Page 22 of Monster Queen Rising

Fen dips his head. It's all he has.

"I'll make a choice tonight. Or tomorrow. I want both of you in the room when I do. But I'm the one deciding."

He nods.

"Yes," I say.

"Okay. I'm going to sleep. Wake me at the house." Her eyes are already sliding shut. "Stay if you want. You're not in the way."

He stays.

Chapter ten

Jen

The trucks pull off the highway onto a gravel road at one in the afternoon. The farther we get from the highway, the quieter Daron becomes. His ice-blue eyes never leave the road.

Madison is awake again, watching the trees.

"Almost there," Daron says.

The gravel opens into a clearing I know. The cabin sits at the back of it — hand-built logs, a stone foundation, a low roof gone the gray-green of the trees around it. A barn thirty yards to the left. A ridge behind. We planned Theresa at the table. We left a man tied up in the cellar when we drove out. We are coming back to both.

Daron rolls us into the barn. The second truck pulls in behind us. Dean is out before the engine dies, walking the front of theclearing, eyes up, doing the sight-line check the twins do every time we arrive somewhere — even here, even at their own place.

"Clear," Dean says into the comm. Crull goes to check on the prisoner.

“Cellar held, Reyes is still locked up.”

"Copy," Daron says. He turns in the seat. Looks at me, then Madison, then back at me.

Madison studies the cabin through the windshield.

"It looks normal," she says.

"That's the point."

"Is it yours?"

"The twins'. They built it years ago. We've been using it as a safe house."

She nods.

"Okay."

I get her out of the back seat. She leans on me and we cross the clearing slow because she has not been out of a bed much in the last few weeks. Thaw has the door open before we reach it. Inside is dim and clean and smells like a place lived in. Crull closes the cellar door behind him as we come in.

Harek is already in the hallway, opening doors. He picks one.

"Back room," he says. "Smallest bed, but warmest wall — the stove backs onto it. She needs the heat." He has a pitcher of water in one hand and a glass in the other.

I walk Madison down to it. A small room, a single bed, a window on the trees. Harek sets the water on the nightstand and goes back out.

"This is yours for as long as you want it," I say.

Madison sits on the edge of the bed. Breathes out. Puts her hand on her stomach.

I hesitate.