Chapter 37 · When Kings Kneel

The city dropped to its knees beneath him.

From the cockpit’s fractured viewing glass, Eli saw crowns of light bending in every direction—penthouse terraces, gilded bridges, executive towers with their windows burning white. The old command pulse had passed through the streets like a physical hand. Cars had stopped. Drones hung motionless in the rain. On the plaza below, men and women who had spent their lives making other people kneel were pressed against the pavement.

Then the warframe’s right arm moved without him.

Iron the color of dried blood rose into the storm. A thousand plates locked over one another with the sound of bones snapping into place. Red lightning crawled between the joints.

Eli slammed both hands against the control ring. “Stop.”

The machine did not stop.

Its fingers opened above the city.

Far below, a crowd screamed.

“No,” Eli snarled. He pulled harder. The cockpit shuddered around him, and old restraints tightened across his ribs. Pain burst through his injured side.