LOGINChapter 57: The Silver CageThe floor of the warship hummed beneath my feet.It was not the vibration of an engine. It was the pulse of my son.He stood on the bridge of the ship, staring out through the salt-crusted glass at the gray horizon. He was naked, his body perfect and terrible, carved from the same silver light that now filled his eyes. He did not touch the controls. He did not need a wheel or a throttle. He simply stood there, his hands clasped behind his back, and the massive vessel obeyed him.The ship cut through the water with a terrifying speed. We were leaving the Arctic circle. We were heading south. Toward people. Toward life.I stood in the corner of the bridge. My ribs throbbed with a dull, sickening ache where the Sister had kicked me. My clothes were tattered rags stiff with dried blood and frozen seawater. I shivered, but the cold did not touch the two men in the room.One was a god. The other was a ghost.Kaelen stood by the heavy steel door.He was dressed in
Chapter 56: The Red FeastThe engine room was bathed in the sickly green light of the inhibitor gas. It swirled around us like a toxic fog, tasting of copper and old pennies.In the center of the mist, my nightmare was unfolding.My son had latched onto his father.He didn't use his teeth. He used his hands. He gripped Kaelen’s face with fingers that glowed a violent, starving red. The energy transfer was visible. It wasn't a stream; it was a torrent. Bright, blinding white light was being ripped out of Kaelen’s eyes, out of his mouth, out of his very pores, and sucked into the small, trembling body of the boy.Kaelen didn't fight.He knelt in the gas, his arms hanging limp at his sides. His head was thrown back, his jaw slack. He was surrendering. He was pouring every ounce of the Ancient power he had stolen, every drop of the vitality that kept his heart beating, into the child who was killing him."More," the boy whispered. His voice was a guttural rasp. "Sweet."Kaelen’s skin bega
Chapter 55: The Apex PredatorThe water in the dry dock churned like a boiling cauldron.The creature rising from the depths was a biological nightmare. It possessed the slick, rubbery body of a colossal squid, but where the beak should have been, a massive wolf’s head snapped its jaws. Rows of serrated teeth dripped with seawater and slime. Its eyes were the size of dinner plates, glowing with a bioluminescent green rage that illuminated the rusted hull of the warship behind it.Kaelen stepped in front of me. He did not shift into the wolf. He did not have to. The Ancient energy coursing through his revived body made him something far more dangerous than a mere shifter. He radiated a heat that melted the snow around his boots. His gray eyes were locked on the beast."It is a gatekeeper," Kaelen said. His voice was low and steady. "My sister built a watchdog."The creature roared. A tentacle the thickness of a redwood tree slammed onto the concrete dock. The impact cracked the foundat
Chapter 54: The Black SkyThe tunnel was a throat of ice that was rapidly collapsing.I clung to the thick fur of Kaelen’s back as he scrambled up the incline. His claws gouged deep trenches into the frozen floor. Behind us the roar of the fire was a physical weight. The heat chased us. It licked at Kaelen’s heels and turned the ice beneath us into a slick river of slush.The Ancients were screaming.It was a sound that vibrated in my teeth. It was the death rattle of a hundred monsters burning alive in their beds. I did not look back. I buried my face in Kaelen’s neck and focused on the patch of gray light ahead."Faster," I whispered into his ear. "She has him. She has our son."Kaelen growled. His muscles bunched beneath me. He surged forward with a desperate burst of speed. The black veins under his fur were glowing faintly. He was pushing his body past the limit. He was running on hate.We burst out of the tunnel.The cold air of the Dead Zone hit us like a hammer. The wind shrie
Chapter 53: The Sister of BoneThe woman standing on the ledge was a ghost.She wore the face of my husband. She had his sharp jawline and his heavy brow. Her eyes were the same storm-cloud gray that I had fallen in love with. But where Kaelen’s eyes held warmth and pain hers held only ice. She was a mirror image reflected in a shattered glass.She held a staff made of black bone. It was not a magical artifact. It was a weapon carved from a ribcage. The end was sharpened to a brutal point."Who are you?" I asked again. My voice was lost in the shrieks rising from the cavern below."I told you," she said. Her voice was smooth and cold. "I am the one they threw away."She took a step forward. Her white armor clicked. It was not metal. It looked like ceramic plating scavenged from the facility and bolted over heavy furs."Give me the boy," she said.I tightened my grip on the rifle. I had three bullets left."He is not a thing," I said. "He is my son.""He is a bomb," she corrected. "And
Chapter 52: The Hive in the IceThe tunnel was a throat of black ice that swallowed the light of the surface world.We walked deeper into the glacier. The air grew heavy and wet. It tasted of copper and ozone. My son walked ahead of me. He was wrapped in the blanket I had scavenged but his bare feet made no sound on the frozen floor. He glowed with a soft violet light that cast long dancing shadows against the walls of the tunnel.Kaelen walked behind me. I could hear his breathing. It was ragged. He was limping. The battle with the hunters and the transformation had taken a toll on his body that even his accelerated healing could not fix. He was mortal now in all the ways that mattered."Elara stop," Kaelen whispered.I did not stop. I gripped the strap of the rifle on my shoulder."We keep moving," I said. "He is hungry.""He is not hungry," Kaelen hissed. He grabbed my arm and spun me around. "He is gluttonous. Look at him Elara. He is twelve years old. An hour ago he was an infant







