Chapter 34 · Let the Monster Speak

The first cannon turned in the sky.

Xia Lan heard the movement before she saw it: a grinding rotation beneath the clouds, metal teeth locking into place, the low mechanical groan traveling through the bones of Riftport. Across the harbor, the Ashfall batteries had abandoned the northern horizon. Their black barrels swung inward, one after another, until every muzzle pointed toward the city’s buried heart.

Toward her.

No—toward the thing inside her.

The silver ring around Xia’s finger burned cold. A hairline fracture pulsed across its surface, bright as moonlight under ice. Somewhere beneath her ribs, something vast and ancient dragged itself awake. It did not feel like a second heartbeat. It felt like an army marching through her veins.

“Xia.” Nolan’s voice cut through the rising alarms. “Look at me.”

She tried. Her vision swam with red targeting sigils, each one hovering over a different tower. The city had become a tactical map again—streets, firing lanes, population density, wind direction. Her mind sorted the data automatically, then recoiled from it.

Riftport was inside the kill zone.

The harbor. The barracks. The old market. The hospital where Milo was bleeding out beneath a nest of cables.