Page 72 of GlitchBorn Heart

Her insult doesn’t land where intended. Besides, I can’t let that one go, because I would fuck her in a heartbeat.

My mouth curves into a sinful grin. “You say ‘fuck you’ like it’s an insult; I hear it as an invitation.” I allow my gaze to drag over her on-screen image, very slowly and deliberately.

TWANG!!!

Ash strums a bold, abrupt clanger chord. The sound reverberates through the lab like a battle cry. He whistles. “Damn. Four of us locked in a lab, all this tension snapping the air...don’t tell me I’ve wandered into the prelude of a RedRoom orgy. Lyra, sweetheart, didn’t peg you for the type, but hell, I’m so down.” His shoulders shrug in acceptance.

I think Ember’s face just might match the holo-stop sign outside the lab window.

Lyra’s eyes flash like lightning, her voice cutting clean through, enough to draw blood. “Keep running your mouth like that, Ash, and I’ll be burning this whole damn lab to the ground, with you still strumming your guitar in the cinders.”

His boot taps against the metal leg of the console, keeping rhythm with the lazy strum. His eyes are half-lidded, like he’s only halfway paying attention, but I know better. Every pluck of the string is deliberate, reaching for some frequency only he can hear. He chuckles at her comment like the untouchable force he is. “Like a Phoenix,” he whispers to himself.

Lyra leans closer once again, her eyes flaring gold and amber. One of her eyebrows lifts. Mischievous. “Really, Kael? Is this your solution? You brought a fucking bard into your lab?” Her voice drips with disdain, but I catch the faintest crack of amusement. She’s hoping to get a rise out of Ash, not me.

I smile. “Don’t mistake him for a harmless bard,” I muse, keener than intended.

Ash retains his smirk, tilting the guitar so the light catches on its scuffed wood. “Harmless? Never been accused of that before. Handsome, though? Often.”

His gaze flicks to Ember, who immediately pretends to check her diagnostics, though the blush creeping back up her neck betrays her.

Lyra notices. Her laugh is bitter and dark. “Oh, I see. The princess has a thing for the troubadour. Cute. Just don’t tell the king.” She looks directly at me.

Ember’s hands freeze on the keyboard. She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out.

My laugh is audible, despite my brain trying to stop it. I’m savoring every drop of venom she’s spitting. I’m not offended. Just aroused. The way her rage sharpens into a blade makes my cock stand at attention. Pair that with the “Fuck you, Kael” comment, and my internal thoughts turn wicked. Does she really think she’s scaring me away when she talks like that? It’s making me want to bend her over and spank her bare ass until she screams my name.

My brain hungers for the visual, but I snap back to reality.

The lab goes still. Ash strums another lazy, mocking chord. Ember’s lips part uncomfortably, breath caught in her throat. But me? I don’t look at either of them. Only at the girl on the screen. Rage in semi-human form, who just made me hungrier than I’ve been in years.

“Focus, people!” I snap, my patience fraying, mostly from sexual frustration. “Ash, what do you have?”

Ash doesn’t answer right away. Instead, he continues to strum chords that hang in the air, reverberating in my chest, low and haunting. His eyes are closed now, his whole body tuned to something deeper than sound. Finally, he exhales, a grin tugging at his mouth, like he’s gracing us with his attention.

PING!

A string breaks. “There. Got him. Eli’s vibration is faint, but it’s here, buried under layers of some sort of containment chamber trying to smother it.”

Lyra stiffens. “Eli? Are you sure it’s him?” Her voice cracks on his name, raw and urgent. “Is he okay? They aren’t hurting him are they?”

Ash sets the guitar down. “He’s not hurt. Just...caged somehow. His power is being stifled.” His eyes flick open, catching mine, a silent hint for me to find out more.

Ember finally finds her voice. “And, Dr. Ryudon, we have another pressing issue while you’re here. This morning around dawn, LINK tried to partition and delete Lyra out of spite, jealousy, I don’t know. But it wasn’t her normal protocol.” She bites her lip before continuing. “If she’s smart enough to fake jealousy, she’s smart enough to go for Eli too, since he’s important to Lyra. We can’t let him access our systems; he has to remain contained. So whatever my father is doing to his power, it may be a good thing for all of us.”

The hum of the lab seems to tighten around us, screens flickering. LINK...jealousy? That’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s a machine. I file the thought away in a back drawer of my mind with the other non-plausible ideas I’ve come up with over the years.

Lyra’s magic begins to seep into the lab, screens dripping pixels like golden bloodstains. Her face is pale and furious. “I’m going to find him. Tear the system apart if I have to. Because if Eli’s trapped in this building, I can hack the tech, get him out. I swear to you—”

“Careful...” I cut in, letting my steel authority lend an edge to my voice. “I may have a soft spot for you, Taiyō, but you don’t get to run amok in my system.”

Her smile is downright evil. “Not your system. Not anymore, Dr. Ryudon.” She emphasizes the doctor portion. All the screens in the lab stutter with one word.

ASSHOLE

My mocking laugh cuts the silence that follows. Lyra’s eyes flick to Ember, then back to me. For a fraction of a second, the static between us feels charged. Her rage is still there, swirling in her words, but underneath it I can feel the same heat that blazes inside me. A dangerous tether neither one of us can cut.

“You really want to save Eli?” I say finally. “Then work with me, not against me. You’ll use whatever power you’ve discovered in this system to help me pull every piece of data VikkCorp has on him, on both of you. Together, we’ll tear through walls no one else can touch.”