Page 67 of GlitchBorn Heart

Yes, my curiosity to explore this, to dissect her as an experiment, is a strong motivator, but it’s her pull that is dangerous in a way data never is.

Ash was spot on. We’re two people being dragged into the same orbit, gravity folding us toward one another until the point of contact promises to destroy everything in between. I feel this to the depths of my dark soul.

“Little Taiyō.” I try to flatten her anger with protection and control. It’s what I do. “You’re not lost. The virus, the void, whatever, it didn’t finish you. I can keep you safe here. I can keep you...”

“You can keep me.” She cuts me off with a laugh. “Keep me like I’m a pet? You think trapping me in your ‘beautiful’ system is safety?” The program renders one of her breaths as exasperation. “And stop calling me that! I’m not your Little Taiyō or little anything.”

A pause so long the air feels thick and unbreathable. It allows me the time to choke on all the terrible things I’ve done for the Corporation.

“I don’t belong to you, Kael, and I sure don’t belong here!” She cuts me in a way I’ve never experienced, but half-expected.

This corporate world is messy and ruthless, but I’ve mastered it. I cut through its rules and people like Master Kenji trained me to cut with my sword—precise. When I set my mind on something, the universe rearranges itself until resistance is only background noise. It always falls into place. I don’t know how. Blind luck, perhaps?

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity, a philosopher once said. It rings true.

I decide to take her fury and return it to her in understanding. “No, Lyra, you don’t belong here. None of us do. We didn’t deserve what StarFell did to us, but I promise you, I won’t let Vikktor get to you,” I reassure her. “And I would never hurt you.”

Did I really just say that? Who is this person I’m becoming?

I’m the one that keeps the city streets orderly, the hand that redirects money and technology. I will not let some engineered virus or corporate monster steal her from whatever part of me foolishly aches for her.

“I will pull you out of that machine myself,” I say with a calmness that only comes before a threat of violence. “Not to hand you over to Vikktor, or to catalog you, or study you. I won’t reduce you to a data point.”

I step closer to the screen, close enough that her projection fills my focus. The rest of the lab disappears.

In the moment, I make a rash decision, one that comes out of nowhere and yet everywhere. A promise I have no idea how I will keep.

“I’ll put you back into a body,” I continue, voice rough. “Into a world where you can breathe real air. Where you can feel again and exist outside of anyone’s system.”

She’s taken back. Her golden eyes widen and blink only once. My eyes lock onto hers; I don’t dare blink, though. The memory of feeling her body on mine, my hands all over her, her mouth so delicate but so aggressive on mine, just fuels my impulsiveness.

This isn’t a promise. It’s a claim.

“And I will protect you,” I add. “From him, from the Corporation, from yourself.”

A pause.

“But don’t mistake that for mercy. I will make you mine, Lyra. I’ll make you want me again, if I have to break you to get there,” I finish, softer, but no less dangerous. “You’re not a challenge, Lyra. You’re a line I’ve already crossed.”

It’s not a lie. The corner of my mouth twitches, not quite a smile. “I will break every firewall that stands between us. I will lie to the suits who think they own me, rewrite programs, and corrupt my own creation if that’s what it takes.”

It’s easier to be an asshole than to answer to the things that are trying to claw their way out of my chest. I remind myself I’m supposed to resist my desire to make her mine, but I know it’s fruitless.

I’ve trained myself to tame systems by dominating them. But I haven’t trained myself for wanting someone so badly it unravels every rule I swore I’d never break.

I know my demons. Right now I need to disengage, or my obsession will lead to losing myself completely. I try to avoid it by being direct. “I...” I swallow hard. “I’ll get you out.” And with that I kill the feed.

I will make her need me.

Not by stealing her choice, but by becoming the only certainty in a world that keeps trying to erase her, by being the heat when her world goes cold.

I will be the storm that terrifies her, and the safe harbor she can’t help but run to. And when she finally looks at me and wants me, I’ll have earned it. Not with promises but with the dark, deliberate work of taking everything that I’ve built and risking all of it to rescue her.

A lifetime of dedication, discipline, and self-regulation, demolished in a matter of seconds.

She will not be a file on my console. She’ll be mine, and the price anyone pays for touching her will be something catastrophic only I decide.

Lyra’s avatar suddenly appears back on the wall, despite my kill command. The powerful magic Ash told me about, her magic from StarFell. She’s already mastering it and using it to turn my system against me.