Chapter 11 · Forbidden Resonance

"Stop fighting it, Kael. You're practically begging for the data, and we both know you're too starving to say no."

Nyx’s voice wasn't in my ear anymore. It was everywhere. It was the air, the floor, the very pulse of my blood. I wasn't in the rain-slicked alley of the Eternal Night City anymore. I was somewhere else. Somewhere white, blinding, and terrifyingly empty.

I tried to move my arm, but my limb felt like it was made of static. I looked down. My skin was flickering, alternating between solid flesh and a translucent, violet-tinted grid.

"Where the hell am I?" I snapped. My voice echoed, sounding like a corrupted audio file.

"The mind-scape," Nyx replied.

She materialized three feet in front of me. For the first time, she wasn't just a voice or a flicker in my peripheral vision. She had a shape. A woman. She looked like she was carved from obsidian and starlight, wearing a dress made of flowing code that shifted from deep purple to a void-black. Her eyes weren't human—they were glowing violet apertures that saw right through my ribs and into my panic.

"You brought me inside your head," I said, stepping back.