Kyle's fingers froze on the fabric of the stranger's waist. That voice, low and lazy and dripping with amusement, hung in the darkness above him like smoke from a candle just blown out."I asked you a question, little husband." The voice came again, closer now, warm breath brushing the top of his head. "All those names. Five of them. Are they my lovers or yours?""They're my wives," Kyle stammered, his hands still gripping the stranger's clothes because letting go meant falling back into the black void with nothing to hold. "Five wives. I'm married. Very married. Legally, terminally, catastrophically married.""Five wives." The voice hummed, pleased. "And yet here you are, alone in the dark, crawling on your hands and knees toward a stranger's boot. What a loyal husband you must be."A light appeared.A small, orange flame flickered to life on the tip of a finger, held at shoulder height, and the darkness pulled back like a curtain being drawn. The chamber around Kyle was massive. Sto

"Since you crossed the barrier." Wren leaned against the opposite pillar with the casual grace of someone who had all the time in the world. "Your group is loud, disorganized, and argues every thirty seconds. It's better than anything I've seen in years.""Then you saw what happened on the roof," Kyle said, his voice dropping. "That thing wearing Riley's face. The skin peeling off. Was that you?""No." Wren's smile faded for the first time, replaced by something flat and serious. "That was a six star fog corpse. Shape mimicry class. It copied your healer's appearance and isolated you on the roof. Your wives should have caught it. They didn't.""You could have warned me." Kyle's voice came out sharper than he intended."I could have." Wren shrugged one shoulder. "But you were screaming so beautifully. I was enjoying it.""You were enjoying watching me almost die?""I was bored." Wren spread her hands like it was the most reasonable explanation in the world. "You are very entertaining w

"We cannot afford many more encounters at all," Scarlett corrected. "At current burn rate, we have approximately forty hours of fog exposure remaining before the bracelets hit zero. After that, the fog eats through unprotected tissue in under three minutes.""Three minutes." Kyle swallowed hard. "That's how long I have to live if these bracelets die?""Less." Scarlett turned and walked toward the exit. "You're baseline human. Your tissue density is lower. Two minutes, perhaps.""Thank you, Scarlett. Very comforting."The group climbed out of the underground chamber through the opening Scarlett had torn in the ceiling. The street above was gray and silent, the horde long since cleared, the fog pressing in from every direction like wet cotton.Kyle walked at the center of the formation, surrounded by five women, and turned the problem over in his head with the ruthless focus of a man on a countdown.Five thousand three hundred sixty durability points. Forty hours at best. A one star Men

The sky outside went from gray to black in under twenty minutes. Not the slow fade of a normal sunset, but a fast, violent drop like someone pulling a curtain across the entire world. Thunder rolled through the fog so deep Kyle felt it in his teeth."Storm," Hailey reported from the window, her brown eyes tracking the dark clouds pressing down on the fog layer. "Category three atmospheric event. The fog density is going to triple in the next hour.""What does that do to our durability?" Kyle asked from the floor where he was sitting with his back against the wall."At triple density, the burn rate jumps to thirty points per hour instead of ten." Hailey turned from the window with a tight expression. "We have five thousand points left. At thirty per hour, that gives us roughly seven days. But if the storm holds for more than three days, we lose the margin we need to get back east.""Three days." Kyle closed his eyes. "Three days to ride out a storm with five women who hate me in a build

Kyle opened his mouth to continue, but something warm pressed against his lips. A piece of meat, golden brown, glistening with sauce, held between a pair of chopsticks that had appeared from his left side without a sound.Scarlett pushed the bite of sweet and sour pork into his mouth with calm, precise fingers. Her golden eyes met his for exactly one second, flat and unreadable."Eat," Scarlett said simply. "You talk too much when you are hungry."Kyle chewed. The pork was perfect. Sweet, tangy, tender. He looked at Scarlett, then at the chopsticks, then back at Scarlett."Did you just feed me?" Kyle asked with his mouth still half full."I stopped you from getting killed by two women in the same hour." Scarlett set the chopsticks down and returned to her coffee. "You are welcome."Riley stared at the two of them with an expression caught between outrage and something she refused to name. She stood up from the table, carried her plate to the kitchen, and did not come back.After dinner