The Aetherium Core hummed like a living thing.
Kael pressed his back against the cold steel of the ventilation shaft, his breath fogging in the recycled air. Below him, the heart of Solarae pulsed—a massive chamber of glowing blue conduits and thrumming machinery, all feeding the floating city its power. The air smelled like ozone and something sharper, something that made his teeth ache.
Raw Aetherium.
"Status," he whispered into his comm.
Asha's voice crackled back. "Two guards at the west entrance. Ryven's got them sleeping in three... two..." A soft thud echoed through the metal. "Done. You're clear."
Kael slid the grate open and dropped silently onto the walkway. His boots barely made a sound, but the Core felt him—the light in the walls flickered as he passed.
Bad sign.
He tapped his earpiece again. "Remember, we're here for the prototype. No detours, no heroics. In and out."
Ryven's dry laugh echoed in his ear. "Says the man who blew up a supply depot last week."
Kael ignored him. The device was ahead, encased in a glass chamber at the center of the platform. It was smaller than he'd expected—a palm-sized orb of swirling blue energy, suspended in a lattice of silver wires.
The Aether-Voltaic Resonator. The Syndicate's newest weapon. The thing that could turn the tide of the war.
Kael's fingers hovered over the release switch.
Then the alarms screamed to life.
Red lights flooded the chamber.
"Shit," Asha hissed. "They're on to us!"
Kael didn't waste time asking how. He smashed the glass and grabbed the Resonator. The second his skin touched it, a jolt of energy shot up his arm—like ice and fire at once. His vision blurred. For a heartbeat, he saw something else: a city in ruins, a woman with Lyra's face screaming, his own hands covered in blue veins—
Then reality snapped back.
"Fall back!" he barked into the comm. "Rendezvous at the underbridge!"
Boots pounded on metal. Kael spun as the first enforcer rounded the corner—black armor, faceless helm, pulse rifle already raised.
Kael shot first.
The enforcer dropped, but more were coming. He sprinted for the service ladder, the Resonator burning in his grip. Above him, Asha leaned over the railing, her sniper rifle flashing.
"Move your ass!"
He jumped, catching the last rung as a pulse blast seared the air where he'd been.
The escape route was collapsing.
Ryven waited at the tunnel junction, his med-kit already open. "Took you long enough," he muttered, slapping a charge onto the wall behind them.
Kael didn't answer. His arm was numb where the Resonator had touched him. The skin was glowing.
Asha's eyes widened. "What the hell is—"
"Down!"
The explosion rocked the tunnel. Dust rained from the ceiling as the charges blew, sealing the enforcers behind them. Kael coughed, his ears ringing.
Ryven grabbed his arm, examining the glowing veins. "This isn't normal Aetherium exposure."
"No shit," Kael snarled, yanking free. "We need to go. Now."
They ran. The tunnels twisted like a maze, but Kael knew every turn. He'd spent half his life in these passages, ever since the Syndicate took his brother. Ever since he'd learned what they did to the children they called "Helix subjects."
A shadow moved ahead.
Kael froze.
A single enforcer stood at the exit, blocking their path.
Asha raised her rifle—
The enforcer removed her helmet.
Lyra.
Kael knew her. Not just from the wanted bulletins or the tech schematics they'd stolen.
He knew her.
The memory was hazy—a lab, cold floors, a girl with dark braids offering him a piece of candy through the bars of a cell.
"Run," Lyra whispered now, her voice shaking. "They've sealed the underbridge. There's another way, but you have to go."
Kael didn't move. "Why are you helping us?"
Her eyes flicked to the Resonator in his hand. "Because that thing isn't a weapon. It's a key. And if the Syndicate gets it back, millions will die."
A shout echoed behind them. More enforcers.
Lyra shoved a data chip into Kael's palm. "Take this. It's everything they don't want you to know."
Ryven grabbed Kael's shoulder. "We can't trust her!"
Kael hesitated. Then the Resonator pulsed in his grip, and the vision hit him again—Lyra screaming, a city falling, his brother's face twisted in pain—
He made his choice.
"Go!" he ordered Asha and Ryven. "I'll cover you."
Lyra's breath caught. "You'll die."
Kael bared his teeth. "Not today."
He turned and fired at the approaching enforcers.
The Resonator reacted.
The blast was blinding.
Blue energy erupted from the device, tearing through the tunnel like lightning. Kael felt it burn through him, searing his nerves, his bones, his mind. The world fractured—he saw seconds into the future, saw the ceiling collapsing, saw Lyra lunging to pull him back—
Then the roof caved in.
Kael woke to smoke and silence. His body felt alien, his veins still humming with energy. The Resonator was gone—shattered, maybe, or lost in the rubble.
Lyra crouched beside him, her face streaked with dust. "You're alive."
Barely.
Kael tried to sit up, but the pain nearly blacked him out. His arm was worse now—the glow had spread, tracing jagged lines up to his shoulder.
Lyra's fingers hovered over the marks. "You're changing."
A groan came from the rubble. One of the enforcers was still alive.
Lyra stood, drawing her sidearm.
Kael expected her to finish the man.
Instead, she turned the gun on him.
"Don't move," she whispered.
The enforcer raised his rifle—
Lyra shot him between the eyes.
Then she hauled Kael up, her grip surprisingly strong. "Can you walk?"
He coughed blood. "Why?"
Her eyes were haunted. "Because I remember you. And I owe you this."
Behind them, the Core shuddered.
Somewhere, alarms still wailed.
They staggered through the ruins of the tunnel, Lyra half-carrying him. Kael's vision kept slipping—one moment, he saw the cracked concrete walls; the next, flashes of things that hadn't happened yet.
A burning sky. A brother he hadn't seen in years. A woman who looked like Lyra, but wasn't.
"Precognition," Lyra muttered, dragging him around a corner. "The Resonator must have jump-started your old abilities."
Kael gritted his teeth. "What abilities?"
She didn't answer.
The exit loomed ahead—a jagged hole in the wall, leading to the underbelly of Solarae. The Scar. Home.
Lyra hesitated at the threshold. "I can't go with you."
Kael grabbed her wrist. "You won't survive if you go back."
She pulled free. "I have to. There are others like you. Like him."
Him.
Kael's throat tightened. "Seth."
Lyra's breath hitched. "You remember."
Of course he did.
Some things even the Syndicate couldn't erase.
A shout echoed from the tunnels. They were out of time.
Lyra pressed something into his hand—a small silver pendant. "When the time comes, show him this."
Then she was gone, vanishing into the smoke.
Kael clutched the pendant, his vision swimming.
The Resonator had changed him.
And the war had only just begun.