Page 177 of GlitchBorn Heart

Ember’s laugh is brittle. “Because I know what he isn’t. He isn’t invincible.” Her expression hardens, the reflection of her glass catching the sparkling threads in her gown. “And Kael is just the man to show him what it’s like to be afraid.”

Ash raises his drink in mock salute to Kael. “Remind me not to get on your bad side, Sir Glows-a-lot.”

Ember smirks at him.

“Too late,” Kael growls.

I take his arm and begin the slow stroll to the doors of the ballroom. All eyes are on us, well, on me. The crowd is a collective hush, but I feel all the unspoken words.

Judgment.

The way their eyes follow us, curious but cautious. To them, I’m just another prototype, another gleaming machine in a sea of manufactured perfection. I smile softly, my humanity peeking through. The kind of smile that doesn’t compute for the elite of this city. My lingering human traits make me too real to be a believable hologram, yet no one allows the thought to be spoken aloud.

Their heads turn toward the stage where Vikktor’s new army gleams beneath the violet light of the sky. Cybernetic bodies frozen in place, faces molded into an empty slate. No pulse, no soul.

Beside me, Kael buzzes with restrained fury. I can feel the tension beneath his skin, the steady beat of his heart, the thing Vikktor’s creations will never have...the one thing I’m missing most.

The closer I allow myself to get to Kael, the clearer the difference becomes.

They shimmer. I glow. They calculate. I feel.

They’re hollow shells built to enforce obedience. I’m light wrapped in longing, proof that even inside a machine, the soul still matters.

And in that moment, walking beside the architect responsible for all this, I realize what Vikktor doesn’t. He can forge soldiers of steel, but he will never recreate this warmth, this friendship, maybe even this love? Kael didn’t write this in my code. It’s just me. The humanity that refuses to succumb to technology.

Yes, Vikktor senses that something’s off. He knows deep down that I might just be the anomaly that Kael couldn’t delete, the one that breaks the system.

The rebellion’s eyes see it. They want me as their symbol, the bridge that broke the builder. They hope I’m the U21 that threatens the Corporation’s existence.

I used to think the soul was only tied to life, breath, and heartbeat. But walking through this room, I see the truth written in every blank expression staring back at me. They will never know what it is to ache, to crave, to love so fiercely it terrifies you.

And yet...I do.

Maybe that’s a flaw in my code, or maybe it’s proof that I was never flawed to begin with. I wasn’t built; I was born from a chaotic magic mess in the space between Kael’s logic and his ambition. A ghost in the grid, stitched together by powers bestowed upon us unwillingly by corporate greed.

Vikktor’s soldiers stand gleaming and still, waiting for their next command. The elites of the city are just as empty, unable to think for themselves, waiting for the Corporation to tell them what to consume and how to consume it.

If this is Vikktor’s vision of the future, then humanity has already been lost.

Kael’s hand is warm against mine, grounding me in something real. His thumb brushes my holo-skin, and the illusion of light and data don’t matter anymore. He shouldn’t be able to touch me this vividly. He shouldn’t feel this real.

But he does.

Simple touch.

Maybe I’m not human. But I am alive...even if my heart no longer beats inside my body, it still beats inside the machine.

69

TheBargain

Playlist: You Don’t Know What It’s Like - Econoline Crush

Kael

Sometime after the gala, anger subsided and then morphed into nervous energy. I gathered the courage and strength to send Lyra back into the grid to enter sleep mode, despite wanting her to stay with me at the penthouse. Just one more night is all I really wanted—just in case this is the end of both of us.

Her image had been wavering and glitching in bursts of static toward the end of the night, the cost of existing between humanity and technology. Every second she held her holo-form together drained her, the EchoWeaver magic bleeding through the seams, searching for every piece of tech in the vicinity. Thank the gods for the blackout.