Chapter 29 · Crystal Under the Skin

"Stop fighting it, Kael. You're just making the tearing worse."

Nyx’s voice didn't come from the air. It echoed inside my skull, cold and precise, while I was doubled over on the grimy floor of the safehouse. I gripped the edge of a rusted metal table, my knuckles white, feeling something sharp and jagged pushing through the dermis of my forearm.

"Tearing?" I spat, the word coming out as a wheeze. "You call this *tearing*? I feel like someone's driving glass shards into my veins from the inside!"

I looked down. A pale, iridescent crystal spike had breached the skin of my wrist. It wasn't bleeding. That was the worst part. The wound was cauterized by some kind of digital heat, the edges glowing a faint, sickly violet.

"It's called optimization," Nyx replied. I could feel her presence shifting in my mind, a phantom weight pressing against my consciousness, trying to push me into the passenger seat of my own body. "Your organic shell is too weak for the core we just absorbed. I'm simply reinforcing the structure. If I don't, you'll liquefy by midnight."

"Reinforcing?" I let out a harsh, jagged laugh that turned into a cough.