LOGINI know I shouldn’t want him. Or them. There’s my best friend’s father, whose low, velvety voice makes my pulse stutter whenever he speaks. My stepbrother, whose accidental touches make my skin burn with unspoken tension. And my sister’s mate, whose cold, lingering gaze betrays a hunger I shouldn’t see. Every glance, every brush of skin, drags me deeper into temptation. Every heartbeat reminds me that wanting them is dangerous, forbidden… and maybe reckless. I’m caught between loyalty, morality, and desire, and every moment I give in only makes the fire stronger. Some lines aren’t meant to be crossed. Some fires are impossible to resist. And I’m learning the hard way… forbidden has never felt this good.
View MoreI still wake up sometimes expecting the hum.That low, constant vibration under the world, like something watching from behind the walls. It takes me a few seconds to remember where I am, to register the quiet, the open window, the way morning light spills across the floor without permission from any system.Then I breathe.And I remember I am free.The house is small. Intentionally so. No hidden rooms, no reinforced walls, no places designed for surveillance or control. Just wood that creaks when it settles and glass that lets the outside in.Elliot is already awake.I know because the kettle is on, because the faint scent of coffee drifts down the hallway, because some part of me has learned the rhythm of him the way I once learned danger.I pad into the kitchen barefoot.He looks up from the counter and smiles not surprised, not searching. Just… present.“Morning,” he says.“Morning,” I reply.Some days, that’s all we need.The city we chose is quieter than the one we left behind.
The world did not end.That was the strangest part.After everything, the system, the fractures, the choices that felt too big for one body to carry, the world simply… continued. Lights still turned on. Wind still moved through open spaces. People still woke up not knowing how close everything had come to breaking.Elliot and I stood at the edge of the platform as the facility powered down behind us. Not exploding. Not collapsing. Just shutting itself off, layer by layer, like something finally accepting it was no longer needed.No alarms chased us.No one tried to stop us.For the first time in a long while, there was no one telling me where I was allowed to exist.“You’re quiet,” Elliot said.I smiled faintly. “I’m listening.”“To what?”“To the absence,” I said. “It’s loud.”He nodded like he understood exactly what I meant.Outside, the air was colder than I expected. Clean. Untouched by hums or signals or invisible eyes tracking movement. My wristband was gone. The faint pressure
They didn’t bind my hands.That was the first sign this was different.No restraints.No force.No cold efficiency meant to remind me I was owned.Instead, they stood back and let the room speak for them.The chamber was circular, walls layered with shifting data that never quite settled into stillness. It felt less like a courtroom and more like a mirror, every surface designed to reflect consequence rather than judgment.Adrian stayed near the entrance. Elliot was nowhere in sight.That absence hurt more than any restraint ever could.Mary’s presence was steady inside me, not overwhelming, not distant. Present in the way only someone who had already died once could be.“This is the end of their patience,” she said quietly.I swallowed. “And the beginning of mine.”The figures stepped forward at last. Three this time. Not guards. Not observers.Architects.“We will not correct you,” one of them said. “We will not erase you.”My pulse ticked faster.“You will decide,” another continue
The silence that followed felt heavier than anything the system had ever tried to impose on me. The air between us, between me and the man standing there, seemed to hold its breath. I could feel the pressure building, like a storm waiting to break, the hum of the system intensifying in the background.“You’ve made your choice,” he said quietly, his voice laced with something I couldn’t place, maybe disbelief, maybe the last shreds of authority the system still thought it had over me.I didn’t respond right away, not because I couldn’t find the words, but because there was nothing more to say. My choice had been made, and there was nothing he could do to take it back.I took a slow breath, steadying myself, grounding myself in this new, uncertain reality. “I have,” I said finally, my voice low but unwavering. “And it’s not the one you wanted.”“Nothing ever goes according to plan,” he muttered, almost to himself. “But you’ve crossed a line that can’t be undone.”I glanced up at him, my












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