The mechanical spider’s eyes didn't just glow; they flickered with a rhythmic, binary pulse that felt like a needle scratching at the back of my brain. I watched as it scurried over a blade of grass, its tiny legs making a dry, clicking sound that felt far too loud in the sudden silence of the clearing.
"Lyra? What is that?" Ryker’s voice was strained. He took a step toward me, but the moment he entered the radius of my new, abyssal shadow, he winced, his golden eyes dimming as if the very air around me were a vacuum for his Alpha strength.
"A scout," I whispered, my voice sounding like the wind through a graveyard.
I didn't reach for the light. I didn't have to. I simply looked at the machine, and the void within me reached out. The black patterns on my skin pulsed once, and the spider
