The silence didn't last long.
The glowing orb pulsed once, then exploded in a silent wave of energy that slammed into my chest and knocked me backwards. I hit the floor hard, gasping, the breath sucked clean from my lungs.
The shadowy figure—my mirror, my not-self—was gone. No trace. No whisper. Just the lingering weight of its voice echoing in my mind: Found you.
And then the alarms started.
Blaring red light flooded the underground chamber, slicing through the dark like sirens underwater. A shrill, unfamiliar tone screamed through the tunnels—not the usual drill alert. This was deeper. More primal. The kind of sound that said something had gone wrong. Irreversibly, catastrophically wrong.
I scrambled to my feet, dizzy. My skin tingled all over, and when I glanced at my hands, gold-blue energy was still crackling beneath the surface, like my aura had caught fire and didn't know how to go out.
Above me, I could hear boots pounding on metal. Distant shouts.
