The campus was quieter than usual that evening.Liam had stayed behind to finish some notes in the faculty office, the weight of the past weeks pressing against him even as he tried to concentrate. The sunlight had dimmed to a soft, amber glow, and the hallways stretched long and empty, echoing with the faint scratch of his pen on paper.A sudden creak made him pause.He glanced up. Empty hallway.Probably just the old building settling, he thought, shaking off the unease.But then he heard it again—soft footsteps, deliberate and slow, coming closer.“Who’s there?” he called out, keeping his voice calm.No answer.Liam stood and walked toward the door, peering down the corridor. Shadows stretched unnaturally across the walls, warped by the last rays of sun filtering through the tall windows.Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw movement—a dark figure slipping between the hallways, gliding too silently to be human.Liam froze. The figure paused. And then, slowly, it turned.His hea

Dawn had not yet broken, but the world felt suspended—caught between the fading hush of night and the pulse of something new awakening. Selene sat on the edge of the bed Kael had placed her in, knees pulled close, fingers tangled in the blanket. Her breath came slow but uneven, as though every inhale tasted of questions she feared the answers to.She felt different. Too different.The room around her hummed with the presence of the two men standing opposite one another—Kael near the window, watching her with a storm behind his eyes… Adrian near the door, arms folded, gaze sharp, analytical, unreadable. Their tension filled the air like static, scratching at Selene’s already fragile awareness.She wasn’t sure whose eyes she feared meeting more.A faint glow rippled beneath her skin—barely visible, like a pulse of silver that flickered at the base of her throat. She pressed her palm over it. Warm. Alive. Wrong.“What’s happening to me?” she whispered.Kael stepped forward instantly. “Se

Selene woke to the sound of rain.Soft at first—like fingertips on glass—then heavier, gathering into rhythmic bursts that echoed through the safehouse. For a moment she didn’t know where she was. The ceiling wasn’t the Citadel’s polished chrome or her old apartment’s cracked plaster. It was something in between: simple, quiet, unfamiliar.Her body felt like it had been filled with sand—heavy and drained. Every muscle throbbed with an ache that wasn’t physical. It was deeper, woven into the strange new threads humming beneath her skin.She pushed herself up slowly.Kael sat in the armchair across the room, long legs stretched out, arms folded over his chest. His eyes were closed, but he wasn’t asleep—Selene could tell by the subtle tension in his jaw.He sensed her movement in an instant.“You’re awake,” he murmured, straightening.Selene blinked at him, still groggy. “How long was I out?”“Six hours,” Kael said. “Adrian checked your vitals twice. He wanted to stay, but I told him you

The Citadel felt like it was breathing.Not in the natural, gentle rhythm of a living being—but in the metallic, shifting inhale of a fortress preparing for war. Walls hummed. Floors vibrated. Protective layers flickered to life and died just as quickly, overwhelmed by the force pressing in from outside.The Reclamation Division had arrived.And they were already cutting through the first shield.Selene’s heart hammered painfully against her ribs. Even from deep inside the Citadel, the air tasted different—sharp, metallic, as if laced with electricity.Adrian and Kael moved with her through the corridor leading to the lower control ring, the glow from the walls casting ghostly silver patterns across their faces.“They’re too fast,” Kael muttered, his fingers flying over a portable console he carried. “Shield layer six is down. Seven is collapsing. If they breach eight, they’ll have direct access to the entry halls.”Adrian didn’t look back. “Then we stop them before they reach eight.”

The Citadel was awake again. Its pulse thrummed faintly through the walls, a constant undercurrent beneath every footstep Selene took. She moved slowly, deliberately, feeling the silver threads under her skin respond to the building’s rhythm. Every door she passed, every corridor she crossed, seemed to whisper her name—an echo, a question, a challenge.Adrian followed closely, silent but vigilant. Kael walked just ahead, scanning, listening, his every sense alert. The tension between the three of them was tangible, coiling in the air like static before a storm. And yet, despite the distance, Selene could feel it: the Citadel had shifted. It was no longer merely a structure of walls and tech—it was alive, reactive, and attuned to her in ways she still didn’t fully understand.They reached the edge of the Resonance Hall again, its domed ceiling glowing faintly. This time, Selene didn’t hesitate. Her hand brushed over the entrance panel, and the doors slid open without a sound. The room