"SKY LADY!"

  H?kon's voice cut through the fog like a blade.

  Sigrun could see him. Barely. A small shape on Xin's shoulder, scales flickering between terrified brown and something brighter—azure, fighting against the fear. His tiny claws gripped Xin's jacket so hard the fabric bunched.

  "Sky Lady speaking weird! Pappa, help!"

  Xin stood at the web's edge, his 10mm Magnum lowered, one hand flying across his Nucleus Watch interface. Jabari was beside him, Moonstone Cutlass Sankofa hacking at the tendrils that crept toward their position. Each swing bought inches. Each inch cost seconds.

  Batu approached, that monstrous appendage rigid between his legs, glistening.

  "Would you like to go home now, Princess?"

  Yes, her body screamed. Yes yes yes—

  "Yes..." The word slipped out. Her tongue darted across her lips. "Come grab me... take me home... come inside me..."

  Stop. Stop saying that. That's not you. That's not—

  But her mouth kept moving, and the words kept coming, and somewhere deep inside, the part of her that was still Sigrun Fjeld could only watch as her body betrayed everything she'd spent eleven years building.

  "Pappa!" H?kon's voice cracked with strain. "No smelling goo-stuff! Make people go weird-weird!"

  Xin's fingers froze over his Watch. His eyes—sharp, analytical, the eyes of an engineer solving a problem—snapped to the Diabolisk. "The smell. It's olfactory delivery for the pheromone compound."

  "Can you filter it?" Jabari grunted, cleaving another tendril.

  "Not fast enough. But if we could create a barrier around our airways—" Xin's gaze dropped to H?kon. Something passed between them. Understanding. Trust.

  The little Diabolisk's scales shifted. Brown bled away, replaced by determined silver-blue. He was scared—Sigrun could see it in the tremor of his small body—but he set his jaw the way she'd seen Xin do when facing impossible odds.

  "Haw-koon try," he whispered.

  Then, louder, his tiny voice ringing with desperate effort:

  "SKJ?LD!"

  The air around Xin crystallized.

  A shimmer of pale blue light, barely visible, like frost on glass. Fragile. Wavering. But inside that barrier, the cloying sweetness couldn't reach. Inside that barrier, the air looked clean.

  H?kon sagged against Xin's neck, his small body trembling violently. The spell was draining him, Sigrun could see it in the way his scales flickered, bright to dim to bright again, like a candle fighting the wind.

  But he held it.

  For her. For his Pappa. For whatever he'd decided they were becoming.

  "Lunar psionics!" Xin's eyes cleared as the fog lifted from his mind. His fingers flew across the Watch interface, faster now, sharper. "The organic compound—it's vulnerable to Lunar frequencies. The crystalline structure breaks down when exposed to—"

  "In plain English, Xin!"

  "Lunar magic hurts it! Got anything?"

  "Yeah, I've got something." Jabari had already sheathed his cutlass. Oya came up, a fresh bolt sliding into the chamber. Something hardened in his expression.

  "Baw-lah-eh See-kah!"

  The bolt that flew was different. It shimmered with pale light, trailing luminescence like a comet's tail. Moon-enchanted. The same ammunition he'd used in the Red Rabbit Warren.

  It struck the web near Sigrun's trapped arm.

  The organic matter shrieked. A psychic recoil slammed into everyone present, making them stagger. Sigrun felt it like fishhooks dragging across the inside of her skull. The goo around the impact point turned gray, crumbling to ash.

  "Again!" Xin shouted.

  Jabari fired. The second bolt hit near her shoulder. More shrieking. More crumbling. The web's grip loosened fractionally.

  Batu's mandibles clicked with irritation. He stepped toward Sigrun, blade rising to claim his prize—

  Marcus intercepted him.

  The Stalwart came in like a battering ram, shield-first, driving into Batu with every ounce of his considerable weight. The impact sent both of them staggering sideways, away from Sigrun.

  "Your crimes against this city won't stand, Draug!" Marcus planted his feet, shield up, sword ready.

  "Covenant zealot. Predictable." Batu recovered with a fencer's grace, rolling his shoulders. "Ysolde claims you're worth breeding. But I'd feed you to the Krakens."

  "Aye, you should. But you won't." Marcus smiled somehow.

  They engaged. Marcus's technique had no flourishes. He used his Titanium Shield as much as his Zephyrium Sword, bashing and cutting, keeping Batu focused on him rather than the woman trapped in webbing behind them.

  Another bolt from Jabari. Another. The web crumbled faster now.

  "Sky Lady almost free!" H?kon's voice was thin. Exhausted. His scales had gone pale, almost translucent, and his breathing came in rapid little gasps. "Haw-koon...Haw-koon keep trying..."

  "I'm proud of you, buddy! Just hold on a little longer—" Xin shouted as he raised his 10mm to fire alongside Jabari.

  The last strand gave way.

  Sigrun pitched forward, hands slapping against the corrupted carpet, gasping. The air was clearer here, the pheromone concentration diluted by distance from the main mass. Her head pounded. Her body still hummed with unwanted arousal, skin flushed and oversensitive beneath her ruined clothes.

  But she could think.

  Come inside me.

  She'd said that. Out loud. In front of everyone. Those words had come out of her mouth while her mind screamed and clawed and fought.

  Bile rose in her throat. She swallowed it down.

  "Medi-Vap! It'll clear the toxins." Xin called out as Marcus grunted behind him, catching another of Batu's strikes on his shield.

  Sigrun's hands shook as she fumbled for the vaporizer at her belt. The cylinder felt slick in her grip—residue from the web coating her fingers. She pressed it to her lips and inhaled.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Mint and metal. The familiar taste of nanobots flooding her bloodstream, hunting down foreign compounds, neutralizing them. The trembling in her limbs began to fade. The heat beneath her skin cooled.

  The shame didn't.

  "Sigrun."

  Xin's voice. Close.

  She looked up. He was crouching beside her, H?kon half-conscious against his neck, the Diabolisk's scales flickering weakly. In Xin's hands—Járn. He must have retrieved it from the crumbling web. The Thermal Axe was still intact, its core dormant but undamaged.

  He held it out to her. Handle first.

  "Your weapon."

  Their eyes met.

  She saw it there. Heard the words that had spilled from her mouth while alien chemistry rewrote her brain. Come inside me. Said to another man. To a monster. While Xin watched.

  And he was still here.

  She took the axe. Her fingers brushed his. She pulled back too quickly, like she'd touched something hot.

  "Thanks." The word came out rough.

  Xin was quiet for a moment. He adjusted H?kon's position, not quite meeting her eyes—giving her space, she realized. Letting her have whatever dignity remained.

  "I heard what…you said," he said finally. His voice was soft. Careful. "I also heard you fighting it. The whole time. That's what I'm going to remember."

  She didn't know what to do with that. Didn't have a box to put it in, a wall to hide it behind. The walls she'd built to process pain and shame and violation had no category for something like kindness. At least not in public.

  The feelings got too big for her. So instead she uttered. "We should…move."

  She stood. Checked Járn's thermal core. Checked Skuld in its brick configuration at the small of her back. Weapons ready. Mind functional. Body still humming with residual wrongness, but she could fight.

  Good enough.

  A small voice, barely above a whisper: "Sky Lady?"

  Sigrun looked down. H?kon had one eye cracked open, his scales dim with exhaustion. He'd pushed himself to the edge for her. This tiny creature who'd known her for days.

  "Sky Lady okay?" he managed.

  Something cracked in her chest. Something she'd spent eleven years walling off.

  "Yeah. I'm okay." Her voice came out softer than she'd intended. "Because of you."

  "Haw-koon..." A tiny yawn. "Haw-koon did good?"

  "Yeah." She reached out—hesitated—then gently touched the top of his head. His scales warmed slightly under her fingers. "You did very good."

  His tail gave one weak, happy twitch. Then his eye slid closed, and he nuzzled deeper into Xin's neck.

  A wet, organic sound snapped everyone back to the present.

  The corridor they'd entered through was sealing itself. The walls bulged inward, organic matter spreading like a wound closing. What had been an exit was now a membrane of glistening tissue, growing thicker by the second.

  "They're boxing us in." Haylen's voice was flat. She'd reloaded her rifle, but her hands weren't quite steady. Behind her, three Constables stood over the bodies of their fallen comrades.

  She wasn't looking at the bodies.

  Sigrun understood. If Haylen looked, she'd break. And sergeants like her couldn't afford to break. Not until the mission was done.

  "So, the front corridor's solid," Jabari reported, jogging back from a quick reconnaissance. His usual humor had drained away, replaced by something grimmer. "Organic growth is accelerating, though. We've got maybe ten minutes before this whole lobby becomes a digestive tract."

  Batu disengaged from Marcus, stepping back with a fencer's precision. The appendage between his legs had retracted, withdrawing into his body with a wet, sucking sound that made Sigrun's skin crawl.

  "You have until dawn to surrender Princess Sigrun." His voice remained clinical and cruel, like they were negotiating trade tariffs. "Third Daughter of Queen Maren Fjeld. Promised Breeding Mate for Primarch Skarn."

  Above them, Ysolde clung to the ceiling, amber eyes burning with patient hunger. Her smile showed too many teeth.

  "After that," the female Draug added, "we stop being gentle."

  The two Draugs withdrew into the motel's darkness.

  The organic matter continued to grow.

  Walls pressed closer. The ceiling seemed lower. Every breath still carried traces of that cloying sweetness.

  "Report." Haylen's voice cracked on the word. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Report, all."

  Marcus planted his shield, leaning on it heavily. The shield arm trembled a moment before steadying. "Batu's technique hasn't degraded since his transformation. If anything, he's faster. We won't beat him in a straight fight."

  "Ysolde's the bigger threat," Sigrun added. Her voice sounded distant to her own ears. "That web of hers…if she catches any of us again, we're fucked."

  "Ammunition's running—eh, not doomingly low, but concerningly?" Jabari reported. "With my Aether, I've got maybe eight Lunar-enchanted bolts left. Regular rounds don't seem to bother the Fenris stuffs much."

  "I can maybe hack their communications," Xin offered, "but I'd need access to a terminal that isn't covered in…" He gestured vaguely at the pulsing walls. "…whatever this is."

  Haylen rubbed her face with her free hand. When it dropped, her expression had hardened.

  "So we're properly bottled. Exits sealed, ammunition limited, and two Draug lieutenants waiting for dawn." She laughed, a short, sharp one. "Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant."

  "We can hold until we find another way." Marcus straightened, forcing his shield arm to stop trembling through sheer willpower. "Zori didn't bring us this far to die in some bloody knocking shop."

  A knocking shop.

  The words hit Sigrun like a physical blow.

  Room 2847. Somewhere above. Red sheets that were tacky even by Mars standards. The shower running too hot. Xin's hands on her waist, hesitant, reverent. Your body... it's impressive. The way he'd blushed when he said it. The way she'd laughed for the first time in years. The kiss that should not have happened.

  I love you, Sigrun.

  And then the ceiling exploding. Batu descending. Running through corridors that now pulsed with alien flesh—

  Room 2847 was somewhere above them. In this building. Behind these walls.

  She'd now known this place intimately. And she wouldn't soon forget.

  "The lower floors," she heard herself say. Everyone looked at her. "They'll be less corrupted. I think."

  Marcus nodded somehow, approvingly as he chimed in. "Fenris nests concentrate above ground. They fancy vanity for these foul structures of theirs, high and bloody."

  "Meaning?" Jabari raised an eyebrow.

  "The lower we go, the thinner the growth. Been like that on every moon and planet they touch." Marcus met the Griot's gaze.

  Haylen's eyes narrowed. "But you know this how, Sigrun?"

  Sigrun's jaw tightened. "I know this building."

  Something flickered across Xin's face. Recognition. He'd been here with her. He'd remember the room number, the floor, the way they'd moved and done things. Like she'd walked these corridors a hundred times.

  And with how she'd part-timed as Leased Lily all these years, she probably had.

  "Just searched the Extranet. The motel's floor plans are still in the municipal database." Xin was already working his Watch, giving her cover without being asked. "If I map the organic growth against the original structure..."

  His fingers danced across the holographic display. Data streams reflected in his cracked glasses.

  "There. Maintenance access is in sub-level. If the original structural plans are accurate, it connects to an external fire escape on the building's east side."

  "If." Haylen's voice was sharp. Desperate people clutching at straws—she recognized the look because she'd worn it herself too many times. "You're asking us to go deeper into this Fenris nest on speculation."

  "I'm asking us to move instead of waiting to die." Xin met her gaze steadily. "Whatever 'stop being gentle' means, I'd rather not find out."

  "He's got a point, Sergeant." Jabari checked his remaining bolts. "Sitting here, we're dead by dawn. Maybe dead by digestion before that. Going up, we've at least got a chance."

  "The engineer's route makes sense tactically." Marcus moved to stand beside Xin—a Covenant Stalwart next to a civilian. "Lower ground, less corruption, potential exit. It's not a good option, but it's the only option that isn't surrender."

  Haylen looked between them. Her jaw worked. Four of her people were dead on the floor behind her, and the man who'd killed them was somewhere in the darkness above, waiting.

  Sigrun stepped forward. "I've been through this building more times than I can count. I can guide us."

  Something ugly flickered in Haylen's expression. Judgment, maybe. "Of course you have. Sold yourself in a place like this?"

  "So what if I have?" Sigrun shot back.

  "Not my place to judge. Not presently." The word came out from Haylen's lips clipped. "We go down. Constables, check your weapons. Conserve charges." She looked at Sigrun. "We trust your guidance, Miss Fjeld. Do try not to get us killed."

  "I won't."

  They moved toward the stairs—the ones with railings wrapped in intestinal tissue, leading down into darkness. Sigrun took the lead, Járn's thermal core casting blue light across the corrupted walls.

  Behind her, Xin fell into step with H?kon still drowsing against his neck. The Diabolisk's scales had shifted from exhausted gray to something warmer. Recovering.

  "Pappa?" A sleepy murmur.

  "Right here, buddy."

  "Pappa like Sky Lady?"

  The question was innocent. Artless. The way only children could be, cutting straight to the heart of things adults would spend years dancing around.

  Sigrun found Xin glancing toward her back. She turned away the next instance.

  "Yeah, buddy," his voice came softly from behind. "Many people like Sky Lady, I'm sure."

  "Haw-koon like Sky Lady too." A small, contented sound. "Sky Lady be Haw-koon's mamma. Is okay?"

  The word hung in the air. Mamma.

  In a motel full of monsters, waiting to be hunted through corridors she'd once walked as a working girl, that was said out loud.

  She peeked back at them again. H?kon was looking at Xin with those round sapphire eyes, waiting for an answer. Trusting that whatever Xin said would be true.

  "Hey, boy," Xin said. "Get some rest. We'll talk about it another time, okay?"

  The Diabolisk's scales settled to hopeful gold. "A-no-ther time okay. Im-por-tant okay."

  "Yeah, buddy. It's important."

  Sigrun stopped at the landing. She was looking back—not at Xin, but at H?kon.

  "Guys, keep up," she said. "We've got many floors to go."

  They took the stairs, walking down. Deeper into the motel. Lower into the dark.

  And somewhere inside, Batu, Ysolde and whatever monsters they commanded, were waiting.