Semua Bab BETRAYED BY HER BLOOD, CLAIMED BY THE NIGHT: Bab 131 - Bab 140

(SOFIA QUISPE’S POINT OF VIEW)"Does it taste like victory, Seraphina, or just more blood?" Sofia’s voice was a mangled thing, forced through teeth gritted so hard they felt like they might turn to dust. She didn't look at the walls or the surveillance glass; she looked directly into the center of the violet light pulsing within her father’s chest. The air in the interrogation cell was thick with the scent of ozone and the high, whining scream of energy reaching its breaking point."Sofia, you have to let go! The resonance is going to tear you apart!" Nomo’s voice crackled through the intercom, desperate and frantic, but it sounded like it was coming from a different world."I can't let it touch the others, Nomo," Sofia whispered, her eyes burning with a sapphire fire that leaked from her sockets like luminous tears. She saw the fear in Mateo’s eyes—the man who had sold her, the man who was now a vessel for her destruction. She felt the Heartstone in her own chest thrumming in a letha

(SOFIA QUISPE’S POINT OF VIEW)"Can you stand, or am I going to have to carry you through the next three levels of this nightmare?" Sofia asked, her voice rasping against the heavy, ozone-scented air of the archives. She didn't wait for an answer before her crystalline hand clamped firmly around Pella’s elbow. The sapphire light of Sofia’s skin was dim, flickering like a candle in a gale, but the heat of it was still enough to singe the frayed edges of Pella’s sleeve."I’m standing, Sofia! I’m standing, but my skin feels like it’s full of needles and my head is ringing like a cathedral bell!" Pella shouted back. She was shaking, her eyes wide and unfocused, but she wasn't looking at the dead Void-Walker on the floor. She was looking at her own palms. The faint, ghostly blue glow that had erupted from her skin minutes ago was receding, leaving behind a tingle that made her fingers twitch uncontrollably."The needles are a good sign. It means you aren't dead," Sofia muttered, her eyes d

(SOFIA QUISPE’S POINT OF VIEW)"Get back! I said get back, or I’ll do something we’ll all regret!" Sofia’s voice tore through the smoke of the distribution center, a jagged edge of sound that vibrated with the unnatural frequency of the Heartstone. She stood atop a pile of shattered crates, her crystalline boots crunching through shards of glass that used to hold life-saving synthetic blood. Below her, the mob was no longer a group of refugees; they were a collective beast, a thousand-headed creature driven by the maddening scent of her sapphire power."We’re dying anyway, Sovereign! Give us the Blue! Give us the light!" a man screamed from the front, his hands clawing at the air as if he could pluck the indigo radiance right out of Sofia’s skin. He lunged forward, his face twisted into a mask of such primal, naked greed that Sofia felt a cold shiver of revulsion wash over her."I am trying to save your lives, you fools! If you destroy these supplies, there is nothing left for the chi

(NOMO HOLT’S POINT OF VIEW)"How many more, Nomo? How many more until the floor is just a graveyard of gray ash?" Somito’s voice was a low growl, but it lacked its usual sharp edge of authority. He stood at the entrance of the Citadel’s lower infirmary, his hands gripped so tightly around his rifle that the metal groaned."Twenty in the last hour. And those are just the ones we could find before the wind caught them," Nomo replied, not looking up from his tablet. His eyes were red-rimmed, stinging from the chemical scent of the sanitizers that did absolutely nothing to stop the spread. "It’s moving faster, Somito. The incubation period is shrinking. Yesterday it took twelve hours for the first gray patches to appear. Now, people are turning to stone in the middle of a sentence.""We’re losing the heart of this revolution to a ghost," Somito muttered, stepping further into the room. He looked at the rows of cots, where men and women lay shivering under thin blankets. Their skin was no

(SOFIA QUISPE’S POINT OF VIEW)"Is this the part where I’m supposed to beg, or are you going to keep hiding behind the trees like cowards?" Sofia shouted, her voice raspy from the cloying, violet dust that filled her lungs. She gripped her obsidian blade, but the weight of it felt wrong in her hand—too heavy, too physical for a place that seemed made of whispers and shifting light."Steal? We do not steal what was never yours to hold, little stone-thief," a voice replied, though it didn't come from any single direction. It came from the roots beneath her boots, from the glass-like leaves above, and from the very air that sizzled against her sapphire skin."I didn't steal anything! The Heartstone was thrust into me in the vats of the Citadel!" Sofia roared, turning in a slow circle. Her eyes burned with indigo fire, trying to pierce the shimmering haze of the Forbidden Forest. "I’m here to save my people from the Gray Rot. I need the antidote from the Root of the World, and I don't hav