MY CRUEL PROTECTOR
his voice was a thunderclap.
The power surge didn't just save him; it restarted the building. Above us, the old lightbulbs in the hallway exploded into life. The elevators groaned. The streetlights outside turned Ozyorsk into a city of neon ghosts.
But the price was paid instantly.
Incoming, the Sovereign whispered in my mind.
I looked up through the ceiling, my vision piercing through the layers of concrete and lead. High above, in the cold vacuum of space, a Cónclave satellite shifted its mirrors. A kinetic rod—a pillar of solid tungsten—was already in flight, falling toward our coordinates at Mach ten.