The Tower Reversed: Back To 18 Novels & Stories

Cowardice looked like kindness when you turned it in the right light. His phone buzzed again—Ty, voice only. “Jack, I’ve got an anomaly. The burner Nox gave Stacey hit three towers and ghosted. The mid-hop tower services Embassy Row. The signature feels… curated.” “Curated how?” “Like someone’s showing us a card they want us to see.” “Keep the thread,” Jack said. “Don’t pull. Not yet.” “Copy.” He killed the call, and for a long breath let the cold push into his lungs until it cleared the static.

It was as if her stupidity fed his ego. One night, around 9:00 pm, I came back from the library and noticed that Sienna still wasn't in the dorm. I figured she was out on another date and probably wouldn't come back at all. Just then, my phone rang, and I saw that it was her. I didn't answer. After all, I knew it couldn't be anything good. After trying to reach me three times, Sienna gave up and dialed for Jessica instead. Jessica was in the middle of a game and answered the call without even looking. "It's not my problem if you don't come back. I don't have time for this."

“Find another way or we do it together. Those are the only options.” Five seconds. I looked at her. At the woman who had turned around after four minutes. At everything. “Together,” I said. The window peaked. **** I activated the reversal fully. Not the partial hold I’d been maintaining — the full opening, the complete inversion of the outward channel, everything I had pointed in the wrong direction from what thirty years of binding had made my body want to do. The chamber responded. The white runes surged — brighter than before, brighter than the convergence had made them, the specific brightness of a system being run in reverse generating heat it wasn’t designed to manage.

"She's bluffing…or hoping we panic." Lisa rose, releasing Grey's hand with a squeeze that said wait. Her voice was steady as she approached the intercom panel. "What do you want, Tessy? The leak's live. Moore's crumbling. You're too late for containment." A chuckle filtered through the speaker, tinny and edged. "Late? Darling, I'm the schedule. The tower falls at dusk, as planned. But you three are loose ends–variables I need to recalibrate. Open the hatch, and I'll make it quick. New deal: immunity for you and Grey, Maya walks with a severance package. Refuse, and I bury you here with the rest of the obsolete tech."

My instincts still twitched with the presence of the relic, but it didn’t claw across my nerves like last year. Students collided around me, younger years bubbling over with laughter as they righted robes and straightened cuffs. Someone stumbled on the front steps, laughter pealing as they righted themselves. Normal. Fucking normal. Normal in a way I don’t think any of us knew would be possible one year ago. I slowed to a stop near the center of the courtyard, raising my head to drink in Obscura one last moment before commencement. The towers. The wards. The students. Together. It wasn’t restored because it had never fallen. It stood because we fought to bring it back.

Ethel lowered her voice as she scolded Elara, "Elara! Is this how a mother behaves? Is this how a Mrs. Fisher is supposed to act?" At that moment, Bambi's voice filled the auditorium through the microphone. "The Celestial Crane Tower stands atop Skyspike Hill, overlooking the Silver Serpent River. The main tower is designed in a unique octagonal structure, with five tiers of flying eaves and a spired golden roof supported by 72 intricately carved pillars..." Elara turned her head sharply toward the stage. Despite the teleprompter's blackout, Bambi continued her speech with poise. The parents in the audience murmured in amazement.

I tried to force a light laugh as I walked past her. “I think you need it, the alpha rejected in front of everyone and he wants me now.” She bragged immediately she grabbed my hands. I stared at her, still shocked and hurt by everything happening, I couldn’t believe she would do this and I didn’t know why she did. “I can’t talk to you right now.” I muttered weakly. My whole body trembled as I made my way home slowly, my mind was spinning. What was actually going on with me? In a span of hours, Nathan rejected me and my ex best friend is kissing and laying claims to someone who was once my mate.

Quickly waking up, the shocked Rey couldn’t help but exclaim, “A-ah! Mr. Crawford! You’re finally out? I’ve been waiting for ages!” “…Ages? I’m pretty sure I’ve been in there for half an hour at most,” replied Gerald as he raised a slight brow. Then again, Rey wasn’t one to lie. Could the time in the tower move differently compared to the time in the outside world…? After all, as they said, ‘a day in heaven was equivalent to a year in the human world’. With that in mind, who’s to say that the tower didn’t function following those rules? While it wasn’t completely out of the question, it still seemed rather magical to Gerald.

ARAHEEN She was surprised to see the Crescent Tower in ruins—unlike the Grand Castle, which had already been restored to its pristine state when they flew over it moments ago. “You’re not going to repair the tower?” she asked as they dismounted. “Lord Zephyr has no intention of doing so,” Theobald said, feeding the bird with a large python he pulled from a satchel strapped to the mount’s side. “He said the tower is merely a symbol of the High Council’s inflated sense of superiority. That they like watching their enemies suffer for their own amusement.”

Morgan's POV: Its been three days since Nova's market price began it's steady plummet to hell. "We have acquired the last of the Bloom establishments." In three days, it was done. at first it seemed like it was surreal, surely there's no way it could have been this easy, right? "Finally. She was being stubborn." I clicked my tongue in annoyance. The person over the phone sighed softly. "Yes, she was. But she can't be stubborn forever when her market value was going to hell."