Page 12 of Blood Sings (Beyond the Gloom #1)

The robotic arm glided over my body like a satin sheet, leaving a track of goosebumps. It tickled in places I’d rather not discuss, especially with Selena attacking the keyboard as if it had personally insulted her entire bloodline. I kept a straight face, curious about what had crawled up her ass this time. A bad date, or perhaps a stale bottle of blood?

“You’re done,” she snapped.

Oh, the joy of being around her in her work mode—about as pleasant as a stake through the heart.

The machine slunk back into the ceiling with a soft whir, and I hopped off the examination table, my gown fluttering like gossamer wings. I was about to make a quip about feeling like a half-wrapped birthday present when her voice carved through the silence, thick with worry and something darker.

“A, Harbinger isn’t a joke.”

Here we go again.

“Seriously, you’re caught up in this, too?” I shot her a pointed look over my shoulder. “It’s just a silly ghost story. Probably concocted by projectors looking to dodge their duties. What’s next, the boogeyman hiding under our beds? I didn’t take you as one for conspiracy.”

The reinforced glass door hissed shut behind me, sealing me—and my decidedly un-queenly posterior—in the changing room. The sudden shift in air pressure made my ears pop, and I wiggled a finger inside to ease the discomfort.

Her voice crackled over the intercom, the static failing to mask the tremor in her words. “Someone died, Aurora. I knew him. Projector Olaru and I had a brief fling back in our third year at the Academy.”

A chill raced down my spine, as if Death himself had traced a finger along my back. “And why am I finding out about this now?” I demanded, popping the last button of my medical robe.

“Didn’t think it was relevant. We barely knew each other—”

The intercom buzzed and hummed as Selena fed the Bloodthorn Nexus with new settings and guild information. Without access to real-time sensor data, every detail mattered. Slipping into my leather suit, I zipped it halfway when her voice broke through the static again.

“You’re probably right.” She huffed. “Damaging projectors? I mean, come on. I know how rumors work, but Projector Olaru—Pfft, what’s this doing here? Hang on.” A flurry of keystrokes later, she continued as if nothing had happened. “He walked into broad daylight, A. One day, everything was fine, and then—POOF! He was gone.”

“It’s true then? He chose death by sunlight? I thought the Commander was pulling my leg,” I blurted and stooped to lace my knee-high boots.

“Dead serious. Hey, want me to upload a scan of the archived map? You never know, it might prove useful.”

“Yes, please,” I responded, eager for any information that might give us an edge.

Unhooking my coat, I draped it over my shoulders and stepped back into the room. Selena’s lab straddled the line between sterile modernity and a mad scientist’s lair. A state-of-the-art medical bay lurked behind a privacy screen on the right, a bank of monitors hummed on the left, and sleek metal counters cluttered with vials of eerily glowing liquids and half-dissected Nexuses hid the rest of the space.

“Anyway,” she said, “the healers received orders to use the Blood Transcendence to get the truth from him. Resignations aside, word gets out when someone kills themselves.”

I perched on the edge of her desk, swinging my legs. “And what were the results?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Who knows?”

“What do you mean, ‘who knows’?”

Selena extracted the needle from the Bloodthorn Nexus, disposed of it in the bin, and returned it to its stand. Her chair creaked loudly as she turned to face me.

“They couldn’t bring him back,” she admitted, raising her ‘life’s-too-short-for-bad-blood’ mug to her lips. The liquid sloshed, muffling her words. “No abnormalities registered in his Nexus. That’s it.”

But that surely couldn’t be the whole truth. The Blood Transcendence was the most powerful and complex, arcane spell, a gift from Derzelas himself. Even Selena, who had trained for decades, acknowledged that taming immortal blood might mean sacrificing her firstborn’s soul.

She took another sip, and I waited, anxiety knotting in my stomach.

Selena’s mind worked like a meticulous filing system, each piece of information carefully categorized and linked. Asking her a question was like pulling a thread—you had to wait for the whole tapestry to unravel before you got to the part you wanted. Rushing her wasn’t just ineffective, it was counterproductive. Interruptions threw her off course. She’d start all over again, oblivious to your mounting frustration, as she methodically worked her way back to the point.

So I swallowed my irritation, reminding myself that good things come to those who don’t strangle their best friends.

“But the Blood Transcendence can bring any immortal back, right?” I eventually pressed.

Selena clenched her jaw. “Theoretically, yes. Every time. But only if there’s blood left.”

A wheel squeaked.

She shifted, investigating briefly before continuing in a clinically detached tone, “They couldn’t find a single drop to harmonize with his brain. The reports state he was completely exsanguinated.”

I recoiled. Projector Olaru had defied every survival instinct to let the sun reduce him to ash.

“God, he didn’t just want to die,” I gasped. “He made damn sure of it.”

Commander Enescu’s warning rang in my thoughts, chilling me to the bone. ‘ The manner in which he damages his projectors…’

But that was impossible. No outlier could harm their commanding officer. A pureblood sleepwalking into sunlight was more likely than a mixed-breed overpowering an immortal.

We are invincible.

Aren’t we?

The implications squeezed the breath out of me. If Black Guild’s outliers turned on us, and we couldn’t control their minds fast enough… They could tear us apart. Leave us to the sun’s mercy. My knees locked, muscles seizing.

“They should’ve brought Harbinger in and looked deeper,” Selena hissed, oblivious to my mounting panic. “Picked his brain apart and investigated.”

I shuddered internally. Without a doubt, were she in the healers’ ranks at the time, she would have eagerly volunteered for the task herself.

A heavy silence enveloped us, broken only by the soft hum of machinery. Selena’s upper lip curled into a sneer, her voice dripping with malice. “You know what Harbinger said when they told him his projector died?”

A lump formed in my throat, dread seeping into my bones.

“ ‘Good riddance. Next time, send someone who can keep up.’ ” Selena’s face contorted with rage, her fist slamming onto the desk with such force that metal and glassware rattled. “That heartless bastard! The halfbloods don’t give a shit about us, A. Not one fucking bit. Remember that whenever you’re tempted to take their side.”

“Don’t worry,” I rasped. “No one understands their hostility better than I do. You forget, I’ve spent my entire life working with them.”

With my hands supporting me on the table, I stared at the iron-rimmed ceiling squares. “The Sparrows trusted me to lead in our fight against a common enemy. I’m not na?ve—I don’t expect the Black Guild to be as cooperative, but I won’t submit to them, either,” I said, trying to muster conviction I didn’t truly feel.

A vision of Olaru’s surely excruciating final moments flashed in my mind, and I couldn’t shake the image of my own ashes scattered by the wind. My pulse quickened. The prospect of meeting Harbinger wasn’t as exhilarating anymore.

Selena sighed, running a hand through her raven hair, her golden earcuffs catching the light. “Harbinger isn’t just dangerous, A,” she muttered. “He’s unpredictable. And that makes him lethal.”

A gulp echoed in my throat. “We have fifty years to figure him out,” I said, more to reassure myself than her. “That should be enough time.”

Sel’s shoulders slumped as she wheeled herself to her desk, her fingers shaking over a stack of papers. “A, there’s something I need to tell you,” she murmured, eyes fixed on the dark screen before her. “I kept quiet because you were always within reach of emergency care. But now that we’re venturing beyond the walls…”

The unspoken ‘with no prospect of return’ hung heavily in the air.

“Damnit, Selena! Spit it out!” I snapped, clenching my fists in frustration.

She turned to me, a deep furrow etched into her forehead. “The Bloodthorn Nexus…” Her words softened to a murmur. “It’s not safe. If you ask me, it’s a ticking time bomb.”

My hand shot to the back of my neck, fingers tracing the familiar spot where the needle had pierced my skin countless times. “What? But they said… They promised it was safe!”

Selena’s laugh was bitter, hollow. “The studies are ‘open to interpretation,’” she said, air quoting with her fingers. “You know how it is. The reports say one thing, but the reality?” She shook her head, irritation written on her face.

Raging fury poured through me. I jumped to my feet, sending papers fluttering to the floor. “Those lying bastards! They’re risking our lives to save face?”

“Even if the Nexus has flaws, the Republic would never admit it.”

“To hell with their pride!” I snarled, pacing the lab. “The real danger isn’t the Stalkers, it’s our own damn arrogance!”

Selena flinched, worrying her lower lip with her teeth. “They made me take an oath, A,” she whispered. “I wanted to tell you, but I… I couldn’t.”

The room felt suffocating, closing in around me. I remembered her reaction when I first told her about my Transpection with the Sparrows—the panic in her eyes, the tremor in her voice. How had I missed it?

“Hey,” I said, squeezing her shoulder, my anger still simmering beneath the surface. “It’s not your fault. I should have seen how worried you were for me. But damn it, Sel, I wish you had found a way to tell me sooner.”

Then again, who would I be now without my time spent with the Sparrows? Would I have chosen the risk of serving with them?

She covered my hand and gave it a gentle pat, folding her lips into a taut line. Then, like a switch flipping inside her, her expression shifted. Selena wasn’t one to dwell in self-pity. “You know,” she said, her voice taking on that familiar clinical tone, “it was actually a halfblood who pioneered the Bloodthorn Nexus. Found the exact spot in the brain to stimulate.”

My eyebrows shot up. “A halfblood? How on earth did that happen?”

Selena wheeled herself to the small device on its stand. The Nexus, connected by a web of wires to an information terminal, looked ominous despite its innocuous appearance. “Like any mad scientist pushing boundaries,” she explained, amusement slipping into her voice. “He believed linking his consciousness to the world’s collective void could grant him immortality.”

“Derzelas Almighty,” I breathed. “Did he succeed?”

Sel barked out a laugh. “God, no. Can you imagine trying to harmonize with every mortal across the world, all at once, at a rate pushed to the theoretical maximum?” She made a dry clicking noise with her tongue. “His brain ended up so fried that even the Blood Transcendence couldn’t keep him conscious for more than a few minutes each hour.”

The imagined pain made me wince. Sometimes, just having the Sparrows in my head gave me a monstrous headache. “So that’s how they found out about his research?”

“Bingo,” she confirmed, spinning her chair to face me. “You can call him a madman if you want. Adds a bit of flair to the story.”

“Selena,” I chided, though a small smile pulled at my lips.

She rolled her eyes dramatically. “Fine, fine. No more name-calling. Want the gritty details, or should I spare you the nightmares?”

I set my shoulders straight. “Tell me everything. If I’m going to be using this thing again, I need to know what I’m getting into.”

Selena’s eyes gleamed with the usual scientific fascination she wore whenever she had a breakthrough. “Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. In theory, Blood Manipulation gives us complete control over a mortal’s mind, like a simple seize-and-grab move,” she explained, mimicking the action with her hands. “They’re aware of our intrusion, yet powerless against it. Remember seeing the guards use it on the halfbloods when you were a kid?”

“Vaguely,” I admitted, a memory surfacing of me sneaking into the Eternal Blood National Park, despite Father’s warnings. I’d seen officers forcing mixed-breeds into military trucks, their faces blank and compliant.

“The Bloodthorn Nexus is a whole new ballgame. When you harmonize, you’re not just controlling—you’re accessing their consciousness, opening up their minds. It’s more… subtle. They don’t even realize you’re there.”

Her jeweled black irises caught the light as she cast a sidelong glance my way. “Of course, you don’t have to take over if you don’t want to. This is where frequency comes into play,” she continued. “You can discreetly tune into one of their senses, and their awareness sort of fades into the background. But you’re familiar with this, aren’t you?”

I couldn’t help but laugh, the sound surprisingly cathartic. “Come on, Sel. I’ve Transpected, what, a dozen times? Plus, you gave me hell every time I mentioned it.”

Her smirk expanded into a primal grin, all teeth. “I should have told Elena. Let her knock some sense into you.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” I mock gasped.

“Keep testing me, and I might. No matter how much we hate her,” she parried, her narrowed eyes daring me to push back.

If Elena ever discovered I was risking my life for the outliers, she’d pull me from the army faster than I could say ‘blood.’

I raised my right hand in surrender. “Truce, okay?”

She snorted, dismissing me with a hiss—rude, but comfortingly familiar.

“Anyway,” she continued, “we still don’t fully understand the complexity behind the Nexus. We speculate. The gap between ‘safe’ and ‘probably safe’ is as deep as a tunnel to the Underworld.”

She paused, threatening me with her index finger. “The Bloodthorn Nexus has a protective feature now. It should be secure as is. However,” her voice sank to a grumble, “if you try to bypass it to fully take over a mortal’s conscience, you could overload your brain. Harmonizing at the maximum synchronization rate might ‘stimulate’ you beyond return.”

My breath hitched.

By Derzelas’ eternal fires, trust Selena to soften the blow.

A strange, almost liquid-like feeling washed over me, and I gripped her desk to keep from melting into a puddle on the floor.

How many times had I skirted death when Transpecting?

Anger flared inside me, boiling my blood and making my heart gallop. Was the Republic’s ‘advanced technology’ built on such shaky ground? Did our government even realize how vulnerable we were? We hid behind a false sense of invincibility, wrongly accusing those who shielded us from the Stalkers, when we didn’t even have a safe means of defending ourselves. And now, the Republic aimed to cut the warfare budget—the very lifeline protecting our nation?

What in the Underworld was wrong with them?

Selena’s impatient taps on my thigh snapped me out of my spiraling thoughts. “A, you need to calm down,” she croaked, concern furrowing her brows. “You look like you’re about to set the lab on fire.”

I took a slow, measured breath, trying to rein myself in. “Sorry, it’s just… How can the Republic be so reckless ?”

“I know,” she said. “But losing our heads won’t help. Remember Luminita?”

Despite my anger, I snorted. “What, when she snatched my crush during sophomore year?”

“Yeah, and remember how worked up you got? It almost got us expelled,” she muttered, a grin stretching her lips. “In hindsight, you dodged a bullet. That guy turned out to be a total jerk.”

“True,” I conceded, feeling some tension leave my body. No one liked being wronged, but I had a tendency to take things too far when pursuing justice.

“So, back to the Nexus,” I said and refocused on the matter at hand. “Wasn’t this your father’s research? “

“Not exactly,” she replied, opening the top drawer and clearing away odds and ends. “He continued the work the halfblood started. It became a team effort. The basic ideas and theories came from other researchers, his colleagues.”

The screen flickered to life, and I found myself transfixed by the neon-green loading bar. It had almost finished overwriting the Bloodthorn Nexus.

“Any idea who the mixed-breed researcher was?” I asked.

A soft beep announced the task was done.

Selena unplugged the Nexus, wound the cable around her fingers, and tossed it into a nearby wired basket. “The Republic wiped his records. We don’t even know which camp they sent him to, let alone who he was.”

“Then ask your father,” I said flatly.

Her head shot up, her eyebrows arching toward her hairline. “Ask him what, exactly? ‘Daddy, we’re joining the halfbloods on the battlefront to save Aurora from a crappy marriage. Can you guarantee the Bloodthorn Nexus won’t scramble her brain?’”

“Valid point.” I smirked.

“They’re ready,” she said, placing the harmonization device in the silver container alongside the Astral Visor.

The box’s interior was soft and padded, with a thumbprint lock matching the Nexus’s black crystal. It smelled faintly of jasmine mixed with Selena’s favorite synthetic blood, which I’d spilled in my haste to join the Sparrows on patrol.

“Listen,” she said, her voice wavering slightly as she closed the lid and pushed the box toward me. “We don’t know the long-term side effects. I couldn’t care less about the halfbloods, but if something happens to you, I…” Her voice caught.

Before she could finish, I sprang to my feet, nearly toppling her desk as I wrapped my arms around her neck.

“I promise not to fry my brain.” I chuckled, planting kisses on her cheeks. “Not now, not ever. There’s no one else I’d rather annoy for the next half-century. Thank you.” I wanted to add ‘my confidante, sister, better half,’ but held back, knowing Selena’s gag reflex was sensitive to too much sugar.

Trying to break free, she grimaced like a blood store vendor disapproving of kids touching her goods. “Yeah, yeah. Just remember, I warned you,” she retorted, fighting a smile that was slowly winning. “More than once.”

With Selena by my side, I could face anything—and felt invincible.

I tightened my hold, sensing her resistance crumble. “I hear you, Sel. Loud and clear,” I murmured into her hair.

From the sanctuary of my room, I pushed open the arched window, inhaling the crisp dawn air. Eastward, the sky bled pink and purple, casting a silvery glow over the quiet streets. Nightingales and corncrakes sang their farewell from the palace gardens, their melodies twisting like daggers in my chest. Tonight, under the cover of darkness, Selena and I would break free from our pasts—and my dictated future—and leave behind everything we’d ever known.

“I will return,” I whispered just before the shutter slammed shut and plunged me into darkness.

Crossing to the other side of the room, I switched on Father’s Solanthian lamp. Painted crystals hummed and flickered, sending shadows chasing each other on the walls.

This time, the face staring back from the three-panel mirror of my vanity was strong and resolute, a blade forged in fire.

Except for the silk scarf wrapped around my neck—a flimsy attempt to hide Lev’s bite from prying eyes. The scars throbbed beneath, but I refused to acknowledge them, refused to give them power over me.

“One day,” I vowed, settling onto the ottoman. “I’ll see Solanthia with my own eyes.”

Yet another reason to stay alive.

With shaky hands, I unwound the scarf and lifted the Bloodthorn Nexus from its box. It looked like a blooming rose with the Tepes crest carved into one petal. A deadly weapon in disguise.

Outrage and fear roared inside me as I hesitated. Had I really been flirting with death since my Academy days? If news of this new threat spread, it could ignite a civil revolution. Our situation was dire enough. The Republic wouldn’t survive another internal conflict.

I exhaled and attached the Nexus to my nape. The needle prickled with the usual sting, soothing the fire in my veins. I rose, the short legs of my chair scraping on the floor. The closet doors squeaked as I swung them open, grabbed an armful of clothes, and tossed them on the bed.

That’s when I saw it.

The black envelope on the nightstand. Commander Enescu’s unique scent—aged whiskey and resin—wafted from the paper as I reached for it with trembling fingers. He must have left it while I was with Selena.

Heart pounding, I tore through the Republic’s seal. An unexpected fragrance of freshly ground coffee and sweet roses greeted me, so at odds with the image of a hardened Stalker fighter. Unfolding the letter, I gulped as Harbinger’s elegant cursive danced across the page.

Congratulations on your promotion, Projector. We’ll prepare the base for your arrival.

Harbinger

The words, seemingly innocent, made my heart skip a beat.

I read the line over and over, searching for hidden meanings or veiled threats. His penmanship was exquisite, hinting at a refined background that contradicted the monster Selena and the Commander had described.

A ghost story. I scoffed.

“Well, Harbinger…” whispering, I traced the elegant script with my fingertip, “you’re quite the puzzle, aren’t you?” A spectral breeze brushed my spine. “I guess I’ve got fifty years to figure you out.”