Chapter 19 · The Legion Erased

The second armored hound came through the smoke on six burning legs.

Its jaws opened wide enough to bite Eli in half. Blue fire gathered between its teeth, turning the air white and hot. Sera shoved him sideways, and the blast tore through the place where his chest had been a heartbeat earlier. The archive corridor erupted. Shelves buckled. Ancient data-slates burst from their brackets and spun through the air like razor-edged leaves.

Eli hit the floor hard. Pain flashed up his shoulder. Beneath his skin, the ember answered with a violent pulse.

“Stay down!” Sera shouted.

“I’m starting to dislike that advice.”

The hound charged again.

Sera raised her left hand. The Ash Crown fused to her wrist flared black and silver, projecting a thin lattice of command glyphs between them and the machine. The hound smashed through it. The impact threw Sera against the archive wall, and her injured side struck first. Her breath vanished in a sharp, helpless sound.

Eli saw red.

Not anger. Not exactly.

The ember crawled beneath his skin, scarlet threads spreading from his sternum to his throat. Every pulse painted the corridor in flashes of heat.