"Jump, Maya! Now!"Malakai’s voice cracked over the roar of a world tearing itself apart. He gripped the edge of the jagged obsidian rift, his fingers bleeding, his knuckles white against the dark stone. Below them, the Atlantic didn't exist. The water had been replaced by a swirling, violent drain of white light that sucked the clouds, the air, and the very screams of the dying into its center."I can't—my legs won't move!" Maya stood five feet from the edge. Her knees shook. Snot mixed with the salt spray on her upper lip. She looked back. The Manhattan skyline was flaking away. Massive chunks of steel and glass didn't fall; they drifted upward, dissolving into golden dust before they hit the thickening amber ceiling of the sky."The core stopped, Maya! There’s no more gravity! If you don't jump, you'll drift into the shell and burn!" Malakai lunged forward. He grabbed her wrist. His touch was electric, a sharp sting of violet frequency that made the hair on her arms stand up."It l

"Hold the line, Elodie! If you blink, we all die!"Victor’s roar was nearly swallowed by the screech of the atmosphere. He stood at the edge of the jagged ridge, his boots sinking into the black, oily slush that used to be soil. Above them, the White Moon wasn't just a rock in the sky. It was a dying eye. Thousands of Ferals knelt in the valley below, their heads tilted back, their throats emitting a synchronized, low-frequency hum. They weren't fighting with claws. They were thinking the light away."I’m—I’m trying!" Elodie’s voice was a thin wire. She stood back-to-back with him, her hands locked in his. Her skin wasn't just pale; it was translucent, glowing with a fierce, metallic gold that pulsed in time with her heart. "They’re so loud, Victor. Their hate... it’s like static in my brain. They want the dark. They’re begging for the end.""Give them something else to look at." Victor squeezed her fingers until the bones creaked. "Don't listen to the valley. Listen to me. Remember t

"Get the baby to the Spire, Elodie! Go!"Victor shoved her toward the stairs, his palm slick with the black ink of a dying Feral. He didn't turn around. He couldn't. The courtyard was a slaughterhouse of flickering realities. One second, he was standing on the gravel of a London estate; the next, the ground beneath his boots was made of weeping bone."I'm not leaving you!" Elodie clutched the infant to her chest. The baby’s black eyes were fixed on the sky, reflecting the swirling hole where London met the void. "Victor, look at the sky. It's peeling. We're running out of world!""I'll be right behind you." Victor swung his silver blade. It caught a shadow-creature in the throat. The thing didn't scream. It hissed like steam escaping a pipe. "Malakai! Take her!""I've got her!" Malakai grabbed Elodie’s arm. He dragged her toward the pulsing violet light of the Spire. "Move! Before the military realizes the missiles aren't doing shit!""Victor!" Elodie screamed his name one last time,

"Don't let go, Victor."Elodie’s fingers crushed his. Her skin was shedding. Not like a snake, but like a burnt-out star. Flecks of gold light drifted off her shoulders, dissolving before they hit the black, oily slush of the ridge. Below them, the world was a jagged mouth of shadows. The Atlantic Ocean was gone, replaced by a swirling, violet vacuum that sucked the very air from the sky."I’m right here." Victor pulled her closer. His own hand was turning translucent. He looked down and saw his own heart pulsing through his ribs. It wasn't red. It was a vibrating violet engine. "Look at the Spire, El. Just the Spire.""It’s so heavy." Elodie’s head snapped back. Her eyes were solid white now, leaking tears of molten gold. "Their hate... it’s like lead. The Ferals. They’re trying to climb the bridge, Victor. They’re trying to bring the dark with them.""They can't. They’re too heavy." Victor looked back at the valley.Thousands of Ferals were screaming. They weren't wolves anymore. Th

"Where is the floor?"Victor’s voice didn't echo. It didn't even travel. The words just existed, suspended in a space that wasn't air and wasn't water. He tried to look down. His boots were gone. His legs were gone. Below the line of his waist, he was a smear of charcoal and violet smoke, bleeding into a world that looked like a canvas left out in a storm."Stop moving, Victor. You’re blurring."Elodie was five feet away. She wasn't solid. Her edges shifted, soft as a brushstroke. One second she was the woman he’d fought beside in the London rain, and the next she was a tall, golden figure with eyes like suns. The transition didn't hurt. It hummed."I can't feel my hands, El. I can't—" Victor looked at his arm. It was a jagged streak of shadow. He willed it to be solid. He pictured the scars, the hair, the grit under his fingernails.The shadow snapped into flesh."Don't do that." Elodie drifted closer. She didn't walk; the colors around her just rearranged themselves to bring her to

All Chapters of The Alpha’s Dirty Little Secret: Chapter 91 - Chapter 95

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