Chapter 13 · The Commander Returns

The first war machine reached the avenue before the sirens finished changing pitch.

It came through the smoke on four blade-jointed legs, its armor slick with rain and ash. Blue-white fire pulsed beneath its ribs. Every step crushed abandoned vehicles into the pavement, folding steel like paper. Behind it, more tower soldiers moved through the streets in perfect silence—black combat shells, rifles locked against their shoulders, red targeting lenses sweeping across windows and rooftops.

Downtown waited beyond the next six blocks.

Sera stood beneath the broken awning of a pharmacy, one hand clamped over her shoulder. Blood had soaked through her fingers and dripped onto the concrete in slow, bright drops. Her face had gone pale, but her pistol remained steady.

“Eli,” she said. “Tell me you have a plan.”

Inside the Ash Crown, Eli heard her voice through layers of metal, static, and something older than either.

The warframe’s interior was not a cockpit. It was a dark cathedral wrapped around his body. Black alloy sealed over his arms and chest, each plate warm against his skin. Thin scarlet lines crawled beneath the armor like veins.