Chapter 6 The Day the Sky Burned

I didn't sleep.

Not after Theta's face-my face-disappeared into the dark.

Kael's bandages bled through before sunrise, but he wouldn't stop moving. He didn't flinch, didn't complain. He just pressed forward like he could outrun what happened.

But I couldn't.

Because every step forward now was a step deeper into who I was-and the question I'd been avoiding since the day Kael pulled me out of the lab: What happened to my mother?

We met up with Lira at an old comms bunker hidden beneath the roots of a dead tree. She greeted Kael with a tight nod and barely looked at me.

Which only made the anger worse.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked her as soon as the bunker door slid shut.

Lira blinked. "You'll need to be more specific."

I stepped closer. "About Theta. About the clones. About me."

Kael tried to intervene, but I raised a hand. I needed to hear it. From her.

Lira's lips tightened. 'Because you weren't ready to listen to it. '

"That's not your decision."

"No," she admitted. "It was your mother's."

My breath caught.

"She made me promise," Lira said, voice low. "That if she didn't make it, I would protect you. Not just physically. Emotionally. Psychologically. You were nine when it happened, Calla. You were already breaking."

I shook my head. "Tell me the truth. All of it."

Lira hesitated-then tapped a console on the far wall. A hologram shimmered to life between us. A grainy feed. My mother, pale and fierce, was standing in a hallway of white light.

"I don't have much time," the hologram said. "They've begun the replication trials. If you're seeing this, it means I failed. Damon found a way to accelerate the program. To use Calla as a foundation."

Kael stiffened beside me.

"She is the only successful hybrid," my mother continued. "And if Damon controls her, he controls everything. The bio-weapons, the neural mesh, even the key to the Vault."

"What Vault?" I whispered.

Lira answered, "The place where your mother hid the truth."

The hologram flickered. "Lira, if you're watching this... take her. Get her out. And if she ever asks-tell her I loved her more than life. That I died for her future, not my past."

The feed ended.

Silence followed.

I dropped to a nearby bench, my legs too numb to hold me.

"She knew they'd come for me," I said quietly.

"She built you to survive it," Lira replied. "And to stop him."

Kael was silent for a long time.

Then: "Theta mentioned something. That Calla wasn't the only one they made."

"She's not," Lira said. "There are more. But she's the original. The blueprint."

"Great," I muttered. "I'm a living cheat code."

Lira crossed the room and crouched in front of me. "You're a miracle."

I didn't feel like one.

I felt like a ticking bomb in the shape of a girl.

I looked at Kael. "What happens now?"

He met my gaze. "We get to the Vault. We see what your mother hid. And then..." He paused. "Then we burn everything Damon built."

It sounded like suicide.

But it also sounded like justice.

And I was done being afraid of who I was.

Let the sky burn again.

***************************************

Flight Risk

The old skyport looked like a dying god's ribcage-steel beams twisted toward the clouds, broken panels dangling like feathers. Nothing had flown from here in years. Not legally, anyway.

Lira crouched beside me on the overlook, scanning the perimeter with an old sniper scope. "Three guards. East tower. One at the hangar entrance. One inside. One patrolling the roof."

"And Damon's transport?" Kael asked.

She nodded. "Haven't taken off yet. But it's prepped."

"That's our way in," Kael said. "And out."

My pulse quickened. "Let me guess-you want me to create a distraction."

Kael didn't look at me. "You're the fastest."

"And the least likely to get shot," Lira added. "Your neural weave's stronger than ours. It'll repel the stun rounds."

"You say that like it's a good thing," I mumbled – but my mouth was already engaged with my gear.

Every minute we waited was another step closer to Theta returning.

Or worse.

Kael touched my arm gently. "You don't have to prove anything."

I looked at him. "This isn't about proving. This is about winning."

He held my gaze for a second too long. Then he nodded. "Alright. Thirty seconds after you start the run, we move. Lira will loop the cameras. I'll get the pilot offline."

"And the guards?"

His smile was sharp. "I'll handle them."

I stood. "Try not to die. It'd ruin the moment I've been planning."

Kael's brow arched. "Planning?"

I smirked. "We'll talk if we survive."

Then I was gone.

The first few steps were smooth. Silent. I darted through the fence hole Lira had cut earlier, landing in the shadow of a rusted service cart. The hangar's doors were cracked just enough for me to squeeze through.

Inside, everything smelled like dust and old metal.

The transport was there-sleek, matte black, too advanced for anything this derelict station should've seen in decades. Damon's signature style. Hide power behind decay.

I crept toward the far wall, where a loose pipe was barely holding on.

Grabbing it, I flung it across the hangar with a sharp clang.

The guard inside turned fast, weapon raised. "Who's there?!"

I darted in the opposite direction, drawing him away from the control panel Kael would need. Another guard shouted something from outside. Lights flickered on.

Perfect.

I bolted across the open space, heart hammering, just as a shot rang out.

Missed by inches.

Then a flash grenade went off behind me-Lira's distraction-and chaos broke loose.

Kael appeared like a shadow in the storm, slamming one guard to the ground and disabling another with a fluid twist. Lira's voice echoed through the hangar speakers: "Five minutes till backup arrives! Move!"

I reached the loading ramp of the transport and slapped the console. The door hissed open.

Kael dragged the unconscious pilot inside.

I stumbled into the cockpit and fell into the co-pilot's chair, and adrenaline still pumped in my veins.

"I tell you you can fly this thing?" I said.

Kael smirked. "You wound me."

The engines roared to life.

Outside, another patrol vehicle screeched to a halt-too late. The ramp is sealed. Lira swung into the jump seat behind us, her face grim.

"We've got flyers inbound," she said.

"Not for long," Kael replied, slamming the thrusters forward.

The ship launched into the sky with a bone-shaking jolt.

The city below shrank, and for a breathless moment, I felt free.

Then the warning lights flared red.

"Something's tracking us," I said. "It's not a missile. It's... organic?"

Kael's expression darkened. "He sent a hybrid flyer."

My stomach dropped. "Theta?"

Lira answered for him. "No. Something worse."

Outside the viewport, a shape emerged from the clouds-black wings, a humanoid frame, eyes that burned with unnatural light.

Kael gritted his teeth. "Hold tight."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because we're about to teach a monster how to fall."