Page 13 of GlitchBorn Heart

I glance up, then back at her to find myself drowning in the molten pool of her eyes. “Know this...know what?” I question her.

“The feeling right before something changes or shifts...significantly. It’s just a thing I do to calm myself.” She’s filled with worry now, the light in her eyes beginning to dim.

Ash suddenly reappears over my shoulder, lightening the moment instantly. “Hey, Kael, making new friends?”

Dickhead.

I shoot him a look, sharp enough to cut glass.

“Kael doesn’t smile much, never has, but there’s something in the way he’s looking at you that tells me there just might be hope for him yet!” He smirks and leans in toward her. Too close.

“Called it.” He mouths the words silently behind her head. He can feel it, not with his eyes, but with that strange undercurrent that’s always humming in him when the music gets loud enough. Like Lyra is a guitar string strung tight through my entire body, and I just want her to pluck it.

Lyra glances up at Ash, then back at me, brow furrowing like she can feel the tension thrumming between the three of us. Ash’s grin widens. He knows. He always knows how to get under my skin, and I hate him for it.

She shakes her head “Yeah, this is definitely one of those vibes I get right before everything crashes and burns.” The words hang between us, charged. “You guys are trouble.” Her smile returns, breaking the ice in my veins.

I don’t believe in destiny, and I don’t believe it’s magic, especially since I’m one of the unlucky ones that doesn’t hold a drop after StarFell. It feels pre-programmed, like an unalterable outcome, a sense of being on rails, unable to disconnect. Not because of some grand cosmic plan, but probably because the megacorporations, or some advanced technology have already written our story.

The nerdy guy waves her over and damn it if she doesn’t go running to him. A look over her shoulder, a flip of that dark hair, and I feel myself starting to come undone. “See you soon?”

“Yeah...you could say that.” She’ll probably see me all over the feeds and then it will be done. I nod. Is there such a thing as love at first sight? Lust maybe, especially in a cold corporate world built on lies. I’ve never believed in that kind of foolishness, until now.

One look and she rewrites me. I can’t stop replaying it, can’t stop dissecting the way her eyes call to me. She shouldn’t affect me like this, I just met her.

And yet...she does.

It’s irrational. Dangerous. I know it. I need to stop this before it starts, but obsession doesn’t ask permission. It roots itself deep and fast, before you even realize you’re already lost.

And I fear, despite my affirmations about remaining alone, I’m already lost.

“Good.” She lets the word drip like honey. “Come find me sometime.”

She lifts her wrist, wiggling the DreamNet band. The gesture is playful, but the look in her eyes is a dare to come find her in her dreams.

A challenge.

An invitation she has no idea the weight of.

Come find you? I laugh to myself. I built the place she dreams in. She doesn’t even realize she’s inviting the architect into his own house.

The bright spotlight shines across her cheekbones as she tilts her head, eyes locking on mine like she’s trying to read my secrets. She thinks she’s flirting, teasing me with a little digital chase.

She has no idea what kind of man she just offered herself to, doesn’t know the half of it.

DreamNet was my creation long before the Corporation slapped their logo on it. If I come looking for her there, I will find her. I know every door, every inch of that program.

A slow, involuntary smile curls at the corner of my mouth. Odd. The second one tonight. Something dark and possessive stirs in my chest, something reckless, just like in my youth. It ignites a spark I haven’t felt in years.

“You’d better be careful asking me to chase you,” I whisper, stepping just a bit closer, letting her see the heat she’s ignited in my eyes. “If I come looking for you...I won’t stop until I find you...and I will find you.”

Her eyes light up, bright and electric, and she doesn’t even try to hide it. “Again, good,” she adds.

But the way she says it makes me wonder if I’m wrong about her...and destiny.

6

DreamScape