로그인Rei fell.There was no ground beneath her.No walls.No light.Only darkness.She reached for Dominic instinctively, but her fingers closed around empty air.“Dominic!”Her voice disappeared into the void.Then something caught her.Not a hand.A memory.She suddenly saw him at eight years old.Dominic stood in front of her in the white laboratory, his tiny body trembling with fear.“Don't touch her!”The memory changed.Dominic at sixteen.Standing outside a hockey rink.Watching Rei from across the parking lot.He didn't know why she seemed familiar.He only knew that when she walked away, something inside him hurt.Another memory.Dominic at the academy.The first time they actually spoke.His irritated expression.Her anger.The strange electricity between them.Another.The night he had found her during her first heat.The fear in his eyes.The way he had fought his instincts instead of allowing them to control him.Another.Their first real conversation afterward.His apology.H
“Run.”Liora's warning exploded inside Rei's mind.Not a suggestion.Not fear.A command born from memory.Rei looked at the silver-haired woman standing across the cavern.Something about her was familiar.Not her face.Her presence.It was the same sensation Rei had felt inside the Origin Chamber when the ancient memories had awakened—a pressure behind her eyes, as though something enormous was examining every thought she had ever had.Dominic stepped in front of her.The silver-haired woman smiled.“You're still doing that.”Dominic's expression hardened.“Doing what?”“Protecting her.”“I always will.”The woman tilted her head.“That is exactly what makes you predictable.”Aiden moved beside Dominic.“Evelyn.”The woman's smile disappeared.“Aiden.”“You shouldn't be here.”“And yet I am.”Aiden's eyes narrowed.“You were supposed to be dead.”“So were you.”Rei stared between them.“You know her?”Aiden nodded.“She was one of the original architects of Echelon.”The woman laugh
For several seconds, nobody moved.The words remained on every screen.THE FIRST PAIR HAS REMEMBERED.THE AGE OF CONTROL IS OVER.Then every monitor shattered.Glass rained across the chamber.Rei instinctively ducked, and Dominic pulled her against him, shielding her head with his arm.The sound was deafening.When it finally stopped, the room was almost completely dark.Only the First Bond on Rei's wrist remained illuminated.Aiden stood several feet away, watching the darkness.Liora's voice whispered inside Rei's mind.It's beginning.Rei swallowed.“What is?”Everything they buried.Rei looked at Dominic.“Did you hear that?”He nodded.“Liora?”“Yes.”Dominic's expression softened.“Is she okay?”Rei almost smiled.“She says everything they buried is beginning.”Aiden turned toward them.“She isn't wrong.”Rei stepped closer.“What happens now?”Aiden looked toward the ceiling.“Blackthorn is collapsing.”“That doesn't sound like a bad thing.”“It isn't.”He paused.“But people
Rei couldn't move.The symbol on her wrist continued spreading.Thin silver lines traveled beneath her skin, branching across her palm and climbing toward her elbow. They weren't painful.That was somehow worse.They felt familiar.Like something that had always been inside her had finally remembered how to wake up.“Liora?” Rei whispered.Nothing answered.Then the little girl's voice returned inside her mind.I'm here.Rei's breath caught.“Where?”Inside you.Rei staggered backward.Dominic immediately caught her.“What happened?”Rei looked at him.“She's inside my head.”His expression changed.“Liora?”Rei nodded.Voss smiled.“Excellent.”Dominic turned toward him.“You did this.”“I facilitated it.”“You transferred her into Rei.”“Not exactly.”Voss looked almost fascinated.“Liora was never completely separate from Rei.”Rei's blood ran cold.“What does that mean?”Voss walked toward the center of the chamber.“The Witness doesn't exist as a conventional bloodline. It exists
The darkness swallowed the staircase.For several seconds, Rei heard nothing except her own breathing.Then Dominic's hand found hers.“I've got you.”His voice was close.Too close to be an echo.Rei squeezed his fingers.“Liora?”“I'm here.”Her voice came from somewhere behind them.Then something moved below.A slow scrape against stone.Rei held her breath.“Did you hear that?”“Yes,” Dominic whispered.Another scrape.Then a low growl rolled up the staircase.Liora's voice became urgent.“Don't move.”Rei froze.“Why?”“Because it can hear your heartbeat.”Dominic shifted closer.“What can?”Liora didn't answer immediately.When she finally spoke, her voice was barely audible.“The fourth.”A cold sensation traveled down Rei's spine.“What is the fourth?”“The child.”“Whose child?”“The First Pair.”Rei stared into the darkness.“But if the First Pair had a child, why have we never heard about them?”“Because Blackthorn erased the bloodline.”“Why?”“Because the child inherited
“Me.”The voice came from behind them.Rei spun around.The room was empty.The door remained closed.Dominic immediately moved in front of her.“Who's there?”A soft laugh answered him.“You still do that.”Rei's skin prickled.“Do what?”“Stand in front of her.”The voice sounded young.A child's voice.But there was something ancient beneath it.Dominic's eyes moved around the room.“Show yourself.”The lights flickered.A small figure appeared at the far end of the room.A girl.She looked exactly like the child from the recording.Dark hair.Pale skin.Eyes that seemed almost silver.She wore a simple white dress.Bare feet.A small symbol glowed against her throat.The First Bond.Rei stared.“You're real.”The girl smiled.“Sometimes.”Dominic's expression hardened.“What does that mean?”“It means Blackthorn never figured out what I was.”Rei stepped around Dominic.“Who are you?”The girl looked at her.“My name is Liora.”The name sent a strange pulse through Rei's body.She







