STARLIGHT UNBOUND by Deus Ex Machina - HTML preview
Download the book in PDF, ePub, Kindle for a complete version.
STARLIGHT UNBOUND
Lyra didn ’t take her eyes off Lucien. “You don’t have to decide right now. But think about it. Really think about it. If you walk away..., can you live with what you know? ”
He could feel all their eyes on him, waiting.
“I’ll think about it.”
Lyra ’s lips curled into a small, knowing smile. “That’s all I’m asking.”
Lucien turned, his fingers brushing against the disk in his pocket as he walked toward the exit. The rusted door groaned open, spilling him back into the night.
And still, the words followed him.
“If you walk away from this, can you live with what you know?”
***
Lucien walked through the darkened streets, the city colder and more distant than ever. The towering glow of the central spire loomed above, fractured and false, its light pulsing like a dying star. An illusion of stability.
Lyra ’s voice clear in his mind, soft but insistent.
“Can you live with what you know?”
His hand drifted to his pocket, fingers brushing against the calling card. The constellation of dots pressed against his leg, a silent reminder of the choice he hadn ’t yet made. It felt heavier now, as if waiting for an answer he wasn’t sure he could give.
He glanced up. The sky stretched beyond the towering skyline, the stars barely visible through the haze of artificial light. They should have been guiding him, but instead, they shone weakly against the city ’s oppressive glow.
Lucien ’s breath misted in the cold air. “The universe is a number... infinitesimally big and small... and here I am, stuck walking the line between.”
The words tasted distant, an echo of something he couldn ’t quite grasp.
He kept moving, each step dragging beneath his indecision. The city thrummed around him, transport lines and the low chatter of unseen voices merging into a dull, ceaseless rhythm.
Every path forward felt like a trap. Every moment, a choice he wasn ’t ready to make.
But the pull towards something he did not know remained.
And deep down, he knew —turning back was no longer an option.
***
89