Page 21 of Tattooed Cowboy
Static skitters through the radio, and the hair on my arms lifts.
I know that frequency.
Sentinel code.
They’re here.
Every warning from my father washes over me, his father before that. Things I thought they spoke into legend, springing to life.
I rise, every nerve alive with warning.
Melody pulls the blanket tighter, her wide eyes catching the ghost-light flicker beyond the window.
“They can’t find us,” I whisper, already scanning for the dampener, for the one broken piece of tech that might buy us time.
The mountains answer with a rumble like a pulse beneath the earth. Whatever peace we found tonight—it’s over.
The radio crackles again, coded bursts of sound. My mind fractures, pulling away from the bond, trying to shield Melody from the rage and pain roaring through my veins.
They shouldn’t be able to follow me this far north—shouldn’t be able to find me this distance from the Starborn Range.
I feel the bond falter as I jump to my feet, hurrying into my clothes. She follows wordless, her mind layering itself with composure, the way her hands layer fabric across her body.
Another burst—white noise and binary teeth.
“Just a storm front,” she says, but her voice quivers.
No storm hums in code.
A light sweeps across the valley. Not lightning. Sustained, methodical.
The herd outside grows restless. One of the horses breaks its rope, panicked by frequencies too high for human ears.
The bracelet on Melody’s wrist glows faintly, reacting to something neither of us can name.
I kill the lantern. “Stay low.”
A hush falls—so complete it feels like the world is waiting. Then a flicker moves beyond the glass.
I crawl to the window, raise my head just enough to see.
Through the mist, movement. At first, I think it’s snow swirling in the wind—until light catches metal.
Three robot-like beings descend the ridge, their armor gleaming like falling stars. The Hollowed ones, Dad called them.
They glide instead of walk, visors pulsing with shifting glyphs. Old Wildblood text rewritten in machine logic.
Their scanning waves roll over the land, a metallic taste blooming on my tongue as they brush against my nervous system.
Deadly. Made to hunt and kill my kind. No longer the stuff of tall tales.
Melody grips my arm. “They’re not human.”
Neither am I.
The words hang between us like a truth too big for the air.
My mind roves over everything I’ve ever been told. If I can’t disrupt their lock, they’ll call down the Engine That Judges. Then, it’s over.
