Page 239

He traces the branches shooting off from the central trunk. “Look. It’s the same as the threads. Fire, Water, Air, Earth, All. Each branch is different. Then each of those split off to different names…” he trails his finger further, until it lands on Calla’s name.

“Holy. Fuck,” he breathes.

”What?” Vae demands.

I’m already reading and putting things together. It isn’t long before my hands start getting clammy. My throat dries out, and goosebumps pop up on my arms despite the warm air. I start to speak, but my voice cracks. Clearing my throat, I read,

“Calla V. Date of Injection: 2/12/25. Serum Batch: 004-F. Memory Wipe Protocol: 3/25/25. Observed mutation: Low-grade heat disruption and electric discharge. Bonded: No. Disposition: Released to the public sector under false Beta classification.”

I can feel the numbness creeping in the more I read. By the time I get to the end, I seriously think I might vomit all over the evidence.

“Failure notes, ” I continue, throat clicking as I swallow. “Cognitive instability within seventy-two hours. No conscious elemental control. Emotional trauma causes chaotic spiking. Memory suppression mostly complete. Subject may retain flickers, but not enough to matter. FIRE is least compliant, showing the most resistance to synthetic grafting. Subject only viable for long-term monitoring.”

“This one is so much worse,” Vae gestures to one of the notes tacked up under the branch labeled ALL.

There, the photo of the Omega has a large “X” slashed over her face in short, angry strokes of red marker.

Underneath the photo, it reads,

‘Subject A-02; Injected: 1/3/25. Immediate neurological collapse. Subject began screaming in three languages, none previously known or identifiable. Vocal cords ruptured. Eyes turned black, then exploded. Death was… absolute.’

“There’s this line, too.” He nods at the scrawled line of script on the bottom of the paper. It’s a rough slash of letters written so hard the pen nearly tore the paper.

“‘Never again. It does not work. It cannot work.’”

I press my palms into my eyes, trying to calm my racing heart. If I thought I hated that fucking family before, it’s nothing compared to the loathing I feel toward them now.

Varenthrall and his lying daughter.

I swallow, feeling sick. “They’re being experimented on.”

I’d suspected it, but seeing it laid out so clearly in black and white is a totally different monster. This isn’t just disturbing, it’s sick. He’s running an entire fucking operation to kidnap, traffic, and genetically alter helpless Omegas.

It only takes me a few minutes of sorting through what I know for the pieces to click, slotting together to form a bit of the picture.

“The elements in that blood.” I stand and shoulder past my teammates, stalking back into the bedroom where there’s more air. “That’s what he was doing. Taking the elemental DNA in the blood and grafting it into Omegas’ DNA.”

“Wait, you can do that?” Vae asks, confused. “I was just fucking around about the Frankenstein shit earlier. That’s not—that’s not a real thing, right?”

“We aren’t dealing with normal DNA here, Vaelenor,” I explain, pacing. “And Albertson has spent almost a decade researching it. Experimenting with it. He has so much more information that I don’t have access to.”

There’s no way that’s all there is. It seems more like a place for Albertson to spill the chaotic thoughts in his mind. The entire wall is a mess, full of post-its, torn notebook paper, computer printouts, and photos all taped around “branches.”

That’s what those damn “murder boards” are for. They let you step back and see the entire nightmare at once.

Whatever else Albertson is, he’s still a scientist. He wouldn’t just trash years of research.

He probably has hundreds of thousands of hours of data… somewhere.

“Uhm, guys?” Silas walks out of the closet, grimacing, clutching a piece of paper covered in scribbled notes. “You’re going to want to see this one.”

He hands it off to me. Vae leans in, and we read the small handwriting.

“Subject: Omega, 0002-F. Stabilized after initial neural shock. 68% highest recorded for Affinity-W to date. Bonding Event: Successful and Verified 11/03/24. Cycle Outcome: Viability confirmed. Host retention intact. Emergence date projected: 07/18/25.”

My stomach bottoms out as I read the final line. The walls tilt around me. Fuck.

This is… so much worse than I imagined, and I really didn’t think it could get much worse.