Chapter 32 · Blood-Bond Overdrive

"Stop fighting it, Kael. You're suffocating us both."

Nyx’s voice didn't come from the air. It ripped through my skull, vibrating against my optic nerves. I was slammed against the bathroom wall, my shoulder cracking against the tile. My breath came in jagged, wet hitches. Every vein in my left arm was glowing a violent, neon violet, pulsing like a dying star.

"Get... out... of my head," I gasped, clutching my wrist. The skin was stretching, translucent, as something hard and crystalline began to push from the inside out.

"I can't 'get out' when I'm the only thing keeping your heart beating," she snapped. I felt her presence shift, not as a thought, but as a physical weight pressing against my spine, forcing me to stand straight. "The core we stole is overclocking. Your body is rejecting the fusion, and if you don't let me take the wheel, you're going to pop like a cheap battery."

I slid down the wall, my boots skidding on the grime. My vision flickered. One eye saw the cracked mirror and the peeling wallpaper of the safehouse; the other saw a digital wasteland of screaming code and golden filaments.

"I'm not...