Page 118 of GlitchBorn Heart

Ember shakes her head. “Dr. Ryudon, it looks like they’re trading places. One gaining feeling, the other becoming a machine.”

“Two...” His fingers hover over the console keypad.

I reach for Eli’s signature and feel it thrumming violently underneath the surface. It’s still burning inside his crumpled body. If ever there was a time for my brother to return my loyalty, it’s now.

“Eli. I need your help. Please.” I manage to speak softly. I’m unsure if I’m speaking out loud in my holo or if I’m back in void space. But I ask anyway.

Ash leans back and drags a hand over his face. “All I can feel is a glitch-like static. Umm...” His hands wave in the air frantically, looking for the right words. “Like a magnet, being forced back from metal, but it’s too strong. I think she’s stuck in holo-form, Kael.” A sigh escapes him.

“One...” His pinky finger moves to the Enter key.

ABORTED DR. RYUDON

I can see Kael’s face above me, the perfect picture of authority gone. For once I can see inside him, and he’s unraveling. It gives me some comfort to know he’s like the rest of us deep down. “Hold on, Taiyō.” His voice is a low purr only I can hear. “I built this fucking place, and I swear I’ll destroy it all before I let it keep you.”

WAITING FOR YOUR COMMAND

LINK’s words finally appear on all the screens simultaneously.

Kael Ryudon isn’t just willing to save me.

He’s willing to end his world for me.

46

EnemyWithin

Playlist: Tear You Apart - She Wants Revenge

Lyra

Darkness.

Not the velvet dark of a night sky, but the cold, sterile black of a machine that’s powered down. No texture, no temperature. Nothing but a flat line, like a dial tone running through my bones.

She obeyed.

But I’m still trapped in between a space that’s not quite the void but also not part of the grid.

I open my mouth, but the sound dissolves before it comes out. I don’t know if I’m still holographic or if I’ve slipped fully back inside the grid. There’s no floor beneath me, no walls I can trust, only layers of half-light and drifting code. I have no idea where Jett went. No echo of Ash’s presence, no drone of his familiar energy calling to me in the background.

But Kael—I can feel him.

Not as an image standing beside me, more like a pressure, thick and all-consuming like gravity.

It’s like standing on my beach when the storm front rolls in, the air charged and tight, my skin tingling as it approaches. I feel his focus, his fear, his fury. Control strained to the breaking point.

How is this possible?

It’s stronger now. A powerful thread pulling at me, insistent, so steady I could sync my breathing to it. Every time the grid swallows me, I feel his reaction before my own. I press a hand to my chest, half-expecting to feel his heartbeat there along with mine.

It makes no sense. Whatever this is, this connection, this awareness, it isn’t code. It isn’t DreamNet or something I’ve built or broken with my magic.

I know this...

It feels human, and it feels mutual.

Has it been hours or seconds since we attempted to rescue my brother? I can’t tell. No DreamNet doors, no neon corridors, nothing of Kael’s living code is left. Only this void again. I know something’s faulty; I’m flickering like a ghost.