Don’t pass out. Jack swallows hard and grabs his arm. The pain is causing the edges of his vision to blur. The feeling of floaty light-headedness alternates with waves of agony radiating from his shoulder. At least Corva isn’t holding his arm anymore. Downside: now there are two grunts.

This second one is smaller than Eye Kabob, but no less sick and mean-looking. This one might’ve been a woman before being conscripted by the Goats. A person. Not any more, though. Now it’s got the markings of a Goat grunt. Dark green skin, stretched arms and legs, a steel plate covering its mouth, and no eyes.

Compared to Eye Kabob, this grunt has less body hair, and its eye sockets don’t have the drama of scars and self-skewering. The eye holes on this one seem to have been scooped out much more cleanly. Likewise, its arms don’t appear to have the same extreme modifications. No spikes or replaced hands, just a whole mess of chains wrapped around its stretched-out forearms.

Still, that doesn’t mean Scoops here is any less dangerous than Eye Kabob. Jack silently curses. Nothing’s going right. He should’ve left the cylinder with the imbued tech back at the bar. It’s useless here and would only draw in more grunts from the raid party. Even stupider, they left the bar without any real weapons. Also, Zeke is missing. And apparently Corva doesn’t know how to be the vicious ball of violence that he knows she can be.

What’s up with that? She shows up an’ fights with more skill than any merc I ever seen. Then she heals up faster than anyone ever ought to be able to. But she can’t remember any of that? How does—

“Get down!”

Harris’s voice echoes across the canyon, cutting Jack’s thoughts short. Jack doesn’t even look back. He drops to a squat immediately and covers his head with his arms. Well, his one good arm, at least. The other one is over his head, too, but it isn’t so much covering him as it is just serving as an obstruction for whatever may fall on him. Glancing up, he sees that Corva is still standing.

“G’down, girlie!” He reaches up to her wrist with his good arm and tries to pull her down. Even as blasts from Harris’s air cannon slam into Eye Kabob and the ground around them, she’s not budging. Bits of rock and a healthy helping of dust rains down on them. She doesn’t even shift her weight. Damn it. Of all the times to let fear get the best of ya.

Jack preps himself to jump and push her over, but he never gets a chance to act. He’s preempted by a familiar high-pitched scream. Zeke!

The little flash of fur skids into view and hops on Jack’s back. Still chirping and screaming, Zeke climbs up Jack’s arm and pries his grip from Corva’s wrist. Jack lets go despite the mountain of questions piling up in his mind. Patting Jack’s forearm as if thanking him for letting go, Zeke slides down to Jack’s shoulder.

Scowling, Jack turns his head to Zeke. “What in the world was that all abou—Oh.”

As Jack finishes twisting to look at Zeke, he catches a glimpse up at Corva’s face. She’s still standing there, not moving. But something’s changed. The green in her eyes dances as she focuses on Scoops. Her smile is as unsettling as it is wide.