Page 6 of Monster Queen Rising

I focus on Hollens. She is ahead and we must save her.

The pre-dawn comes up. The Cascades go red at the edges.

I see him before Thaw.

A man on the south face of a slope below us. Alone. Walking a line at the base of a rock outcrop. Syndicate vest. Rifle slung. He is walking south to north, eyes on the trees.

Thaw has not seen him. Crull is in the trees behind us. The sentry is not on either of their lines of sight.

He is on mine.

I drop.

Not glide. Drop. The wings fold and I go down, and the sentry has time to lift his head once and his mouth opens but no sound comes out because I am on him.

I do not think. I move. The rifle is mine before it comes up. My claws find his throat.

He hits the ground. He doesn't get back up.

I wait.

For one breath, I wait to see if I can still think.

I can. I am still here.

I lift off the slope.

Thaw is overhead, plates lit in the pre-dawn. Crull is at the rock face. They both saw me drop. Neither of them is looking at me. They're looking at the body.

A valley.

White roof against the side of a mountain. Lights at the perimeter, low. Vehicle access on the east. A road coming in from the south. A single building.

Site Camille.

Chapter four

Jen

The truck has been moving south for miles.

Daron is driving. Dean is in the second truck behind us with the two syndicate agents in the cargo box. Harek is in the back seat with me. He has not moved from there since we left the spur where the pack split.

I am pressed against his side. His arm is around my shoulders. He smells like cedar and the warmth of him steadies me. But my mind is ahead of the truck. I am miles south of the truck with the man who is not yet bonded to me.

Fen.

Five threads in my chest are sealed. The sixth is the not. The man it belongs to is flying into a Syndicate facility right now and he is doing it without my mark on him.

That is wrong.

I have been accepting half of what fate gave us because the man on the other end of the thread was broken by the cell, the dosing, and the corridor.

I am done accepting half.

Harek's hand tightens on my arm. His eyes meet mine. He nods once.

"Daron."