Page 129 of Bonds of Starfall

"The long hours won’t last much longer. The Phoenix has risen."

"I’ve heard that the next phase is almost in effect…"

Lucien worked to control his expression. Phoenix.

As the doctors rounded a corner and left, his feet carried him to the room they’d just vacated. His hand trembled as he tugged the keycard free and swiped it over the panel.

Please work,he prayed.

The light on the panel turned green, and the door unlocked. He masked his surprise as he opened the door, hoping answers would be within.

Inside, the white lights flickered. Rows upon rows of file cabinets. Computers lined one wall. He wouldn’t have access to those.

Lucien walked into the rows of cabinets. Alphabetical order. It was a long shot, but he made for theP’s.

His shadow stretched across the floor, wrong somehow, too large for the lights above. He brushed it off.

The file cabinet was unlocked, and he flipped through the organized stacks.

There.

In small, blocky letters,Project Phoenix.

Lucien glanced at the door, tension lining his shoulders as he pulled free the file. It opened to reveal a singular page.

He scanned over it. Most of the words were blocked through. Classified. Voices sounded in the hall. He took a picture and stuffed the page back inside the folder. It would have to be enough.

The entire walk back down the hall, he didn’t run into anyone. Each door in his path opened with ease. The keycard never locked from being reported stolen, and he slipped it back inside the coat hanging on the rack in the break room.

All the while, the words on the page haunted him.

Subject: Biomechanically Modified Human. Weaponized.

Stella Status: Airborn. Level 3.

Rin watchedas the door to the room opened.

She made a fist at her side, wishing, again, for her Echogun—or at the very least, a knife.

After she’d been tested, Valkar had been quiet as he’d taken her and Cyrus back down the halls. Only, he had stopped at a door, urging Cyrus inside with his fiery Stella, all while Rin had cursed the vampire out. Then, he’d taken Rin back to his room and bolted the door shut, telling her to sleep.

Her resolve had been firm at first to use the time to plan, but as the hours stretched on and her eyes grew weary, she’d succumbed to her exhaustion.

The thick bolts being unlatched had awoken her with a start. Now, Rin stared out the dimly lit halls.

Narrowing her eyes, she stood from the bed, tugging down the hem of the shirt she wore. She peered out the door and saw no one.

Mind made up, she ventured out, the carpet plush under her feet.

It was like a maze. Each hall was relatively the same. Most didn’t even have the carpet. She guessed because this was Valkar’s wing.Fit for a crime lord,a sardonic part of her mind whispered.

But she remembered the bare drawers and scant belongings. Rhyden Valkar was a strange male.

She spied the camera in the ceiling’s corner and gave it a little finger wave as she passed.

It was just as childish as he’d proclaimed she was, but at least she owned it.

At the end of the carpeted, windowless hall, a set of double doors lay, cracked just an inch. Shadows shifted underneath. She held her breath as she tiptoed closer.