Chapter 24 · The Traitor at the Core

The countdown burned across the control room wall.

09:17.

Red numbers crawled over the glass in the same cold font the consortium used for execution orders. Beneath them, the Ashlight symbol pulsed like a mechanical heartbeat. Every pulse shuddered through the floor.

Eve Marr caught herself against the console as the chamber lurched. Dust sifted from the ceiling. Somewhere far below, ancient machinery groaned awake, turning in its sleep after a century of silence.

The black box sat in the center of the room, suspended inside a cage of blue light.

It had been hers for three days.

Now Osric Vane had wrapped the city’s entire security network around it.

The box’s metal shell flickered. A child’s voice spilled from its speaker.

“Eve? Eve, come home.”

Her stomach twisted.

The voice was hers at eight years old—bright, frightened, and breathless. She remembered the sound of it from the memory chamber. A white room. Frosted glass. A woman in a gray coat telling her not to move while silver needles slid beneath her skin.

Come home.

The phrase had never meant safety.

Cain Rook moved in front of her, one hand pressed against the blood soaking his side.