All Chapters of THE LUNA’S FORBIDDEN ECHO: Chapter 61 - Chapter 69

MalakaiI should have stopped her.I knew it the moment she lifted the cover. Some things you can't unread. But I also knew that if I took that book out of her hands, she would never forgive me, and so I stood there like a coward and let her open it.She read standing up. Her face did not change. That was what frightened me. Zephyrine had a face that told you everything, a window with the curtains always half open. Now the curtains were shut, and I could hear her breathing in the dark, slow and careful, like someone walking on thin ice."Is it bad?" I asked."It's my name on the front." She turned a page. "I haven't got to the bad part."I took the other books. There was nothing else I could do for her. I pulled the earliest volume off the shelf, a thick, dark one, its gold date nearly rubbed away, and carried it to the desk. I lit the lamp with a match from my pocket. The little flame spread a warm circle across the wood, and we crowded into it, our shoulders almost touching.The han

Zephyrine’s The air down here was thick enough to choke on. Every breath tasted like burnt oil and hot metal. My throat felt raw. I coughed, and the sound bounced off the low ceiling and came back small and ugly.Malakai was half across my legs. His head rested on my thigh. His hair stuck to my skin, damp with sweat and something else. I shook him again. My hands left dark smears on his shirt.“Malakai.” My voice came out cracked. “Wake up. You have to wake up.”He didn’t move. His chest rose and fell, but the breaths were short and uneven. Blood had dried at the corner of his mouth. When I pressed two fingers under his jaw, the pulse there felt weak, like it might stop if I looked away too long.Above us, the grate rattled every time the machinery thumped somewhere close. The bars were thick. Bolted straight into the concrete. I’d already tried to work my fingers under the edge. All I got was broken nails and stinging skin. The metal was warm now. Too warm. Somewhere past the bend i

Zephyrine’s We didn’t go back to Malakai’s rooms. The corridor behind us still felt too open, and Vivienne’s words were sitting heavy in my chest. My side pulled with every step. Malakai’s arm stayed across my shoulders. He was walking, but his weight kept shifting onto me whenever his balance slipped.“Left,” he said. His voice was low and rough. “Service stairs. Thaddeus keeps a room on the third level. No cameras there.”I nodded and turned us that way. The stairs were narrow and metal. Each one jarred my ribs. I bit the inside of my cheek and kept moving. Malakai’s breathing was uneven beside me. He didn’t complain. That almost made it worse.At the top, he stopped and leaned against the wall. His face had gone pale under the dirt and dried blood. I waited while he caught his breath.“Are you sure about this?” I asked.“No.” He pushed off the wall. “But he’s the only one who might still listen.”The third-level corridor was quieter. Fewer lights. We stopped outside a plain door n

Kaelen’s The warehouse sat on the wrong side of the border, half a mile past the last pack marker. Rain had turned the dirt lot to mud. I kept my hood up and my hands in my pockets while the two men in front of me finished checking the crates. One of them kept glancing at my face like he was trying to decide if I was trouble or just another buyer who didn’t want his name written down.“Payment first,” the taller one said. He had a scar through his left eyebrow and a rifle slung low. Humans. Both of them were. The kind who sold to anyone with cash and didn’t ask what you planned to do with the goods.I pulled the envelope from inside my jacket and set it on the crate between us. He counted it without hurrying. When he was done, he nodded at his partner. The second man pried the lid off the top crate with a short crowbar. Inside, packed in foam, were six black cylinders about the length of my forearm. Matte finish. No markings except a small white label on each one that read SUPPRESSIO

Zephyrine’s Morning came grey and cold. The rain had stopped sometime before dawn, but the air inside the shed still felt damp against my skin. I woke with my neck stiff from sleeping against the crate and my ribs aching in a deep, steady pull. Malakai was already sitting up on the cot, elbows on his knees, staring at the floor between his boots. His colour was better than it had been last night. Not good. Just less like he might fold if he tried to stand too fast.“Thaddeus sent word,” he said before I could ask. He held up a small folded scrap of paper between two fingers. “Runner left it under the door an hour ago. Didn’t knock. Didn’t wait.”I sat up slowly. The papers were still tucked inside my shirt. They shifted against the bruise when I moved. I took the note from him and opened it. Thaddeus’s handwriting. Tight and short.Scouts back from the north pass. Humans massing. New tech. Not standard. Meet at the old watch post by midday if you can move. Don’t use the main road.I