STARLIGHT UNBOUND by Deus Ex Machina - HTML preview

STARLIGHT UNBOUND

At some point, I have to tell her.

She ’d notice eventually. She always did.

Lyra was leaning over the table, countering one of Corin’s suggestions with sharp precision. Her presence steadied the room, grounding everyone in the chaos.

He imagined trying to explain it to her. The visions. The voice. The feeling of the universe unraveling around him.

What if she thinks I’m losing it?

What if she doesn ’t understand?

Anxiety filled him, persistent and unwanted. He pushed it down. Not now. Not yet.

Lyra turned, her sharp green eyes locking onto him.

“Lucien?”

He blinked, forcing himself to focus. “I’m fine. Just thinking.”

She studied him. “Stay with me, okay?”

The words hit deeper than she probably intended.

Lucien swallowed, nodding. “I’m here.”

But even as he said it, a cold truth settled inside him.

He wasn ’t sure how much longer that would be true.

Because part of him wasn’t here at all.

Part of him was slipping —toward the stars, toward whatever lay beyond.

***

It was the early hours of the next morning. Everything still pitch black. Lucien stirred.

It started as a swirl in his solar plexus, a sensation he had felt before but had tried to ignore.

He was lying on his stomach with the hands above him tucked under the pillow. At first, it was subtle – a gentle pulse, like a heartbeat too deep to be his own. But then it grew stronger, sharper, building into something that felt alive.

He gasped, his body tensing against the mattress.

Lyra felt it instantly. Her hand, resting on his back, sensed the first ripple – a shudder that coursed through him like the echo of a distant earthquake.

“Lucien?”

Her voice was filled with concern, but Lucien couldn ’t answer. The swirl in his body was rising, spinning faster and faster, the energy coiling like a spring

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