The heat was a physical weight, a suffocating blanket of gasoline and burning rubber that tried to lung-crawl its way into my chest. The explosion hadn't just destroyed Victor’s hangar; it had vaporized the last shred of the woman I used to be.
I lay on the scorched concrete, my ears ringing with a high-pitched whine that refused to fade. Through the swirling black smoke, the world looked fractured broken into millions of glowing blue pixels.
"Elena! Get up!"
Victor’s voice sounded like it was coming from the bottom of a well. I felt his hands on my shoulders, shaking me, but his touch felt distant, like a memory of skin on skin. My focus was locked on the indigo veins pulsing under my own wrists. The "Hidden Memory" wasn't just data anymore; it was my blood. It was my heartbeat.
I rol
