The darkness did not feel like an empty space; it felt like a weight. After years of living in the constant buzz of data, the silence I had created through the global EMP blast felt like it was pressing against my eardrums until they were on the verge of bursting. There were no whispers from the cables, no pulse of the Dark Symphony, no remnants of Monarch’s voice.
There was only the sound of Kael’s jagged breathing beside me.
Elian? Her voice sounded impossibly small in the middle of this suddenly tech-blind world. What... what did you do to the sky?
I could not answer immediately. My nerves felt charred. The golden energy that had been crawling across my arms and chest had vanished, leaving behind a bone-chilling cold. I tried to trigger Data Synesthesia, but for the first time since
