Elira felt it ripple outward.
Not sound. Not light.
Recognition.
The shattered glass still rang in her ears as she stood in the ruined street, breath steady, heart locked into that deep, unnatural rhythm Kael had pulled her into. People at the edges of the block stared now. Not confused anymore. Afraid. Their instincts are finally catching up.
She lowered her hands slowly.
"I didn't tell it to stop," she said.
Kael was very still inside her.
You didn't need to.
That frightened her more than the attack.
Sirens grew louder, layered over one another, harmonizing into something wrong. These weren't emergency vehicles. The sound had weight. Direction. Purpose.
"They're coming," Elira said.
Yes.
"And you're not telling me to run."
A pause.
Then Kael said, Because running would confirm their fears.
Her stomach tightened. "And standing here does what?"
It forces them to respond honestly.
The air at the end of the street bent again, this time not violently, but deliberately. Shapes emerged from it, silhouettes resolving into figures dressed in muted gray and black, moving with synchronized precision.
Not hunters.
Not observers.
Decision-makers.
Elira's blood heated as soon as she saw them. Her skin prickled, senses sharpening until the world felt painfully detailed. She could hear the scrape of their boots, the measured pace of their breathing.
One of them stepped forward.
"Subject Elira Vale," he said, voice amplified without being loud. "You are instructed to remain stationary."
Her jaw tightened. "Or what?"
The man studied her, eyes flicking briefly to the fractured pavement beneath her feet.
"Or we proceed with full-scale suppression."
Kael's presence coiled, restrained but lethal.
He is afraid, he noted. But not enough yet.
Elira swallowed. "You're enjoying this."
No. A pause. I am assessing it.
The man lifted his hand slightly. Behind him, the others adjusted their stance as their devices hummed faintly to life.
Elira felt the pressure building before it struck. Not a single point this time, but a net tightening around her, compressing space itself.
Her knees bent.
Kael surged instantly.
Not yet, he warned. Let them think this works.
Her teeth clenched as the pressure increased, bones singing with strain. She tasted blood.
The man frowned. "Increase output."
The net tightened further.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the street again, radiating outward from her feet.
Elira's vision swam. "Kael—"
Now.
She didn't brace.
She didn't fight.
She let go.
Something ancient and vast rose through her, not violent, not wild. Command.
The pressure snapped like a thread under too much tension. The net collapsed inward, imploding harmlessly around her as the force redirected itself skyward in a shockwave that rattled buildings for blocks.
The figures staggered back, equipment sparking.
Silence slammed down.
Elira stood unmoving at the center of it.
The man stared at her, face pale.
"You weren't classified for this level," he said hoarsely.
Kael's voice echoed through her bones.
Because they still think she is the anomaly.
Elira met the man's gaze. "Then what am I?"
The man swallowed. "A breach."
Kael smiled inside her.
No, he corrected calmly. She is the threshold.
Something shifted far above them, deep and resonant, as a distant bell struck for the first time in centuries.
Elira felt it in her blood.
Others felt it too.
Somewhere, something old stirred fully awake.
The man took a step back. "This is beyond containment."
Kael's presence expanded, unrestrained now.
Yes, he agreed. It always was.
Elira's heart thundered, not with fear, but with the terrible clarity of understanding.
This wasn't about escape anymore.
This was about what happened when the world pushed too hard…
…and something finally pushed back.
Far beyond the city, beyond the council chambers and hidden protocols, the signal she had become crossed a line no one could uncross.
And whatever had been waiting for it was already on its way.