Page 2 of Monster Queen Rising

The earpiece goes quiet.

He looks at his hand on his knee for a second. Then he turns half around in the passenger seat.

"They diverted the Hollens transport. They're not taking her to the cabin lab." The patterning at Thaw's throat is bright. "They're taking her to Camille."

Camille.

The word goes straight through me.

Camille is the fast one. The one Reyes wouldn't look at Thaw to explain — the cascade that takes a 6-week accelerated gestation protocol and burns it down to four days, start to delivery. Four days, and then they cut the baby out of Madison and Madison doesn't matter to them after that.

They've decided.

The clock's already running.

Somewhere ahead of us a woman I've never met is strapped into a transport with only days before her body stops being useful to them.

The number sits in my chest like a second heartbeat, off from the first.

And the voice rises.

I don't summon it.

My rage does.

It pushes against my throat, hungry to become command. I lock my teeth together and shove it back down, refusing to let it out.

It stays there.

Pressing.

Waiting.

"Four days," I whisper.

My own voice. Barely.

Harek's arm comes tight around me. The third thread floods warm—his relief.

In the front, Thaw turns.

He doesn't ask if I'm all right.

His gaze moves over me the way he studies a tree line before leading us into it—slow, careful, taking in what everyone else misses. Something eases in the truck when he nods once. Dean's hands loosen on the wheel. Harek finally lets out the breath he'd been holding.

"You stopped the Queen-voice."

"Yes."

"How?"

"I don't know." I shake my head once. "I just... did."

He watches that answer settle across my face.

"Good."

I wait.