Page 95 of Burning Ice
The frame caught on a girl’s face, her eyes wild, a guard’s visor flashing beside her, a sigil scorched into the metal wall. Kylix’s reflection multiplied in the glow, a dozen versions of him staring back with fury.
“Those monsters.”
Yure’s voice broke. “Sir… this isn’t archived. This is live.”
Kylix froze. The image burned across his mind, the same loading bays, the same smokestacks over the factory district his squads cleared last cycle. They’d walked those corridors, run every scan, sworn the place was clean.
He keyed his com. “Vandor.”
A crackle. “Commander.”
“We were there. How the hell did we miss it?”
A pause, short and jagged. “We found nothing, sir. Heat-readings were cold, all signals dead.”
Kylix’s jaw tightened. “Then they buried it deeper.”
The room held still, the feed still playing, the cages still breathing on-screen.
Kylix’s voice turned steel. “Find the coordinates.” He began typing, the authority in him filling the room like a drawn blade. “And prepare a team.”
He turned to Mirel, his eyes softening only for him. “You’ll leave with Cyprian’s driver. Go to the hospital and wait for me there.”
Mirel hesitated, the air between them taut with the hum of the bond.
Kylix brushed a gloved thumb along Mirel’s jaw. “I’ll handle this,” he said quietly, the promise heavy and absolute. “You’re safe. I’ll make sure of it.”
Around them, the office hummed again, mechanical and alive. The Luminary’s heart beat cold, but every pulse of it answered to Kylix’s will, and his need to protect what was his.
25
“Cages. Rows and rows of them. Can you believe it?”
Cyprian shook his head as they walked, boots echoing on the white floor. “Moargan told me. I guess I’m glad evening class with Professor Dai ran late. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep all night.”
He glanced sideways. “He also said you put your hand on the screen when you saw one of the prisoners. What was that about?”
Mirel shrugged. “Nothing.”
But the lie sat heavy. The man’s face wouldn’t leave him, the eyes hollow, the quiet shock of seeing him again in the cage, the way frost had risen under his palm before he even knew what he was doing. He didn’t understand why it mattered, only that it did.
Cyprian seemed to wait for more, then let it go. “Anyway, have I ever told you Bekn was the one who trained me when I worked on board that spaceship?”
“Spaceship?”
They stopped at hospital security and were let through with a formal bow.
“Yup. How do you think I paid for that journey from Tulniri? I worked to get here. And Bekn was the one training me.”
They followed the nurse through the white corridors. Around them, the place looked abandoned. White floors, pale paintings, white halls, and no patients outside their rooms.
“Turns out, it wasn’t a coincidence he was there that day.” Cyprian wrapped an arm around Mirel. “Now, stop worrying for a few minutes. Kylix is in charge of the case, so I’m sure it will all work out just fine. He knows how to handle Bekn. Truly. Or let’s at least not talk about it right now, and just focus on seeing Mama. Okay?”
“Yes.” Mirel smiled and pressed himself against Cyprian, but his heart was not in it. There had been something about those images, about the way those people had sat there, locked up like cattle. He couldn’t shake it off.
They arrived in front of Celia’s door.
Mirel stopped Cyprian. “Why Bekn?”
