There's a half-second of absolute silence.
My breath catches in my throat.
Waiting.
Listening.
Praying that no alarm triggers, that his biometric monitor doesn't register the failure, that he dropsquietly—
Crack.
The sound is sharp and wet, like a branch snapping under pressure.
Because his entire upper body has locked.
Frozen.
Paralyzed.
His arms hang useless at his sides, the sprawling, towering frame locked in place, the bio-engineered muscle matrix completely cascading into failure.
He drops.
Not slowly.
Not with any kind of grace.
He justdrops, his knees buckling, his frame hitting the marble floor with a dull, heavy thud.
Like a stone statue.
I stare down at him, my heart pounding, adrenaline flooding my system.
Holy shit.
It worked.
It actually fucking worked.
Cyprian is beside me in an instant, his hand on my shoulder, his amber veins blazing gold.
"Are you hurt?" he asks, his voice low and urgent.
"No. I'm fine. I'm—" I look down at the frozen enforcer. "Holy shit, Cyprian. It worked."
"Yes."
"I just dropped a two-hundred-and-fifty-pound bio-engineered enforcer with one hit."
"Yes."
"That's insane."
"It is effective."
I laugh.
It's breathless and shaky and completely unhinged.
