The fall didn’t end. Shayne plunged through blackness, arms flailing for a grip that wasn’t there. Wind roared in his ears, though he knew there was no wind here—only the echo of his own descent. His chest burned, as though the cracked Seal had carved itself into his ribs. Symbols flashed in the darkness around him, fragments of light like torn pages from an invisible book. A flame. A face. Two eyes—his eyes—but not his. He hit the ground hard. The impact rattled through bone, yet no pain followed. He lay sprawled across a stone surface, gasping. When he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at a ceiling etched with thousands of runes, glowing faintly red. The chamber smelled of dust and iron. No fire, no priest, no collapsing Gate. Just silence. And yet—he wasn’t alone. “Get up,” a voice said. He froze. The voice was low, steady, a mirror of his own. Slowly, Shayne rolled onto his side. A figure stood a few feet away. His frame, his posture, his very face. Bu

Shayne’s breath came ragged, burning his throat as he staggered down the endless corridor. The alarms had quieted, but inside his head the ringing never stopped. Each footfall echoed too loud, too sharp—like someone else was following just a half-step behind.He knew better than to turn around. Every time he looked, the shadows rearranged themselves into something familiar. A silhouette. A face. The faint glimmer of golden eyes that could not exist.Shiloh.He forced the name from his mind, gritting his teeth. No. Not real. Not her. Not me.But the memory of the voice lingered. You are incomplete. They severed us. Without me, you’ll burn out before the prophecy completes.The words had felt true—achingly true—but Shayne had been trained to spot manipulation. The Accord had refined illusions into a science. They didn’t just project false images; they rewrote the senses, stitched false emotion into memory until you couldn’t tell what belonged to you anymore.And yet… hadn’t he felt her

Shayne’s heart pounded as the reinforced steel doors exploded inward. Sparks sprayed across the chamber, the concussion rattling his teeth. Accord soldiers poured through in perfect formation—black armor gleaming beneath the strobing emergency lights, rifles raised, visors blank.He didn’t wait.The Seal in his chest pulsed hot, raw fire licking his veins. His fists ignited in a burst of crimson light as he lunged forward, intercepting the first wave. His knuckles slammed into a soldier’s chestplate—the man flew backward, armor shrieking as it dented. Another swung his rifle toward Shayne, but the weapon melted to slag before the trigger could be pulled.Gunfire erupted.Elysia Vorn dove beside him, cloak whipping behind her. She moved with the precision of a blade unsheathed—pistol in one hand, a jagged short-sword in the other. Two soldiers dropped in quick succession, bullets piercing weak seams in their armor. She spun low, kicking one man’s knee backward before slashing his throa

Light swallowed everything.For a moment Shayne thought he was dead. No sound, no weight, no edges to cling to—only searing brilliance flooding his senses. His lungs strained for breath in the void, and he wondered if Grant had burned the world down to nothing.Then the light cracked.It spiderwebbed like glass, shards breaking apart to reveal flashes of reality beneath: stone, steel, fractured circuitry. The ground lurched and the brilliance splintered, collapsing into a storm of jagged fragments that rained around him. Shayne stumbled, shielding his face as the pieces of light dissolved to ash.He hit solid ground again. His knees slammed into fractured stone, ribs aching with the impact. He sucked in a ragged breath and forced his eyes open.The ruins were unrecognizable.The chamber’s arches had buckled, steel beams twisted and warped by the blast. Walls bled sparks, streams of corrupted code bleeding down their surfaces like oil. The air shimmered with residual heat, carrying the

The restraints cut deeper with every breath. Cold steel dug into Shayne’s wrists, slick with sweat and streaked faintly with blood. He barely felt it anymore. Pain had become another layer of the Accord’s performance—a signal sent through his nerves, meant to blur the line between body and illusion.The hum pressed harder against his skull, like a swarm of unseen locusts chewing through his thoughts. His vision swam. The chamber around him flickered, phasing between concrete walls and fractured ruins. Sometimes he saw fire, sometimes ash, sometimes the flash of a blade.And sometimes—her.Elysia.Her face wavered in the air before him, fragments caught in distortion. The way her eyes had burned with belief. The steady hand she had once laid on his shoulder. Her voice, whispering through the static: I trust you.But now the memory cracked. Her mouth twisted into something cruel. Her words became a sneer. You were never enough.He jerked against the restraints, the chains rattling. His