Five years.The penthouse hasn't changed much, but the noise level has."Kai, stop hacking the toaster," I say, not looking up from my tablet."I want it crisper," a five-year-old voice complains. "The default algorithm is inefficient.""It's toast, buddy," Alex says, walking into the kitchen. He picks up Kai and swings him around. "It doesn't need an algorithm. It needs heat."Kai giggles, his eyes flashing a faint, rhythmic blue.Across the room, Emma—Kai's twin, and fiercely, wonderfully analog—is drawing with actual crayons on paper. She sticks her tongue out at her brother. "You're gonna burn it again."And sitting at the island, overseeing it all with the gravity of a tiny empress, is Aria.She’s six now. Her hair is dark like mine, her eyes sharp like Alex’s. She doesn't glow as brightly as she used to; she’s learned to dampen the signal, to pass for human when she needs to."He's not hacking the toaster," Aria says calmly, taking a bite of her cereal. "He's re-routing the powe
Last Updated : 2026-02-06 Read more