Chapter 27: The Unseen Price
last update2025-01-15 02:22:22

Aiden’s POV

The air around us pulsed with an almost electric tension, the remnants of the shattered world flickering like static on a broken screen. Time felt like it was folding in on itself, compressing the moment into something too tight, too sharp.

Zane stood before me, his eyes unyielding, his presence filling the space with a weight I couldn’t ignore. Mila hovered just out of reach, her expression twisted with defiance and despair.

“I can save you, Aiden,” Zane said, his voice calm but laced with an undeniable edge of urgency. “I can save everything.”

“How?” I asked, my throat dry. My hands itched to grip something solid, something real, but there was nothing—just the weight of the device in my palm, a promise of destruction and salvation all at once.

Zane’s gaze didn’t waver. “We stop the merge. But to do that, you’ll need to give something back to The Abyss.”

I swallowed hard. “What do you mean, ‘give something back’?”

Zane stepped closer, and I felt the heat of his presence
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