Page 180 of GlitchBorn Heart

“Let me?” He laughs, an amused but hollow sound. “You can’t stop me. But you can make it count. Let me anchor her transfer. Let me be the thing LINK can consume if needed.”

My heartbeat slams through my chest. The math runs through my mind in real time: A void tether could stabilize the transfer, but the energy output, it would burn him out, maybe even crash the whole system again. Yet, Lyra might survive it if he’s controlling it. Why didn’t I think of something like this?

It’s the first alternate scenario I’ve seen that doesn’t end with her deletion.

“Why?” I ask. “Lyra wouldn’t want you to do this for her.”

Eli’s grin fades. “Because she’s the only one who ever saw me as more than just a destructive weapon.” His voice cracks, barely audible. “You should know what that feels like, Kael.”

I begin to pace the room again, pondering the many outcomes of Eli’s bargain. “If I do this, there’s a chance you could vanish inside.”

He just stares blankly at me, magic crackling faintly through the barrier. “I’m already gone. Now it’s just a question of who I take with me.”

He matches my pace inside the cell, back and forth, as he speaks to me now like an ally, instead of an enemy.

“She told me you’re linked to her now, your magic tied to hers. I don’t pretend to know how you did it, but you know as well as I do, you can’t pull her out without burning yourself out, unless something absorbs the surge that LINK creates.”

He stops directly in front of me and presses his forehead to the glass. “That’s me, Kael. I’m the surge protector.”

Another silence falls. The containment cell’s walls buzz with the pressure of our magic. I’m running through the scenario in my head, visualizing the various outcomes.

“I’ll think about it,” I admit. “I have to get back to the lab in case Lyra comes back online.”

Eli’s face becomes empty, no malice, but there’s definitely sadness behind it. “Be careful, Dr. Ryudon. If you play god, then you need to be prepared to sacrifice everything that the title demands. Vikktor has already...but can you?”

I exit through the hallway and stare down the long corridor now backlit with a fading glow. Maybe he’s right. Maybe I’ve crossed the line between creator and destroyer so many times that I can’t see where it blurs anymore.

70

BetweenWorlds

Playlist: Next To Me - Rufus Du Soul

Lyra

I’m ready.

I pull the thread to the window and appear on screen in the lab, but it’s empty. Kael is nowhere to be found. The usual low thrum of the core is barely there, running on alternate power, like it’s operating at half its capacity. Even the machines can’t continue without him.

The eclipse has swallowed the city whole. Every tower dark, every holo-ad silenced, every screen reduced to blank pixels. No neon pulse. No corporate glow. The eclipse holiday has forced the city into stillness, an eerie reminder that we can indeed remember what it was like before everything was wired, before every thought, need, and dream was monetized.

The lights of the DreamNet server blink a cool white-blue, reflecting off my on-screen image, like tiny mirrors. Kael took DreamNet offline for the U21s of the city—but not for me. I’ll need to enter from the inside, using my magic to move around so LINK doesn’t catch me. I’ll be the only one accessing its layers tonight.

My reflection stretches across the polished floor, split into neat squares by the seams in the tile. I look almost real. For once, I’m not flickering, or glitching, or dissolving into static. I’m not flesh, not yet, but I’m not a ghost either.

The system may have swallowed me, but it didn’t erase me. If anything, it sharpened me.

“I will walk out of this,” I whisper to myself. I know this...

Because I have to.

My brother’s life depends on it.

I’m startled by the airy hiss of the lab door. Jett steps through, he’s traded his dark suit for a pair of black cargo pants and a flight jacket, a glowing insignia on the sleeve pulsing maroon light.

He’s looking a bit too militaristic for a peaceful rebellion.

His eyes flick up to me, scanning my image on the wall. “Lyra.” He smiles, looking around for Kael. When he sees it’s just us, he speaks softly. “You look good. It’s your big day. Are you nervous?”