บททั้งหมดของ COLD STEEL, BLEEDING HEARTS : บทที่ 31 - บทที่ 40

The little fishing boat’s engine roared, spitting and growling as it battled the wild North Atlantic waves. Freezing, salty water crashed onto Julian’s face, but he didn’t flinch. He gripped the wooden rail so hard his knuckles looked bone white. In his other hand, he clutched a silver locket, feeling its weak, fading warmth.“The signal’s moving again!” David yelled, his voice barely cutting through the howling wind. He was hunched in the corner of the cramped cabin, his laptop wrapped in plastic to keep the spray out. “Julian, the map’s changing! The island isn’t staying put—it’s drifting, like a ship!”“How can an island move?” Bianca asked, looking miserable and greenish. She was seasick from all the rocking, and clung to Toby’s arm to keep upright.“It’s not just land,” David said, fingers flying over the keys. “It’s a massive energy signal. It’s hidden, cloaked somehow. If this locket didn’t have a shard of Maya’s energy, we’d see nothing but water.”Julian stared out at the bru

The gold bubble didn’t burst when it hit the shore. It just melted away, slow and quiet, like sugar disappearing in hot water. When it was gone, Julian, Maya, and the others lay sprawled out on the cold, wet sand, catching their breath, totally wiped from the fight beneath the waves.But they didn’t get a break.“Get up! We have to move now!” David yelled, voice shaking. He jabbed his finger at the sky.That little black drone they’d seen before? It had brought friends. Five, then ten, then twenty more buzzed over the water. No gunfire, just a silent circle, red lights blinking—almost like they were counting down to something terrible.Maya tried to get up, but her legs wouldn’t cooperate. Julian caught her before she could fall. He wrapped his arms around her waist to hold her steady. Her heart pounded against his chest, frantic and wild, and her skin shivered with a faint silver light.“Maya, can you hit them with your power?” Julian asked, eyes scanning the sky for any shot at figh

The little screen on the silver locket didn’t just show a picture. It almost felt alive. Maya sat on a throne made of stars, her image flickering in time with a heartbeat. Around Julian, everything started shifting. Every single machine on the beach—the drones, the laptops, even the jet’s control board—started humming in perfect harmony.“Maya? Can you hear me?” Julian shouted. He stood waist-deep in the ocean, holding the cold locket up to the sky. His clothes clung to him, soaked through, and he couldn’t stop shivering.The silver girl on the screen leaned in. Her eyes seemed to lock onto his. “I hear everything, Julian,” her voice echoed out of the jet’s loudspeakers. Calm. Clear. “I hear the wind. I hear the computer code. I hear a billion thoughts at once. It’s… too much for me.”Suddenly, all the drones’ red lights turned green. They took off, flying in neat circles above the beach, forming some kind of shield.“Julian, get out of the water!” David yelled from the sand, pointing

The wind on the mountaintop just stopped. Not a breeze, not a whisper—gone. The silence pressed in so hard Julian’s ears rang. Down at the bottom of those weird, bright stairs stood the man who looked like Maya’s father. He wasn’t breathing. Didn’t blink. Just stared at Maya, those green eyes glowing like radio dials in the dark.“Maya, don’t go near him,” Julian said, stepping in front of her. He gripped his gun so tight his knuckles went pale. Cold rolled off the people who’d come down from the sky. It felt like standing next to an open freezer, but worse—like the cold wanted to crawl inside you.“It’s okay, Julian,” Maya whispered, though her voice shook. She stepped around him anyway. “He… he has my father’s smile. Even if it’s a lie, I need to know.”The man reached out his hand. “The White Room isn’t a prison, Maya. It’s a library. It’s where we keep the best parts of the world before the ‘Great Hunger’ takes them. I didn’t die to leave you. I died to save a place for you.”“A p

The elevator doors slid open, and right away Maya got hit with this weird mix of chemical clean and fake purple flowers. It was supposed to be soothing. All it did was make her want to throw up. She barely took a step before two guards in spotless white suits blocked her path. Each one held a glowing baton, crackling with electricity.“Hands up, Doctor,” one of them barked.Maya put her hands in the air. She noticed dried blood still caked on her fingers from the warehouse fight. Behind her, Julian stepped out. He scanned the room, all sharp eyes and tense muscles, like some cornered animal.“I’m here to see the Vice President,” Maya said. She tried to sound calm, even though her heart thudded like it was trying to escape her chest. “She invited me. You remember, right?”The guards hesitated, then moved aside. Maya saw a huge, blindingly white hall packed with rows of white chairs. Every single one had a person slumped in it, looking peaceful with their eyes shut. Each had a thin gree