Chapter 25 · The Code Resonance

"Sit. Down. Now," Kael snapped, his voice like a blade cutting through the sterile air of the med-bay.

I didn't sit. I leaned against the cold steel table, my breath coming in jagged hitches. My skin felt like it was being peeled off layer by layer, and the humming in my veins—that goddamn genetic glitch—wasn't just a hum anymore. It was a scream.

"I can handle it," I spat, though my knees buckled the second I tried to shift my weight.

Kael didn't argue. He just stepped into my space, his hand gripping my shoulder with enough force to bruise. He didn't just push me; he maneuvered me, forcing me back onto the diagnostic slab. He was too close. I could smell the expensive cedarwood of his cologne mixed with something metallic, something that smelled like the very labs that had ruined me.

"You can't even stand, Vesper. Stop pretending you're a machine," he murmured. His eyes weren't kind. They were calculating, scanning the tremor in my hands like he was reading a corrupted data file.

"I'm not pretending," I hissed, trying to shove him away. My palms hit his chest, but it was like pushing against a reinforced wall.