Wasp found out the identity of the dragon, she
controlled Katydid's mind and marched her and her soldiers away.

After the soldiers left, Cricket banged on Scarab's door, to which the
old dragon opened it and let her in. Cricket told her that she had a few
questions. First, Cricket asked if Scarab knew why she could not be
mind-controlled. Surprisingly, Lady Scarab did not know either, so
Cricket said that she might be half SilkWing. However, Lady Scarab said
that Cricket was wrong and told her that her real mother was Katydid.
When Cricket asks as to her father's identity, Scarab tells her his name
was Malachite, and he had been her secretary and one of her favorite
dragons. Wasp had been aware of her preference for Malachite, so she
forbade Malachite's marriage with Katydid. Eventually, Queen Wasp
mind-controlled Malachite, and Lady Scarab never saw him again. When
Katydid was with egg, Lady Scarab helped her devise a plan to hide her
identity as the child's mother. Cricket fears that she would never see
Katydid again, and Queen Wasp would do the same thing to Katydid as with
Malachite. She then asks Scarab to borrow a paintbrush.

### Part Three: The Queen's Secrets

Cricket discussed her plan to Blue, Swordtail, and Sundew. She wanted
them to write multiple copies of the last page of The Book of Clearsight
and then hang them up in the Hive and tell the truth the HiveWings
deserved to know. Cricket also decided that doing some graffiti art
would be a great idea. She was almost done putting up all the posters
and paintings all over the place when she bumped into Cadelle. Cadelle
was angry to see Cricket, and dragged Cricket into her house. Cricket
tried to explain what she was doing in the Jewel Hive and explained the
last page of The Book of Clearsight, but this made Cadelle want the
book. Cricket tried to get past Cadelle, but out of nowhere, Cadelle's
eyes turned white, and Queen Wasp spotted Cricket. Cricket tried to run
from the mind-controlled HiveWings chasing after her, but there were too
many. She was brought down by Cadelle and stung multiple times by
another HiveWing. They drag Cricket into Lady Jewel's dungeon and lock
her in a cell. Queen Wasp tells Cricket that she will be on her way to
"fix her."

Cricket woke up to see Lady Jewel and Lady Scarab arguing in front of
her cell. Both Lady Jewel and Lady Scarab hated Queen Wasp because of
what Cricket told them. Cricket asked Lady Jewel if she could be freed,
but Lady Jewel said that Queen Wasp would punish her and her guards
severely. Lady Scarab came up with a plan about putting Lady Jewel's
worst guards on duty and giving Cricket flamesilk to burn a hole on the
top of her cell. The hole would be at the bottom of the kitchen, and she
knew some dragons who would help Cricket. When Queen Wasp finds out, it
would seem like Blue burned the hole, and if she punished the guards,
Lady Jewel would not care because she hated those guards anyway. While
Cricket burned a hole in the roof, a SilkWing in a nearby cell ask if he
could help Cricket escape somehow, and Cricket told him to say to Queen
Wasp that he saw a dragon named Blue burn the hole. When Cricket finally
made the hole, she was surprised to see that Cinnabar and Tau were there
along with other SilkWings. Cinnabar and Tau led Cricket to a door that
opened to the savanna. Tau walked up to Lady Jewel's treasurer,
Treehopper. Cricket saw that he and Tau were in love. Tau led Treehopper
out of his post, so Cricket could fly for freedom. However, as Cricket
had promised to find answers for Lady Jewel, she did not escape and
instead flew for the hatchery.

At the hatchery, Cricket snuck past the guards and entered. When inside,
she inspects the eggs and noticed select differences with each one —
some were marked with two stinger shapes, some with only one, and others
with none. Among the eggs — each one marked with their mothers' name —
Cricket found one with the word "Orphanage" written on it. On a whim,
she took the egg and flew into the rafters of the building to hide, just
in time to see Queen Wasp enter the hatchery. Cricket snuck to a dark
area where Queen Wasp would be unable to spot her whilst carrying the
egg.

Cricket watched as the queen stopped by a cluster of eggs marked with
only one stinger and picked one up. She stabbed it with her tail,
injecting the dragonet inside with her venom, and then drew another
stinger mark on the shell before moving on to another egg. Here Cricket
finally figured out how Wasp was able to control her tribe: by injecting
the eggs, Wasp was able to connect the dragon to her so that the instant
they hatched, and throughout their whole lives, she would be able to
control them. The reason why Cricket herself could not be controlled was
because Katydid had originally intended to hide her egg, consequently
keeping it from Wasp, and later replicated the same stinger markings
Wasp made so Cricket would pass as an officially registered egg.

Cricket flew through the storm outside, and bumped into Blue who showed
her where their other friends were hiding: a stall in the Glitterbazaar.
The next day, they went back to the cave to meet Sundew's parents, but
they were not there. The egg Cricket saved hatched to reveal a dragonet,
and Cricket ends up naming her Bumblebee. She noticed that the inside
lining of Bumblebee's egg was covered in an odd green substance, which
Sundew claimed to know the source, having been surrounded by the smell
while inside Wasp's greenhouse. Suddenly, Blue spotted a column of smoke
coming from the distance. The LeafWings were burning down Bloodworm
Hive. This angered Sundew because her parents said that they would wait
for her report. Cricket, Blue, Swordtail, and Sundew journeyed to Wasp
Hive. They managed to blend in despite being fugitives. Since Queen Wasp
was more focused on Bloodworm Hive, they managed to burn down Queen
Wasp's greenhouse. After that, the group decided to go to the Poison
Jungle to meet the LeafWings.

### Epilogue

Tsunami and Turtle went through a tiresome journey to reach Pantala.
They landed in the Poison Jungle and get saved from a large snake by a
LeafWing. The LeafWing told the SeaWings that her name is Willow, but
afterward immediately told Turtle and Tsunami to go back or they will
get killed. Back on Pyrrhia, Moon told Luna about a vision that she has
about general cruelty occurring on Pantala, and Luna asked Moon if she
found a way to get to Pantala themselves. Moon said not to worry because
the Pantalan dragons were coming to them.

## Mistakes

  - Birthday is used instead of hatching day.
  - The word person is used instead of dragon.
  - The word soldier is misspelled as solder.
  - Cricket commented that Morpho had been named after the color of his
    wings, even though he would have been wingless at the time he was
    named.[1]
  - When Willow saved Tsunami and Turtle from the anaconda, Tsunami
    describes her as dark green. However, she has pale green scales.

## Trivia

  - There is a Barnes & Noble exclusive edition with a foldout map of
    Pantala in the same style as the map of Pyrrhia that came with the
    Barnes & Noble exclusive edition of Darkstalker     (Legends)|Darkstalker.[2]
  - There was a Barnes & Noble promotion where a set of trading cards,
    one for each tribe and three with ads for the series, was free with
    the purchase of the book.[3][4]
  - While designing the cover, Tui only described the shape of the Hive
    and what Cricket looked like. Joy Ang drew the rest of the details,
    such as the shops.
  - The Hive Queen is the only book in the main arcs that was not
    released on a Tuesday.

## International Releases

  - 'Russian:' Драконья сага. Королева ульев (May 2020)
  - 'French:' Les Royaumes de Feu. Les rebelles de Pantala (September 3,
    2020)
  - 'German:' Wings of Fire. Die Schwarmkönigin (September 2021)