Page 54 of What We Become

“Oh, wow,” she says, looking around the room. “Odin has a really cool murder cabin.”

“Safe house,” Micah and I say in unison.

Footsteps sound on the stairs. Milo appears first, then Eli, then Holden. Now we’re all up here, six people in one room, doing the slow collective turn like tourists.

Milo makes it three steps before he stops dead. “No. No, this is the one.”

“The one what?” Holden asks.

“The room. The room-room.” He crosses to the wall of glass and presses both hands to it like a kid at an aquarium. “We’re above the treeline. You can see the entire valley. Do you understand what sunrise is going to do through this window? It’s going to be a religious experience. I’m going to be moved against my will.”

“It’s a window,” Eli says.

“It’s a cathedral.” Milo spins to face us, arms wide, and I already know what’s coming. “We should all sleep in here. All six of us. We drag mattresses up for the floor, there’s an elevator so logistics are handled, and we wake up to that view together like the world’s most heavily armed sleepover.”

“No,” Holden says.

Flat. Final. The way he says everything that isn’t up for debate. He’s already moving, easing Fury down onto the edge of the bed. She lets him, which tells me she’s feeling worse than she’s admitting.

“Holden—”

“Sage needs rest. Real rest. Not five people breathing on her all night.” He pulls the duvet back and fluffs the pillows. “She gets this room. She gets a door that closes. Whoever she wants in here, stays. Everyone else sleeps on the second floor.”

“I do want everyone,” Fury says. “But I also want to sleep without somebody elbowing my cracked rib at three a.m. So—compromise. Space until I can breathe without pain. Then we renegotiate sleepover terms.”

“Democracy in action,” Micah says.

Milo opens his mouth. Closes it. Looks at the view. Looks at the bed. I can watch him recalibrating in real time, hunting for an alternative.

“Fine,” he says finally. “Fine. But I want it on record that the second-floor bedrooms have significantly better access to the sex room, so technically I’m being upgraded. This is a promotion.”

“Nobody’s using the sex room,” Holden says. “She’s on doctor’s orders. Two weeks.”

“Two weeks of living twenty feet from a sex room I’m not allowed to use.” Milo presses a hand to his heart. “This is my villain origin story. Remember this moment when I finally snap.”

“You snapped years ago,” Eli says.

“And yet I keep finding new depths.”

I tune them out and do a last pass. Window locks. Deck bolt. Sight line from the bed to the door. The elevator panel—I find the manual lockout on my second look and engage it. Nobody comes up that shaft tonight without Fury’s say-so.

When I turn back, Micah’s got Fury settled against the pillows. He leans down and smooths the hair off her forehead. “Sleep, baby girl. We’ll be right downstairs.”

“Okay, I’ll nap a little,” she says, eyes already closing. “But if Milo tries to play in the sex room without me, I want video footage to masturbate to later.”

“That is super hot, but I would never play sex dungeons without you, kitten,” Milo says.

Holden kisses her temple. Eli finds the panel and dims the lights. They file toward the stairs. I stay. Crouch until I’m level with her.

“Elevator’s locked out,” I tell her. “Opens from this room only. Windows are solid. Deck door’s got a second bolt. You’re safe.”

One eye opens. “Are you reciting my fortress specs?”

“Yes.”

The eye closes. Her hand finds two of my fingers. “You’ll be downstairs?”

“I’ll take a look around the grounds first. But then I’ll be downstairs. Or the porch. Nowhere else.”