Novels by Kamzy Linn

The wall of gold light blocked every exit, burning so bright it made my skin feel hot.I stood right in front of the barrier, my hands raised and glowing with my own power, pushing back against the heat. Across the golden fire, Leo stood tall on the metal walkway. His eyes, which used to be blank white glass, now blazed with the same fierce gold light that lived inside my own chest. He wasn't a victim anymore. He looked like a god ruling over a cage."Leo, stop this!" Lyra shouted, taking a hard step forward. She didn't drop her heavy gun this time; she raised the barrel and pointed it straight at her own brother's chest. "I spent five years looking for you! I tore through every line of code in New Seoul to bring you back! You are not going to stand there and play god with their system!"Leo didn't flinch. A cold, distant smile touched his lips, a look so different from the brother Lyra remembered that it made my stomach turn."You didn't find me, Lyra," Leo said, his voice echoing wi

The cold metal of Commander Thorne's grip locked around my ribs, dragging me backward into open air as the walkway fell away beneath us.We dropped fast into the deep red core of the mainframe. The wind whipped past my face, turning the roar of the machinery into a deafening wall of sound. Above us, Lyra hung by a single cable from the edge of the retracting platform, her single violet eye locked onto me with absolute desperation. She didn't try to save herself; she reached down with her free hand, trying to catch my fingers as I fell past her."Kiran!" Lyra called out, her voice barely carrying over the wind."Let go of him!" Thorne shouted into my ear, his mechanical arms tightening like a vise around my chest. The white diamond in his chest pulsed with a blinding blue light that cut through the red gloom of the drop. "The core needs the energy, Kiran. You were never meant to leave the loop. You are the battery that keeps New Seoul alive!""I am done being your battery!" I shouted b

The coin spun on the wooden counter, wobbling back and forth before it stopped flat against the grain.It wasn't a normal metal coin. It was carved from the same glowing gold light that lived inside my chest, pulsing with a steady rhythm that matched my heartbeat. I looked at the stranger sitting across from me. He wore a heavy black coat with the collar turned up high, and his face was hidden in the shadow of a wide hood."You missed a step, Kiran," the stranger said. His voice was deep, smooth, and horribly familiar. It sounded like the audio recordings playing inside the control room, the ones that belonged to the man who wrote every line of New Seoul."The Author," I said, my hands freezing over the espresso machine.The stranger pulled back his hood. Underneath was a face that looked just like mine, except his eyes were completely silver and his skin had the smooth, pale look of a digital screen."Not an author," he corrected gently, sliding the gold coin across the counter towar

The silver key felt heavier in Lyra's hands than it had ever felt before.She stared down at the metal object, her single violet eye wide with shock, while her brother Leo watched her from inside the glowing glass sphere. The green lines of code swirling around him spun faster now, casting bright reflections across his pale, blank face."You used me," Lyra said. Her voice didn't shake, but it carried a cold, dangerous fury that made my chest tighten. She looked up at the glass sphere, her fists clenching so hard her knuckles turned white. "You let me spend five years hunting down the Author. You let me think you were dead. All so I would act as a courier for their final update patch?"Leo didn't blink. His blank white eyes stared right through her as if she were a stranger standing on the street. "Every rebellion is written into the script, Lyra. The system needs resistance to test its limits. Without you bringing the key to the core console, the simulation would have collapsed a year

The voice coming from the tower speakers laughed again, and the sound made my skin crawl.It wasn't a mechanical noise or a recorded message. It was warm, human, and entirely wrong for a place like this. Lyra stayed frozen on her knees in the dirt, her fingers still clutching the silver-white hair tie she had found next to the torn jacket. Her usual cold, sharp armor was completely gone, replaced by a quiet, shaking panic that made her look entirely different from the tough fighter who had dragged me through a glass window."Get up, Lyra," I said, stepping close to her and reaching down to grab her shoulder. My gold fire pulsed warmly against the cold wasteland air. "That voice is just another trap. They want to break your focus."Lyra didn't move. She slowly looked up at me, her single violet eye swimming with tears that she refused to let fall. "That's not just a trap, Kiran. That's my brother's voice. He didn't disappear five years ago. They brought him down here to build this towe

The barrel of the heavy military gun pointed right at my face.I froze on the edge of the crater, the real daylight feeling too bright and too harsh after spending my whole life under the fake neon lights of New Seoul. The wind blew cold dust across the ruined ground, stinging my eyes. Behind me, the steel door of the tunnel slammed shut with a loud bang, locking off any way back.We were trapped."Drop your weapons and put your hands where I can see them," the soldier in the lead tank ordered. His voice was hard, coming through a speaker mounted on the side of the armored vehicle. He wore the exact same dark uniform as Commander Thorne, complete with a silver badge shaped like an open computer book.Lyra did not drop anything. In fact, her hand slid slowly inside her jacket, her fingers wrapping around the hilt of a hidden knife. Her single violet eye narrowed as she scanned the tank lines, counting the soldiers and checking the weak spots in their formation."Don't do it, Lyra," I s