Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
His body seizes up, the machine monitoring his heart begins beeping a steady rhythm again, and the shaking stops.
What? What did he just tell me?
“Hmmm,” Epsilon muses. “Perhaps he’s ready to play now. Let’s give it a go, shall we?”
Before I can answer, the harvesting cage on the wall across from me comes to life. Quickly, it moves into place. A moment later, a thousand needle-threads are piercing my skin.
A moment after that, I’m empty.
39 - FINN
Static. Blinking. White noise. Everything’s blurry.
White-blue flash.
Data display online.
SYSTEM REBOOT: COMPLETE
COMBAT READINESS: 92%
SPARK FLOW: STABILIZED
RECEIVER NODE LINKED — VERTEBRAL PORT 2
I see. A room. A lab. Sterile. Bright. Still.
The room is circular, metallic, humming. My boots lock into the floor with a soft click.
Directly ahead: a thick pane of glass. Behind it, four girls—strapped upright in glowing rings. The rings aren’t just rings. They’re full-body restraints—vertical halos lined with silver-gold bracing, shaped to hold a girl in perfect presentation. Arms extended, ankles bound, spine arched just enough to be vulnerable.
The metal isn’t cold, not visibly. It glows faintly at each point of contact, like it’s reading her pulse through her skin. Straps cradle the curves of their bodies with unnerving precision—as if the frame was made for these girls, their shapes, this moment.
Small notches on the inner rim mark pressure points where needle-thin threads feed into the skin, designed to coax the spark out.
The rings don’t just hold them—they drink from them. And each girl glows where she bleeds energy, faint veins of blue crawling along her throat, her wrists, her ribs, like vines.
All this information comes to me as naturally as if I built this apparatus myself. Chills run down my spine as I begin to understand what it is I’m looking at.
White-blue flash.
COMBAT ROOM: 7-A
AUGMENT ID: F-SCOTT-579-A
AUGMENTATION STAGE: 9B
AUGMENT STATUS: STABLE AND HOLDING
UNIT 4-ALPHA-PRIME COUPLER: J-BELL-579-B
STATUS: ENGAGED
SPARK OUTPUT: STABLE
A vision of Tau City comes to mind. I smile, the edges of my mouth barely move, but I feel this smile. Because that was the day I saved her.
Clara. My biggest failure.
Jasina. The only thing I ever did right.
White-blue flash.
OPPONENT 578-A
UNIT 3-ALPHA-PRIME COUPLER: 578-B
OPPONENT 577-A
UNIT 2-ALPHA-PRIME COUPLER: 577-B
OPPONENT 576-A
UNIT 1-ALPHA-PRIME COUPLER: 576-B
What the hell is this?
A speaker crackles overhead. Xi’s voice fills the chamber like static poured into a throat. Smooth, but flat. Robotic. Like he’s forgotten how to speak to people.
“Elsha, one misstep and you’re out. Maelis. I expect you to fail, but feel free to challenge my assessment. I would love it. Veyra, you’ve been excellent. You always are.”
“And Jasina…” There’s a pause here. I have the sudden urge to vomit. I can’t see him, but I feel him like he’s a part of me now. And he’s smiling. At my woman. He’s smiling at her. “Don’t disappoint me.”
White-blue flash.
SPARK FEED: STABILIZED
HEART RATE: ABERRANT
EMOTIONAL NOISE DETECTED. FILTERING…
On the other side of the thick glass, the girls are screaming. I can’t hear them, but their mouths are open, wailing.
But not Jasina.
She’s looking right at me with those royal-blue eyes. Spark dances around her bindings, curling up into the air in the shape of… I lean in, squinting. Are those—
“I expect your best,” Xi is talking again. My attention snaps back to him. “Failure to keep your partner alive will result in relocation to the Epsilon Factory for a complete harvest.”
I take a step, stumbling forward, unable to breathe. Because I know what this is.
I whirl around, falling over.
BALANCE COMPROMISED
Autocorrecting posture...
WARNING: SYSTEM UNSTABLE
SPARK INTAKE: IRREGULAR
NEURAL FEEDBACK LOOP DETECTED
EMOTIONAL SPIKE: 87% ABOVE NORMAL LIMITS
RECOMMENDATION: Initiate sedation protocol.
USER RESPONSE: BLOCKED
USER RESPONSE: BLOCKED
USER RESPONSE: BLOCKED
Override request denied.
Operator remains conscious.
"Override failed." These words come over the speaker like tin crackling in a fire. “So… the dog bites back, does he?” A chuckle. “Good. I love rebels.”
Rebels.
A flash of memory…
“I thought that’s what you wanted? For the Rebellion to succeed?”
Jasina is looking at me like I’m the worst. “Well, in the beginning, I did.”
“The beginning of what, Jasina? We’ve known each other three days. This is the beginning.”
“The beginning of three days ago, then. I’m mad at my auntie. She’s not the person I thought she was. In fact, I’m not sure this whole Rebellion is what I thought it was.”
The Rebellion.
That’s what this room is about.
No, Finn. You’re gone. That place is gone! You blew it up!
“Do you have any idea who I am,” Xi says. The room hums louder. His voice deepens—not in volume, in gravity. "You are standing in the heart of RhoXi, Finn Scott. My city. I carved it from scrap and spark. I built its towers, its tunnels, its systems—every breath taken inside these walls is a breath I allow. I don’t rule by force. I rule by architecture."
He chuckles. Low and distorted, but all the more godlike.
"You were never chosen. You were configured. Your loyalty is a line of code. Your love? A useful glitch. You don’t protect Jasina. You don’t love her. You power her. It’s not you, I want, my boy. It’s her.”