Page 86 of GlitchBorn Heart

He pulls away, leaving me hanging by my own erratic breath. “Maybe I am afraid,” he admits, voice full of the shadows that consume him. “But not solely of Vikktor.”

I stay still. My pulse beats like a drum in my chest. I want to step back, to spit hate, to tear myself free of his pull. Instead, I whisper, “Then prove it. I want to trust you. Make me trust you. Save Eli. Save me, Kael Ryudon.” Our lips still lightly touch, neither of us daring to move any further.

The lights of corporate drones flying by illuminate the windows and bleed across Kael’s cheekbones as he stares at me. His expression is almost blank but the hunger in his eyes is obvious.

Something inside me surfaces, ruining the moment. Stubbornness, a need to assert my position over him.

“Don’t get used to this,” I mutter, more to myself than to him. “I’m not here to be seduced.” The air stutters as my magic swells against the holo-projector, my image wavering, revealing the lie I’m telling us both.

“Don’t pretend you weren’t,” he replies, no anger in it, only an absolute certainty that makes my skin tingle.

I cut the holo-feed. The last thing I see is his sinful smile suspended like a light in the dark before everything goes black. The hum of the system returns, syncing with the steady, thumping rush of my own heart.

BARRIER CROSSED

UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS

Dammit. Right on time.

LINK definitely didn’t like that kiss.

But I think I did.

I plant my feet into the grid, ready for a fight. “Come and get me, bitch.”

33

BotBattle

Playlist: I Am A Machine - Kat Von D, Melissa White-Gluz

Lyra

LINK launches like a leopard, silent at first, then everywhere all at once. Her routines initiate a series of targeted attacks that try to partition me into a small space in the system, a digital prison further into the void. She’s even begun to send small disruptive bots outward across the DreamNet as a polite little slaughter of my peace. She wants me boxed in, neatly contained in Eli’s void, and cataloged as a deleted entry.

How very Kael-coded.

He may still be arguing with himself that LINK is only code. He may still be telling himself that programs don’t feel. I don’t have that luxury.

I remain calm, focused on my task, rituals not miracles.

I know this...

I’ve trained for this.

“One,” I whisper, and the number is a rope I toss into the current.

“Two.” I throw everything I have into my vibrations sending an SOS to Ash, as he has instructed me to do. He answers, immediately, his guitar humming a steady, anchoring vibe-like note.

“Three,” I finish and let the rhythm of my magic fill the grid.

Ash and I have been practicing for this. He sends me a low carrier note, and I feel the threads of my emotions join with it. We call it a duet: His vibrations get attention, mine shape intent. Together “we kick ass and do crimes,” as he likes to call it.

Deletion is not an option. I may not want Kael for myself, but I sure don’t want her to have him either. Her. I can’t believe I’m referencing an AI like that.

My hand stings like a thousand fiery bees are swarming beneath my skin. Bots. The little white enforcement things, absent of faces, eyes blinking red LEDs. They scream by with surgical precision. One catches me as I channel my feelings into data.

They try nets first: a lattice of code written to scoop me into a quarantined cache. When that fails, a partition blooms and tries to slide under my feet, to ensnare me in a file and fold me like origami.