جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 130

Anya’s POVThe heater in the van had given up hours ago. What little warmth it managed to cough out now was pathetic—nothing more than a faint, lukewarm sigh that barely stirred the air before surrendering to the high-altitude cold seeping through every crack and seam. Outside, the wind carried the sharp bite of pine resin and distant snow, pressing against the metal walls like an unwelcome guest who refused to leave. I had cocooned Kai in three layers of the heaviest sound blankets we could find in the back—those thick, quilted slabs normally used to swallow the brutal vibration of bass drums and crashing cymbals on stage. The fabric was stiff with age and use, smelling faintly of old sweat, dust, and the metallic tang of equipment cases. Beneath all that industrial polyester, Kai looked impossibly small, fragile in a way that made my chest ache. A fallen king draped in the trappings of the very machine that had broken him.Lila gripped the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles stood

Anya's POV I sat in the driver’s seat and stared at the road ahead as we started the long, slow crawl into the heart of Denver. The traffic was absolutely brutal and the highway felt like a bunch of clogged arteries filled with cars that were barely moving at all. Every time I looked in the rearview mirror I could see those creepy black SUVs just hovering in the distance behind us. They were staying just far enough back to not cause a scene in public but they were close enough to remind me that Ethan still had us on a very short leash.I kept glancing back at the big black flight case sitting in the middle of the van and my heart felt like it was being squeezed by a giant hand. It was just a cold and indifferent box made of steel and wood but it was currently holding the most fragile and precious thing I had ever known in my entire life. Every single time the van hit a pothole or a bump in the road my stomach did a slow and sickening flip because I knew Kai was being tossed around in

Anya’s POVThe neon peacock of the NBC logo towered over Speer Boulevard in a blaze of electric blues and greens, its feathers fanned out in perpetual display like a colorful gallows waiting for the next act to drop. The light pulsed faintly against the early morning sky, which had begun to bruise into a pale lavender at the edges. As Lila guided the van through the gated entrance, the vehicle suddenly felt much smaller than it had on the open highway.The walls pressed inward, the air inside thick with the smell of overheated brakes, stale coffee from a forgotten travel mug, and the faint metallic bite of fear-sweat. Behind us, the two black SUVs had slowed to a deliberate crawl, their engines idling low and predatory at the edge of the watering hole, headlights cutting long, accusing beams across the asphalt.“Lila, don’t stop at the guard shack,” I said, my voice coming out tighter than I wanted, every syllable clipped against the rising pressure in my throat. “Go straight for the l

Anya's POV The studio felt like a total vacuum, and every single breath I took felt thin and hollow, as if those massive overhead lighting rigs were sucking all the oxygen right out of the room just to fuel their own artificial glare. I kept my hand pressed firmly against Kai’s back, and I could feel the sharp, trembling ridge of his spine right through the fabric of his oversized hoodie. He was vibrating with this low-frequency hum of muscle and raw nerve that made him feel like a high-speed machine on the verge of shearing its own metal bolts apart."Kai," I whispered, leaning in until my mouth was only inches away from his ear, "I need you to listen to me and don't think about the radio or the cameras or even Ethan. Just try to breathe and find the tiny spaces between the tremors in your hands."He didn't answer me because he couldn't, since his entire consciousness was being funneled into his right hand as he hovered over the keys. He struck a second chord, a G-major that should h

Anya's POV The hospital didn't smell anything like the Starlight Facility, which was the first thing I noticed when we finally got through the double doors. Starlight had always smelled like expensive ozone, fancy lavender candles, and really expensive lies that Ethan told everyone.This place was different. It was a high-security wing of Denver Health and it smelled like industrial-strength bleach and the sharp, metallic tang of actual reality. It was cold and bright and it didn't care about anyone's brand or image.The doctors wouldn't even let me stay in the room for the first four hours, which felt like a total eternity. I spent the whole time pacing back and forth on the shiny linoleum of the hallway, and my boots kept squeaking with a rhythmic, maddening persistence that was driving me crazy. Through the small, wire-reinforced window of Room 412, I could see the silhouettes of the medical team moving around like shadows against a white screen.It was happening. The "North Star"