Frank cranked his body heat to maximum. The fierce, aggressive golden magic of the Root and the clean, deleting blue code of the System flooded out of his chest and poured directly into the assassin. The Silencer began to melt. The dark void dissolved violently. The creature thrashed and shook in Frank’s glowing arms, but it could not escape the burning embrace of the dying star. The black code shattered completely. The final assassin broke into a billion tiny black pixels and evaporated into the blinding light. Frank stood alone in the back of the room. He slowly lowered his glowing arms. The three elite, faceless assassins were dead. They had been completely deleted from reality. “Ten seconds left.” Frank’s golden body began to flicker rapidly. The bright, beautiful light was starting to turn pale and transparent. The edges of his glowing fingers were turning into smoke, drifting away into the hot air. He was burning up. His biological blueprint was failing. Frank turned his

"I know," Elara cried softly. She took her torn, dirty outer shirt off and draped it gently over his chest, trying to give him a tiny bit of warmth. "Your body is in shock. You used too much magic. We just need to rest.""It's not my body," Frank said. His chest hitched. A tiny, broken breath rattled in his throat. Frank closed his eyes. He tried to fight the rising panic. He tried to play his mental game. He tried to list the facts of his life to anchor himself to reality. “My name is Frank Williams,” he thought. “I am sixteen years old. I lived on the streets of Lyrendale.” Those facts were still there. They were safe. He dug a little deeper. He reached for the memories that made him feel human. He reached for the memories that made him feel loved. He went back to the very beginning. He went back to the time before he lived on the cold, muddy streets. He went back to the time before he was thrown into the cruel, brick orphanage. He reached for the memory of his mother. He kn

"Look at them, Frank," Kael commanded gently. Frank slowly turned his head. He looked at the tired, dirty faces of Mrs. Gable, Mr. Thorne, old Silas, and little Lily. They were all looking back at him. Their eyes were not filled with fear or hatred. They were filled with profound awe, gratitude, and deep, silent respect. "You shared your life with us," Kael said. "You gave your arm for Elara. You gave your legs to guide us. You gave your mind to keep the monsters away. You did not do that because you are a machine. You did that because you are a good, brave, loving human being."Kael squeezed Frank’s chest slightly. "The machine took the picture of her face," Kael said, a tear gleaming in his own dark eye. "But it cannot take the love she built inside your heart. That love is what makes you strong. That love is why we are all still breathing. She is not erased, Frank. She is living right here, in everything you do."Frank stared at Kael. The big man's words sank deep into the empt

The sparks floated up into the air like thick, glowing smoke, and then vanished into nothing. With every single step, Frank was leaking magic. He was leaking his own life. Frank hovered silently. His face was a mask of cold, hard stone. He stared straight ahead. He was forcing himself to be a machine. He was ignoring the pain. But inside his mind, a quiet, terrifying panic was tearing him apart. He could feel the memories burning away. “Stay grounded,” Frank thought desperately to himself. “Remember the facts. Hold onto the facts.”He tried to list the names of the people walking behind him. “There is Kael,” Frank thought. “He is the big man with the pipe. There is Mrs. Gable. She is the baker with the broken arm.”He tried to picture the bald man who had helped carry the stretcher. “What is his name?” Frank thought. “He is a shoemaker. His name is... his name is…”Frank’s mind hit a blank, gray wall of static. He could not remember Mr. Thorne’s name. The memory was completely go

Kael used his massive hands to bend and snap a long, straight piece of the steel off the edge of the armor plate. "Mrs. Gable, I need more cloth," Elara demanded. The baker woman tore the remaining clean strips from a royal blue banner. She handed them to Elara. Elara and Kael worked with desperate speed. They placed the straight piece of dark steel against the outside of Frank’s broken right leg. They wrapped the thick blue cloth tightly around his calf, his knee, and his thigh. They pulled the knots as tight as possible, binding the shattered bone firmly against the steel splint. "The leg is straight," Kael said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "But he cannot walk on it. The bone is crushed. If he puts weight on that foot, the splint will break.""He won't put weight on it," Elara said. She looked around the dark tunnel. She walked over to the spot where they had dropped the stretcher. She picked up one of the long, thick poles made of petrified black root. The root was st