Page 80 of GlitchBorn Heart

I roll my eyes. “You mean match the weird sound you make that changes people’s behavior? Like when you call the girls to the stage after your show?” I wink at him.

He shrugs as if to say, “it is what it is.” I lift my hands slowly, feeling for the vibrations in the air, the small frequencies that all tech breathes out. “I don’t feel anything. I have to be emotional, remember?” The lab is quiet except for Kael’s fingers tapping against his keyboard.

“Here.” Ash plucks a single note, low and pure.

It’s like dropping a stone into water. I push back with my memories: the seashells I kept as a child, the sound of Eli’s laugh, the smell of salt air. Little things.

Not enough to hurt me individually, but as a whole, large enough to form a chasm of sadness deep in my chest. It’s the emotion I need.

The camera above the door stutters, blinks, then realigns. Kael’s lab security feed that should have logged me by now shows a generic error loop and a time stamp fifty seconds older in the corner.

I let out a short, involuntary laugh. Ash’s grin turns smug and a little boyish. One of Kael’s eyebrows raises in surprise, but he still refuses to look at me. While looking down he barks, “Lyra! Vikktor has your brother. Use that. Now go find that camera on the top floor.”

He pulls at the strings of my anger. He knows just how much hatred I have for Vikktor and how much worry for Eli. We still haven’t been able to locate exactly where he is. Vikktor moves him from his executive suite to external CIC labs frequently to keep his tracks covered. I let the anger flood me as all the cameras begin to glitch, red and amber lines jumping across them.

“Good girl,” Kael says. His voice is flat, but deliberate.

Here we go again. Why does his praise cause such a stir in my blood? I couldn’t care less if I impress him, but my body says otherwise.

He taps keys, windows erupt across the wall, it’s the camera feeds from the executive floor of VikkCorp.

Executive floor. The words hit me like a hammer. Eli is there somewhere beyond the glass with guards and evil men in suits. Somewhere inside whatever secret area Vikktor keeps under the ruse of the CIC.

Ash and I continue running through the security camera points but are interrupted when the lab’s wall of screens hiccup. A ribbon of static crawls across the main feed like a live wire and then, all at once, the static rearranges itself into a shape that steals my breath away. A pair of violet eyes, trying to break through the noise.

“Lyra”—Kael still doesn’t look up—“stop bleeding into the feed.” He’s trying to type his way back in.

But it’s not me.

It’s Eli.

The screen erupts violet, so blinding and angry that we all have to shield our eyes.

“It’s not her.” Ash stands and runs to the wall. His eyes flare as he touches the screen to feel the soundwaves.

HELP

VIKKTOR

CIC

They’re just vague words, not even sentences. They glitch, barely making it through the feedback. What follows brings Ash to his knees, covering his ears. The hollow echo, haunting and foreboding, just like the night Eli flared as an anomaly on the grid. The night he exposed us.

TOP

FLOOR

CONTAINED

Words continue to break through like short bursts. “It’s Eli!” I look at Kael frantically. He moves fast, typing queries to get an exact location in the tower. The coordinates unfold in broken bursts between the phrases and static.

“Eli!” I yell at the screen, but it’s of no use. He can’t hear me. I know I’m in my holo-form but adrenaline is a rush I can’t squash. I’m already in trouble, so fuck it.

I sprint for the door of the lab and down the neon-lit corridor of the AI Department, sparks of code crackling around me as I try to manipulate every piece of tech around me. My projection begins to flicker, my appearance looking less human with every step. The holo-projectors struggle to keep up with me.

“Not again.” Kael sighs. “You’re making it worse,” he says from behind me. This time he just leans against the wall, arms crossed, eyes glinting in the shifting light.

I turn. “I’m going to find him!” I snap, hands glowing as my magic warps the virtual interfaces in the hallway.