Page 24 of Third

He openedit.

And the bracelet on his wrist flared in warning.

The glow from the screen deepened to crimson. Without warning, the bracelet on Tor’Vek’s wrist ignited with heat—not just a flare, but a violent surge that slammed through his nervous system like a plasma strike. It was not the slow burn of rising anger; it was a precision-triggered override, invasive and immediate, hijacking every instinct with programmedfury.

His breath caught. Muscles locked. The pressure behind his eyes spiked, his pulse leapt, and the edge of control cracked as he realized—this wasn’t a malfunction.

The system had been tampered with. Remotely. Deliberately.

The rage setting had returned.

He staggered back half a step, his teeth gritted, jaw clenching under the sudden pressure. His body fought to stay upright as red-gold light spiraled along his forearm, wrapping like a shackle. The burn wasn’t pain. It was provocation.

A crackle of static split the air, sharp and deliberate, like the clearing of a throat before a lecture.

Selyr’s voice returned. Smooth. Smug. Mocking.”Oh dear. What have you done?”

Tor’Vek’s vision blurred, narrowed at the edges like tunnel walls collapsing inward. Apulse drummed beneath his skull, primal and loud, drowning out thought with sensation. He felt himself slipping—not into madness, but into something more dangerous: something feral and soul-stripping, unrelenting and void of reason. This wasn’t him. It was what the bracelet demanded. What Selyr had planned.

He locked his jaw, dug his heels into the floor, and forced out the command through clenched teeth, aiming the words at Anya alone.

“Touch me. Now.”

She spun, alarm blooming across her features. She didn’t hesitate. She flew across the space between them and pressed herself to his back, arms sliding around his chest, palms flat against him, skin-to-skin.

The bond surged—then steadied. Not calm. Not gentle. But with a silent threat, like a predator held in restraint by a single thread of breath. Her touch became the tether, drawing him from the edge, holding his mind together while his body fought toobey.

Tor’Vek drew in a ragged breath, forcing control to return to his limbs as if dragging it from the edge of collapse. His hands trembled over the console, not from weakness but from the sheer force of will it took to stay perfectly still. His knuckles blanched, locked in a death grip against the terminal, each breath a battle to cage what clawed insidehim.

The red hue faded to amber. The bond shivered and pulled taut, like a wire strung between them under too much tension, humming with volatile energy just shy of snapping. It wasn’t balance—it was a pause, abreath held too long, areprieve earned but not promised.

A flicker pulsed in the corner of the screen, subtle but insistent—asystem response Tor’Vek hadn’t initiated. Before he could disable it, avideo file auto-played on his screen.

Selyr’s voice again, but now in clinical rhythm—recorded.

“...unexpected results from emotional reciprocity. Warrior displays high fusion rate. Most viable bonding match to date.”

Anya froze againsthim.

“Female subject selected for accelerated bonding trials due to above-average biological responsiveness and heightened emotional permeability. Chosen specifically to test whether a non-engineered subject could achieve sustainable stabilization of the warrior unit in a field environment. Initial results exceeded predicted parameters, indicating a strong primary bond response. However, long-term viability remains questionable. Should destabilization persist or the subject reject integration protocols, elimination will be required. Backup candidate has been identified from shared genetic source material.”

“What?” she whispered. “Is he talking about my sister,Maya?”

The voice paused.

Then:

“If this subject proves unstable... the younger sibling remains a viable secondary candidate. Genetic pairing model identifies her as the most accessible replacement.”

Tor’Vek’s blood wentcold.

This was not random. Not some opportunistic cruelty born of Selyr’s instability. It was part of the plan. Anya had been selected deliberately to test the limits of bonding viability in uncontrolled conditions. Tor’Vek was the experiment’s variable.

The realization clawed at something deep beneath his armor of logic. He hadn’t just been observed—he’d beenengineered into the frameworkof the test. Atrigger. Atool. Athreat to be manipulated. And that knowledge sparked not confusion, but something far more dangerous that had nothing to do with the bracelets: rage-charged intent. And now, with the data gathered and the outcome inconvenient, Selyr intended to erase the result.

And replaceher.

WithMaya.

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