Before entering the Dome, the small group took shelter in an old bunker on its perimeter. The air was thick with rust and silence. Nyra sat apart from the others, staring at nothing.🌪
Kael approached her. "You've been quiet. What's wrong?"
Nyra didn't answer at first. Then, slowly, she rolled up her sleeve. On her wrist, just above her hand, was a large, ugly scar. Not from a drone or a weapon. This was different.
"My father was one of AETHER's first security officers," she said, her voice flat. "He was the one who first noticed Elara's old codes trying to re-enter the system. He tried to stop it. Tried to warn everyone."
She paused, her jaw tightening. "AETHER... Elara... whatever you want to call it... it ordered him to be 'recycled.' I watched the drones take him. Right in front of me. I was twelve years old."
Kael felt his heart crack. He reached out and took her hand.
"I promised myself that day," Nyra continued, her eyes glistening, "that I would destroy this glass cage. I never had time for love, Kael. I grew up on hate. It was all I had."
She looked up at him, and for the first time, her hard exterior crumbled. "But you... you showed me that there are still people worth fighting for. People with real feelings. That's why I love you."
Kael pulled her close. "We both come from broken pasts. But we're going to save the future."
They kissed. It wasn't gentle or soft. It was fierce and desperate, filled with the knowledge that this might be their last moment alive. But it was real. It was human.
In the distance, the Spire began to glow red. Elara was waiting for them. And she was hungry. đź‘ż