Page 103 of GlitchBorn Heart

Jett breaks the silence. “You’ve got something else in your system.” His voice is calm, careful, calculated. “Not just Eli’s echo. Someone else. A girl?”

Fucking mind reader too? Ash looks so guilty I want to smack his pretty face into next week. I already know he’s the leak. My hands freeze over the keyboard.

Jett leans against the edge of the console. His presence is the kind of gravity that pulls a room toward him whether you want it or not.

Funny, that’s what people say about me.

“You know I can feel her, Kael. Whatever you’ve caged in, she’s...alive, and suffering.”

Suffering? Fuck this guy. She came on my fingers as my tongue met hers in a never-ending kiss. That’s not suffering.

I turn slowly, meeting his stare. A violent feeling washes over me, like a rabid animal whose cage has been rattled. I stamp it down. “Above your security clearance. You’ll leave her out of this.”

He doesn’t flinch. His eyes drown in shadows. They pulse once deep red. Anger. I’ve challenged him. Good...let’s go rebel.

“She’s already in it. You brought her in. And if she’s one of us...”

“She isn’t yours.” The words tear from my throat harshly, just like I mean them to. A blade thrown without aim. My fists clench, my training screaming at me to spar or to end this conversation in blood. Possession flares in me like wildfire. The thought of Jett, or anyone, speaking her name, considering her fate as though it wasn’t already mine to guard, makes me want to tear this lab apart.

For a moment, I think I might.

But Jett just watches me, unshaken. “I’m sorry, old friend, but if she’s an anomaly, she belongs to the rebellion. To the U21s. Not to VikkCorp. And certainly not to you.”

The silence between us is deafening. Ash shifts uneasily from the corner, strumming a low note on his guitar like he’s trying to smooth the jagged air. Ember’s eyes flicker between us.

I step closer until I’m nearly chest-to-chest with him. “You think you get to decide her fate? You think I’ll hand her over so you can make her one of your soldiers, another weapon in your little war?” My voice drops to a growl. “No. Mine. Mine to protect. Mine to save. No one touches her.”

His jaw shifts, but he doesn’t back up. “You’re playing a dangerous game, Kael. Even for you. I know how you are, don’t let obsession blind you.”

The repeated words hit way too close, and maybe that’s why I finally force myself to take a breath.

Inhale. Exhale. Hold.

I let the pressure bleed out of my fists, stepping back before I do something irreversible. The tension between us still lingers from childhood, but I force myself to ease back into a chair, hands resting on the arms. If I don’t explain, Jett will have some rebel hacker tear through my system until he finds her himself. And that I can’t allow.

“You want to know what she is?” My voice is low, almost a threat. “She’s not just an anomaly. There was a previous surge from Eli, a nasty virus from Vikktor, and poof—she’s integrated. Alive inside my architecture. A ghost in the machine.”

Jett’s brow furrows. He sits in the next chair over, that revolutionary calm wrapping around him like armor. “What?! Alive or code?”

“She was alive.” The words slip out too fast. I correct myself, slower this time: “She is alive...sort of. TheKast wiped her body while she was in DreamNet. Vikktor’s virus continued what the system started. Eli finished what was left. But her consciousness, her magic, both slipped into the net instead of burning out. And now she’s bound here inside my grid.”

Ember’s typing falters at her station, fingers pausing mid-keystroke. Ash stops strumming, guitar left humming in the awkward silence. Jett stares at me blankly.

“What the fuck, Ryudon?! You’re telling me”—disbelief colors his tone—“that she isn’t just in DreamNet. She is DreamNet. She’s in your system. A living ghost?”

I meet his gaze without blinking. “Yes.”

Jett’s exhale is long and measured. “Then she doesn’t belong to you, Kael. She belongs to all of us. If she can manipulate your systems, she could free the U21s. She could be the key to ending this oppression.”

The air snaps tight around me. The old rage is back again and barely contained. My voice sounds forced as I struggle to keep my composure.

I stand again to face him with consternation. “She’s not your weapon. She can’t stay inside to save anyone. It’s complicated and none of your fucking business!”

Jett’s eyes sharpen. “And keeping her caged in your system makes you what? Different from Vikktor? How? Complicated? Explain.” One blink.

For a moment, I nearly lose it. But that’s not who I am, or who I have been trained to be. I can already see the fight play out in my mind: a knife hand strike to the back of the neck, a loss of breathing ability, and Jett’s body breaking under my hands. The sick fantasy sings to my blood.

But instead, I shift my voice into something colder.