“Touch her again,” I hear myself say, voice unrecognisable, low and feral, “and I will end you.”
His feet scramble against the floor as he tries to find leverage.
“You must be the one,” he chokes.
I don’t loosen my grip.
“The bite.”
Rage detonates behind my eyes.
“You think you can claim what isn’t yours,” he continues, even as oxygen thins.
“She isn’t yours,” I snarl.
“She is my daughter.”
“She isnotyour experiment.”
The words rip from me before I consciously decide to speak them, something slipping into place from what Lani had previously inferred.
Behind me, I hear the others enter – Kai swearing, Koa’s low growl, Finn’s measured steps cutting through the chaos.
But I don’t look away fromhim.
His gaze flicks to Lani briefly.
“Do you know what she is?” he demands hoarsely.
“Yes.”
“Do you know what you’ve triggered?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what she was meant to be?”
Something shifts in his expression then – not fear. Desperation.
“She was meant to be the solution,” he says. “The cure. The end of biological corruption.”
My grip tightens.
“She isnotbroken.”
“She is compromised,” he spits. “I will not let her be reduced to breeding stock.”
The words are enough.
I slam him harder against the wall, the house shaking with the impact.
Behind me, I feel Kai move toward Lani. Koa steps between her and the hallway. Finn kicks the syringe further out of reach.
“Sol.”
Her voice. Shaking. But present.
That single sound slices through the red haze just enough.