The hallway lights flickered as if exhaling their last breath. Emergency sirens howled softly through the lower floors of the hospital — but here, on the restricted floor, time felt suspended.
Maya stood barefoot on the cool tile, the back of her hospital gown open, exposing her spine. The glowing symbol at her nape pulsed slowly — hypnotic, like a living thing trying to speak.
Liam stood behind her, arms crossed, his body bristling with frustration and want.
"You need to let me take you out of here," he said, voice low and tight. "Now."
She turned, moonlight spilling over her skin. Her lips were parted, pupils dilated — not from fear, but something sharper.
"I'm not done here," she whispered. "I need to remember what they did to me."
"You nearly died."
"And yet here I am." Her voice was ice and heat in equal measure. "And you're still looking at me like I'm yours."
The air snapped.
He stepped closer, the distance between them crackling like static. "Don't test me, Maya."
Her eyebrow arched. "Or what?"
He grabbed her by the waist — not rough, but firm, his fingers pressing into the curve of her hip. "Or I'll remind you exactly what you woke up when you kissed me."
She didn't pull away.
She leaned in.
And whispered against his jaw, "Then do it."
Their lips collided — not soft, not shy. It was a collision of suppressed need and furious confusion. His hands slid up her bare back, her fingers tangled in his shirt, dragging him closer.
But then—
Her skin burned beneath his touch. Not metaphorically.
Literally.
A flash of light surged between them, and Maya's body arched away with a gasp. Her eyes glowed again — silver-blue — and her voice came out layered.
Like someone else was speaking through her.
"Liam… run."
And just like that, she collapsed into his arms, her body trembling.
He caught her, lowering her gently to the floor. Her breath was ragged, sweat glistening at her brow.
"Maya!" he shouted, shaking her gently.
But she was somewhere else.
Inside her mind, she stood in a vast, glass-like space — mirrors stretching infinitely. Each reflection was her, but twisted: one with silver eyes, another in military armor, another screaming, covered in blood.
And one… was Kai.
He stepped forward, same face as hers, same voice. But colder. Male. And dangerous.
"Why do you fight me?" he asked. "We were meant to be one."
Maya trembled. "What are you?"
"I'm not a what. I'm your echo. The self you abandoned when they rebuilt you."
He held out a hand.
"If you take me back, you'll remember everything — who created us, why they fear us… and what we were designed to destroy."
Back in reality, Maya jolted awake in Liam's arms, eyes wide.
She clutched his chest, gasping. "He's not just in my head, Liam. He's real. Somewhere."
Liam cupped her face. "Kai?"
She nodded, shaking. "He's my other half — the one they split from me. He's hunting the truth, and if he finds it first… we both die."
Thunder cracked the sky outside.
And far beneath the hospital, in a glowing chamber guarded by silence, a man with silver-blue eyes smiled at a screen.
"Found you," Kai whispered.