Chapter 39 · Wake the Monster

The first war core tore through the avenue three blocks below.

The broadcast tower shook beneath Eli’s boots. Dust sifted from the ceiling in pale curtains. Somewhere beyond the reinforced glass, people screamed as the old machine dragged itself out of the city’s buried bones, its iron limbs punching through asphalt and tram lines. Red light pulsed between the buildings like a second heartbeat.

Then another answered.

And another.

The entire city began to wake.

Marlow stumbled away from the console. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Sera pressed one blood-slick hand against her side. “You said the transmission was clean.”

“It was.” Marlow’s eyes jumped between the dead control panels. “The evidence went out. The bloodline protocol went out. The activation command came through with it.”

Eli turned toward the tower’s wide observation windows. Far below, the streets of Veyr burned in ribbons of orange emergency light. A tower block split open with a thunderous groan. Something enormous rose from its foundation, shedding concrete slabs from shoulders plated in black ceramic. Its head rotated toward the broadcast tower.

A red lens opened in its face.

Eli’s ember answered beneath his ribs.

Heat flashed through him. Not warmth.