Page 23 of The Monster's Daughter

And then I hear it.

“Bella…”

I jerk, skin crawling. The voice is wrong. Too wrong. Metallic and organic all at once, like someone spliced radio with vocal cords.

And then, like a knife twist.

“…integrate… adapt…”

My pulse slams in my throat. It’smycadence. My rhythm. The thing isn’t just talking—it’s learning me. Studying me.

I slam the panel shut and back away. “Shit.”

Kage rises instantly, frills flaring wide. “What?”

I grip the pack strap so hard my knuckles ache. “The signal. It’s not random. It’shim.”

“Who.”

I swallow, mouth dry. “Nulegion.”

The name drops like a stone into the air between us.

His scales twitch, claws flexing against the rock. “Where.”

“Everywhere.” My laugh cracks, sharp and humorless. “It’s moving. Mobile. Intelligent. And it knows my name.”

Kage steps closer, towering, protective fury rolling off him in waves. “We have to go. Now.”

I want to argue, to say we need the transmission tower, we need evac, we need something that feels like safety. But the way his voice tightens, the way his body tenses, I know he’s right.

Because the thing under these mountains isn’t waiting for us to send a signal.

It’s already listening.

It’s already watching.

And now it knows me.

Not justwhatI am.

WhoI am.

And the question gnawing in my gut isn’tifit’s coming.

It’s when.

CHAPTER 16

KAGE

The false signal hums faint in the cold air, pulsing from the transmission tower Bella patched together with spit, wires, and stubbornness. She made it sound convincing—injured survivors in a collapsed mine. Neutral enough that even an Alliance patrol wouldn’t ignore it.

She crouches low, tapping her wrist console with sharp little motions. The glow paints her freckles, her lips pressed thin.

“Transponder’s running,” she mutters. “If there’s a patrol in range, they’ll pick it up.”

I grunt, scanning the ridges. The wind scrapes sand against my scales, and the mountain smells of dust and iron. Beneath it all, though, something rank coils on the air. Acidic. Wrong.