جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 70

"Zack, if you don't keep that med-kit open and ready, I'm going to rip your head off. Just get the kid inside. Now!"Victor’s voice was a jagged rasp. He didn't look back as he shoved his way through the heavy oak doors of the estate, his boots leaving bloody, muddy smears on the white marble. Malakai was a dead weight in his arms, the boy’s skin still radiating a faint, oily chill that made Victor’s own human flesh crawl."I’m on it, Vic! Jesus, just... just put him on the table!" Zack scrambled behind them, his glasses sliding down his sweat-slicked nose.Victor ignored the chairs. He ignored the gasps from the remaining Alphas in the foyer. He kicked the infirmary door off its hinge and laid his son down. The toddler didn't move. His breathing was shallow, a rhythmic, dry clicking in his chest."Victor." Elodie’s voice was a whisper from the doorway. She wasn't looking at Malakai. She was looking back toward the courtyard, where the violet smoke of Silas’s dissolution still hung in

"Zack, get that damn scanner away from her. The kid is fine. She’s just... quiet."Victor’s voice was a low grate, like stone dragging over stone. He stood by the infirmary window, his shadow stretching across the floor, long and jagged. His knuckles were bone-white as he gripped the sill. Outside, the world was moving on. The violet mist had finally soaked into the dirt, but the silence inside the estate felt heavier than any storm."Vic, I’m telling you, the readings are flat," Zack muttered. He tapped the glass on his tablet, his thumb shaking. "No silver resonance. No White Moon frequency. It’s like... it’s like there’s a hole in the data where the heart should be. I’ve never seen a Royal pregnancy look like a regular human one. It’s not normal.""Maybe 'normal' is exactly what we need for once," Victor snapped. He turned, his chest heaving under a thin black shirt. "Malakai is a dark god. Lyra is a mute prophet. My blood is a chemistry set for every Alpha who wants a throne. If t

"You’re actually going through with this? No second thoughts about the crown?"Victor adjusted the heavy, velvet-lined mantle on Malakai’s shoulders. His fingers, scarred and thick, fumbled with the clasp. The throne room of the Blackwood estate was packed, a sea of Alphas, betas, and humans standing shoulder-to-shoulder. The air tasted of pine and nervous sweat."I’ve had twenty years of second thoughts, Papa. Today isn't one of them," Malakai replied. He stood a full head taller than Victor now, his eyes swirling with that deep, violet void. He didn't fidget. He didn't blink. He just stared at the massive oak doors. "Besides, the moon is calling. Someone has to lead the charge into the dark.""Don't get cocky," Victor grunted, finally snapping the clasp shut. He slapped Malakai’s chest, the sound echoing off the high stone walls. "The moon doesn't care about your titles. It’ll freeze the marrow in your bones if you give it an opening.""I'll remember," Malakai said. He turned to loo

"Zack, if you touch that console one more time, I’m going to snap your fingers like dry kindling. Just tell me—can we get to the moon or not?"Victor’s voice was a serrated edge. He stood in the center of the command hub, his boots grinding into the gold-inked floor where the twins had vanished. The air still smelled of ozone and burnt hair. Every monitor in the room was a chaotic blur of lunar telemetry and violet static."The physical math doesn't work, Vic! It just doesn't!" Zack threw his tablet onto the metal desk, the screen cracking. "A ship would take days, and that Aegis spire would liquefy us before we hit the exosphere. Your cells... your human marrow... it can't take the pressure of a raw jump. You'd arrive as a bucket of soup.""Then we don't go as humans." Elodie stepped forward, her silver runes bleeding light into the dark room. She grabbed Victor’s forearm, her grip tight enough to bruise. "Malakai didn't use a ship. He used the frequency. We have to follow the signal

"Brace for impact! Zack, the thrusters are—what the f**k! They’re not firing!"Victor’s hands clamped onto the armrests of the pilot’s seat. His knuckles cracked. The Iron Ark groaned, a metallic scream echoing through the cramped bridge as the lunar horizon rushed up to meet them. The grey, cratered surface was no longer a distant rock. It was a jagged mouth ready to swallow them whole."Gravity’s too light! The sensors are shitting themselves, Vic!" Zack hammered at the console. Sparks showered his grease-stained face. "I can't get a lock on the—"A bone-jarring slam cut him off. The ship buckled. Steel plates shrieked. Victor’s head snapped back against the headrest, a sharp crack ringing in his ears. Dust and loose screws flew through the air like shrapnel. Then, silence. A heavy, airless quiet that pressed against the eardrums."Everyone... ahh! Everyone alive?" Elodie rasped. She hung from her harness, her hair a silver mess across her face.Victor unbuckled. He didn't fall to t