Nothing.
She didn’t respond.
Sabine heldthe Soul Resonator in her hands like one would cradle a babe. This was her invention, after all. The device emitted focused resonance waves that, when directed at a target, made it feel as though their Soul was being ripped from their body, vibrating against the confines of their flesh. She hadn’t tested it on herself; though, Talor had allowed her to use it on him.
She remembered fondly his pained cries and how her strong—in appearance—husband had fallen to his knees and wept tears of blood.
Her son, her failed Phoenix, was still as stone, frozen by the orders she knew he saw.
Surrender or she dies.
Would he?
Sabine was desperate to know if his conditioning would be overcome by the other piece of his Soul. Ugly hunger stirred inside her, a need for knowledge. For power.
"Stop," Kiton said. His right hand kept twitching by his side. Was it a malfunction? "Stop this,Mother."
"Oh, so you do remember who I am to you, Kiton. I thought you had forgotten who it was that made you."
"I will never forget what you made me." Kiton shuddered, eyes on Vesperin, that wretched girl.
Vesperin’s muscles locked up, head falling back against the concrete. The doctor cried out, even though blood spilled from his own eyes, nose, and mouth.
"Sabine, enough for now," Talor warned, placing his large, calloused hand over hers. She allowed him. He hooked his thumb over hers, forcing her to turn down the Soul Resonator’sdial. The low thrum that had filled the air grew quiet, as did their pained cries and moans. Talor’s other hand squeezed her shoulder. "We need them alive," he whispered to her.
She sighed.
The blood that had once leaked from them was now sluggish. The Soul Searcher’s cloak was stained maroon.
"Look at that. Reaper of the Celestials, tainted. Even immortal beings can be undone by science," Sabine murmured.
Kiton’s boots shuffled over the blood-stained concrete as he started to step forward. Sabine tutted, turning the dial back up—slowly. He froze as Vesperin, who’d been trying to push herself up, fell back against the ground, gripping her hair.
"Think on that order, Kiton. It is the only way she will survive this." With that, Sabine turned her attention to the sorry trio on the ground.
And Vesperin. The girl she had hinged everything on. As they had spoken above at the gala, Sabine had seen the pallor to her skin, the shadows beneath her eyes. She was wasting away.
How long would it be before she succumbed? Vesperin was the longest-living subject with Nova inside her. Yet… No matter how many tests Sabine ran, subjects she destroyed, she could not replicate it. What was it about her that let her bodylive?
She felt as if she were right on the cusp of a breakthrough.
She turned the dial back down so they could pay attention to her.
"I remember when Solar City General mentioned a Soul Searcher brought you in that time, Vesperin. I thought they were mistaken, because why would a fated being"—Sabine huffed—"have an interest in a Stella-less girl. Now, I know why. He is your Soulbond." Sabine stopped by the writhing body of the Soul Searcher. "Tell me, Soul Searcher, do you have a name?" He remained silent. "No? Then tell me this, and perhaps I will let you go, have you met the Celestials before?"
At this, he shook his head, features twisted with pain.
"Pity." Sabine’s red lips curled. "If you had, I would have told you to relay a message for me—they are failures for making our Souls bound to memory, enslaved to mortality. We may have limitless lives, but memory can only hold so much. Don’t you tire of it? The forgetting, the cycle of rebirth?"
Sabine then turned to Vesperin and Lucien. The doctor had folded himself over the girl, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth and landing on her cheek where she lay beneath him, crushed between his chest and the cold, concrete floor. Blood ran beneath Vesperin’s nose, bubbling past her lips as her mouth tried to form the shape of a curse, but it was no use. The pain was far too great to overcome.
"Memory can only hold so much, just like Souls. You are a shame, Dr. Quenlan, because once, you were so promising with your research. I had high hopes for you, as did Talor. We wanted to promote you." Confusion flickered over Lucien’s face. "When you proposed your research on harmony, I advocated for you at first. No test is too extreme. Through blood and pain, science emerges. Did you know the nireloo ended up dying after you set it free?"
At Sabine’s words, Lucien only stared up at her, understanding cutting through the pain. "No," he breathed.
"Oh, yes," Sabine purred. "Before we sentenced you and your Soulbond to death on Tarz, we had you both taken to the labs. You were the perfect specimens—our own nireloo. Because of your dedication and contribution to our research, we were able to perfect localized memory-wiping." She smiled widely at the agony in his eyes. "You never remembered that, once upon a time, Tarz was ruled by the Blackfalls. That memory technology has since been honed." Her eyes slid to Kiton. She tutted at him. "I used it on you. And Vesperin. To wipe your memories of each other. But it appears there was a flaw in your procedure."
Talor stepped closer to Sabine’s side. "How long?"
