Chapter 24 · The Twelfth Fracture

The command came from everywhere.

EXECUTION PROTOCOL: AUTHORIZED.

Nolan’s rifle clicked once in his hands.

The sound was small, almost polite. Xia Lan heard it through the ringing in her left ear and the deep mechanical pulse shaking the floor beneath them. Dust drifted from the vaulted ceiling. Blue light crawled through the black box fused to Milo’s forearms, illuminating the boy’s terrified face and the blood running from his nose.

Ivra’s voice followed, smooth as a knife sliding from a sheath.

“Commander Vey. Confirm target.”

Nolan stood three paces away, one knee half-bent, his body caught between the order and the instinct that had already moved him in front of Xia Lan. The rifle’s muzzle remained pointed at her chest, but his finger trembled outside the trigger guard.

“Don’t,” Milo whispered.

Xia Lan could barely hear him. The word arrived as a vibration more than a sound. Her lungs pulled in air that tasted of hot metal and old ash. Behind Nolan, the Ashfall Core had opened like an enormous black flower.