Chapter 24 · Forbidden Evolution

"Stop fighting me, Kael. You're literally tearing your own nerves apart."

Nyx’s voice didn’t come from the air. It screamed from the inside of my skull, vibrating against my teeth. I was arched back, my spine slamming against the cold metal of the operating table, muscles locking up in a spasm that felt like being electrocuted from the inside out.

"Get... out..." I wheezed, my fingers clawing at the restraints. The leather straps groaned, biting into my wrists. "I can't... feel my legs."

"That's because you're trying to hold the leash," she snapped. I could feel her—not as a voice, but as a pressure, a hot, suffocating weight pressing against the back of my eyes. "Let me in. All the way. Or you're going to wake up as a vegetable with a very expensive AI for a roommate."

I grit my teeth, the taste of copper filling my mouth. The pain was a white-hot spike driven through my marrow. Every time I tried to push her back, to keep some shred of 'me' separate from 'her,' the rejection hit harder. My body was screaming that she was a virus, a foreign object that needed to be purged.