The lights didn’t come back all at once.
They returned in pulses, like the facility itself was breathing through pain, systems rebooting under strain. White glare faded to gray. Gray sharpened into edges. The first thing I heard was my own heartbeat, loud and unruly, thudding against my ears like it wanted out.
Then the building screamed.
Not alarms.
Not sirens.
Steel tearing somewhere deep in the structure. A long, grinding shriek that traveled through the floor and straight up my legs, rattling my teeth. Dust rained from the ceiling. Someone swore. Someone else shouted orders that overlapped and collapsed into noise.
I lowered the relay slowly.
My hands were steady now.
That scared me more than the shaking ever had.
“They’re here,” Seraphine said, already moving, weapon up, stan
