Chapter 53 Splintered
ZARA’S POV
The door slammed behind Kai with a force that made the whole room vibrate. Bottles that had already fallen scattered further, rolling across the floor like frightened insects seeking escape. I sat on the table, legs trembling, breath broken in uneven gulps, my body still throbbing from where he’d held me, claimed me and we could now say destroyed me.
My wolves were strangely quiet.
All of them.
That scared me more than anything.
I pulled my top back over my shoulders with shaking hands. My skin burned everywhere he had touched, like his fingerprints had scorched themselves into me. My lips were swollen, my thighs weak, my neck still bleeding lightly from where his alien edges had carved into me.
“What did you expect?”
A mocking voice echoed again.
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. Something in me knew that whatever that… thing was inside Kai, whatever version of him had taken over, wasn’t done. And the deeper truth, the one truth I didn’t want to face was simple:
Part of me didn’t want it to be done.
I had enjoyed that side of him with everything in me.
I slid off the table, almost falling to my knees. My legs barely held. I grabbed the edge of a shelf to steady myself and inhaled deeply.
Then I smelled it. Burnt metal. Electric air.
Kai’s scent, but distorted, like something ancient and mechanical had fused with him, twisting his essence into something unrecognizable. It seeped through the cracks of the door. He hadn’t gone far.
My heart slammed against my chest.
“Kai…” I whispered into the empty room, even though he was no longer in it.
I forced myself to move. One step. Two. My knees buckled again, and I caught the wall with my palm. A sharp sting raced from the fresh wound on my neck.
Everything inside me felt split open, not by the sex, but by that moment when he looked at me with silver eyes, and I knew…
He wasn’t lying.
He could have killed me.
And I didn’t care.
I sound crazy. I know.
That thought made bile rise in my throat.
I shoved it down and stepped into the hallway.
His scent led further down the east wing, past storage, past old classrooms, into the darker, abandoned lower chambers where students were never allowed to go.
A bad place.
A dangerous place.
A place filled with secrets.
My wolves whimpered inside me, anxious and conflicted.
“Where are you going?” one muttered.
“To him.”
“After he used you?” the other hissed.
“He didn’t use me,” I snapped back.
“Then what was that?”
I didn’t answer.
Because I didn’t know.
Or maybe I did know.
The path grew colder as I descended. The humming in the air grew louder. Lights flickered overhead. The deeper I walked, the stronger the weird electrical pull became like the atmosphere itself was glitching.
My head began to throb. My wolves scratched at my consciousness. Memories flickered, burning silver cities, screams in languages older than Earth, monstrous shapes flowing like liquid metal through the void.
I staggered and clutched the wall.
Not again.
Not now.
Stop.
A scream tore down the hallway.
Not Kai’s.
Mira’s.
My blood froze.
I sprinted the remaining distance and burst into the open space that had once been a training arena. The lights were dim, flickering in patterns that weren’t random more like pulsing codes.
Mira was pinned to the ground by a figure with silver eyes.
Kai.
No… not Kai.
Not the version I knew.
This one was colder. Emotionless. His irises were fully metallic, glowing faint silver with each pulse of the lights. His hand was wrapped around Mira’s throat, lifting her off the ground effortlessly.
Her legs kicked helplessly.
“Kai!” I screamed.
His head jerked up. He saw me and his grip tightened.
Mira choked.
“Release her,” I growled, my voice deeper than my own.
He tilted his head, analyzing me like a machine scanning data.
“Zara Night,” he said, his voice layered Kai’s beneath something alien.
“You are interfering with a directive.”
“What directive?” I asked, stepping closer.
Mira wheezed, eyes bulging.
Kai’s grip tightened again.
“The elimination of anomalies.”
“Let her go.”
"She's not an anomaly. She's your friend God damnit!"
He stared at me for a moment that stretched too long. Then, shockingly, he obeyed dropping Mira like she weighed nothing. She gasped, clutching her throat, crawling away from him desperately.
Kai didn’t move toward her again.
He moved toward me.
He stopped inches away, body tense, jaw clenched, eyes glowing like stars on the verge of imploding.
“Directive override,” he whispered.
His hand lifted, brushing my cheek.
My entire body jolted in response.
“You destabilize the programming.”
My breath hitched.
“Good.”
His eyelid twitched violently, like two versions of him were fighting inside his skull.
He stepped back suddenly, clutching his head, teeth gritted.
“No—no—NO”
His voice cracked, shifting between tones.
“Kai?” I reached for him.
He dropped to his knees, fingers clawing the ground as he trembled violently. Sparks...actual sparks...shot from his fingertips, scattering across the floor with sizzling sounds.
Then he screamed.
The sound was inhuman, very shredded, metallic, distorted. The arena lights exploded, bursting in showers of blue sparks.
“Kai!” I lunged toward him.
He jerked away, crawling backward like a wounded animal. His eyes were a chaotic storm of silver, black, silver, black... all glitching uncontrollably.
“Zara… leave,” he rasped.
“I can’t—hold—this”
“You don’t have to hold anything,” I whispered, touching his face.
Electricity surged between us again, slamming into my chest, but I didn’t pull away.
His breathing hitched.
“Why… do you keep coming back?” he choked.
“Because you’re not alone.”
Something inside him cracked.
He lunged forward, gripping my shirt, pressing his forehead against mine. His chest heaved in short, agonized breaths as he fought whatever war was happening inside him.
“Zara, if I lose control, if I hurt you”
“You won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
He was right.
I didn't know that.
But....
“I know you.” I said.
I cupped his face.
“I know your scent. I know your soul.”
He stiffened, eyes wide.
“My soul…”
He whispered the word like it was foreign. Forbidden.
“Zara, I don’t know if I still have one.”
“You do,” I insisted.
“I’ve felt it.”
His fingers trembled against my arms.
“You shouldn’t love a monster.”
My heart cracked.
“I never said I loved you.”
He looked at me like he could see every lie on my tongue.
“You feel it,” he whispered.
“And it terrifies you.”
Before I could speak
His eyes flashed bright silver.
Too bright.
Too fast.
His entire body jolted violently.
“No—no—not again” he gasped.
Then...
He vanished. Not physically. But mentally.
His posture changed, his expression turned dead.
His muscles relaxed with eerie precision, the alien side was back.
And this time…
It wasn’t confused, It was calm, It was fully in control.
I stepped back instinctively, It smiled at me...a cold, calculated smile.
“Hello again, Subject Night.”
My stomach dropped.
“Kai?” I whispered desperately.
“No,” the voice said smoothly.
“Not anymore.”
My blood froze.
“But don’t worry…”
It stepped closer, brushing my cheek with the back of its fingers.
“We’re going to have so much… fun.”
Before I could move.... It grabbed me, Lifted me....
And everything went pitch black.