STARLIGHT UNBOUND by Deus Ex Machina - HTML preview

STARLIGHT UNBOUND

routine.

But it wasn ’t.

Lyra ’s voice curled through his thoughts like smoke.

“You feel it, don’t you?”

By mid-morning, the tightness in his chest had grown, a slow, creeping pressure that refused to dissipate. With a quiet sigh, Lucien excused himself and made his way to the courtyard smoke break area, hoping the fresh air would cut through the static in his head.

The courtyard was still —its usual gathering of employees absent, leaving only the sounds of the city and drones beyond the perimeter. Lucien rested against the railing, fishing a cigarette from the packet with fingers that trembled more than he wanted to admit.

***

The first drag hit his lungs with a familiar burn, a thin ribbon of smoke curling upward into the pale sky. The absence of the office noise was soothing, a temporary balm against the restless churn inside him.

Lucien closed his eyes.

Her scent drifted into his senses.

Cigarette smoke —sharp and acrid—laced with the raw, synthetic scent of paint clinging to her clothes. The memory unfolded with startling clarity, so vivid it coated the air, thick and undeniable, as if she were standing beside him again.

"You feel it, don ’t you? That pull? It’s already in you."

"You know what you want."

Her voice, soft yet with authority, twisted around him, seeping under his skin, curling into the empty spaces inside him.

But this time, it wasn ’t only the words.

The memory exploded inside his mind, not like a recollection, but a complete reliving, a collapse of time and space that overtook him completely.

The colors surged first —deep reds, molten golds, shadowed blues, the swirling fire of the starburst painting alive and moving, pulsing with a rhythm he could almost feel. The hues varied behind his closed eyelids, too bright, too real.

Then the sounds —the soft scrape of her shoes as she stepped closer, the low murmur of the gallery fading around them, leaving only her breath against his skin. So close. He could feel her warmth, the electric vibrations in the air

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