Chapter 14 · The Ash Protocol

The words burned across the sky.

COMMANDER, INITIATE ASH PROTOCOL.

Eli stared upward until the letters blurred into scarlet rain. The black tower beneath his boots gave a slow, mechanical groan, as if something enormous had shifted in its sleep. Heat crawled through his bones. Under his skin, the ember answered.

Not with fire this time.

With hunger.

The Ash Crown tightened around his temples. Its black metal prongs had sunk into his hair and skin, but he felt no pain. That frightened him more than pain would have. Pain belonged to a body. This sensation belonged to a door opening.

Behind him, Sera sucked in a breath.

‘Eli.’

Her voice reached him through the roar of distant engines and the grinding retreat of the tower army. Hundreds of armored soldiers were moving toward the river in perfect silence, their boots striking the streets in a synchronized rhythm. Their weapons hung at their sides. Their heads remained bowed.

They looked less like an army than a funeral procession.

Eli lifted one hand. Every soldier stopped.

The movement happened before he made the decision.