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"No," I whispered. "No, that's impossible." My voice cracked, a tremor running through me that had nothing to do with the cavern’s temperature. "You're wrong."

But the certainty I wanted wasn't there. Because I genuinely didn't know who I was. The massive, horrifying scale of what he was saying threatened to pull the rug out from under reality completely.

I stared at him, my heart hammering against my ribs as a cold dread settled over me. "Why? If you hate humans so much, why the hell would you want to call more of them here? And how do you even know I can get it to work? You’re basing all of this on a few broken tablets!"

"Because when they arrive, thinking they have found a lost lamb, my warriors will be waiting in the shadows," Geth growled, a genocidal madness twisting his features. "We will slaughter whoever steps off those vessels. We will rip the flesh from their bones, harvest their skymetal, and steal their technology. With their weapons, I will wipe this entire planet clean of the canopy filth. The tree-dwellers will burn, and I will finally rule everything from the bedrock to the sky."

"You're guessing," I pushed back, the panic bleeding heavily into my tone as I looked around the terrifying space. "You don't actually know if I have that blood in me. What if you're wrong? What if I'm just like Tyler? Just a normal human who fell out of the sky?"

Geth’s grin turned harsh, a dark, absolute certainty radiating from his massive frame. "I do not need to read your medical logs to know, star-meat. I can feel its resonance in my very bones. But even if I am wrong, and you are not the one..." He leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a horrifying whisper. "The console will know. And if a false bloodline touches the bio-lock, the feedback will rip the energy straight from your chest. It will kill you where you stand. Either way, you will serve your purpose."

The sheer scale of his madness made my blood run cold. I gritted my teeth and planted my feet firmly on the grated floor. "I’ll die before I touch a single machine for you. I won't do it."

Before the final word could even leave my lips, Sila stepped up directly behind me.

"We have our ways of making you compliant, star-meat," she hissed in my ear.

Her hand clamped down onto my shoulder, and with a vicious, fluid motion, she dug her long, blackened claws deep into my flesh. I gasped, a sharp, white-hot burst of agony tearing through my shoulder as the claws pierced my skin. My knees buckled, a muffled cry escaping my lips as I winced violently against the pain. Hot, thick blood instantly began to bloom, trickling down my arm.

Geth watched, his chest heaving as a heavy, dark shudder racked his massive frame. He stepped closer, leaning down until his face was inches from my wounded shoulder. With a slow, grotesque movement, he stretched out his tongue and licked a streak of my warm blood straight from my skin.

He closed his scarlet eyes, exhaling a long, trembling breath, a look of profound, sick pleasure washing over his brutal features as he fed on my pain.

"Delicious," he whispered, his eyes snapping open and burning with a renewed, terrifying hunger. "Let us see how much more you can bleed before you find your obedience."

Chapter 61

Kaelen-Thul

The world’s underground roots did not welcome life; they tolerated it only until it suffocated.

The air down here was thick with the rot of a thousand dead seasons and the stinging, synthetic bile of Vakra industry. It coated the back of my throat, a grey film that choked out the familiar, clean scent of the canopy. But I didn't slow down. The calloused soles of my bare feet struck the damp bedrock in a ruthless, unyielding rhythm, my twin daggers already unholstered, the skymetal blades gleaming with a cold, predatory light in the dim phosphorescence of the weeping stone.

Behind me, Toren and Mara kept pace with heavy measured breaths, their leather armour rustling softly against the walls. They were elite vanguard warriors, trained to move like ghosts through the highest branches, but down here in the dark, we were forcing ourselves into the parasite’s territory.

"The structural markings are shifting," Toren whispered from behind my left shoulder, his voice barely a breath against the damp air. "This isn't just a natural fissure anymore. The stones are carved. We're breaching the outer perimeter of the iron ward."

"Let them carve it," I growled, my jaw locking so tight my teeth ground together. "It only means their skulls will be easier to find."

"Kaelen, temper the fire," Mara cautioned from the rear, her voice sharp but low as she kept her eyes on the shadows behind us. "The remaining vanguard who followed us down into the fissures won't be too far behind. They should be able to follow our trail, but if we trip an alarm before they bridge the gap, the Vakra will collapse the tunnels on top of Lyra just to spite us."

"Every second she breathes their toxic air is a second I am failing to protect her," I snapped, not breaking stride. My chest heaved, a wild, suffocating pressure expanding behind my ribs.

We pressed deeper, the descent steepening until the natural rock completely gave way to cold, oxidised plates of ancient metal. The low thrum of subterranean machinery began to vibrate through the skin of my feet, a mechanical heartbeat that felt like an insult to the living pulse of the forest above.

Then, something shifted.

A draft blew up from a massive structural archway ahead, carrying the heavy stink of sulfur, scorched wire, and something else.

My footsteps froze. My lungs locked.

The world around me narrowed to a pinpoint. The tunnel’s ambient green light seemed to bleed into a dark, violent crimson. My nostrils flared, drawing in the draft again, desperate, wild, praying to the Ancients that my senses were deceiving me.

They weren't.

Through the chemical filth and the rot, a scent pierced straight through my chest. Sweet, brilliant, and violently hot. It was the scent of the stars, the scent of the canopy sun, the scent that had rewritten my very soul the moment I claimed her.

But it wasn't the scent of her skin. It was the copper, iron-rich sting of her life force.