He let the silence drag long enough to make it uncomfortable.
Kylus’ jaw flexed. "What?"
Kylus’ eyes hardened. "You think this is funny?"
The words hit.
"I’ll kill you," Kylus said, voice shaking with fury.
Kylus’ expression shifted then, anger thinning just enough for sothing heavier to surface.
Xavier’s expression changed. The edge drained out of it. He looked past Kylus for a second, eyes unfocused, then back.
"Then give the right one."
"So people don’t get to choose how their story ends," he said. "And so people don’t get to choose what role they play in it."
"It’s enough."
A strained inhale that sounded wet.
Lyra’s fingers dug into Reva’s sleeve. Her breathing sped up, shallow and rapid, chest rising too fast. A tremor moved under her skin. Her lips parted and a thin line of blood slid from the corner of her mouth again — darker this ti.
Xavier was at her side imdiately.
Her pulse was erratic under his fingers. Her skin felt hot now, not cold. Sweat beaded across her forehead in seconds.
Xavier looked up at Kylus sharply. "What did Jareth give her? What did you inject?"
"Then why is she crashing?"
Requiem crouched on the other side, checking her pupils, her breathing, the way her abdon tightened.
He looked at Xavier.
Lyra’s body seized inward again, but it wasn’t a convulsion. It was deeper. Her abdon tightened hard enough that she cried out, a broken sound forced out of her lungs.
Blood bubbled faintly at Lyra’s lips again.
Requiem’s expression hardened. "This started before today."
Xavier looked up at Kylus again.
Kylus stood there for a long second before answering.
"No," Xavier shook his head.
"Sixteen years ago," he said slowly, "there was a shipnt."
"Kids. Dozens of us. So taken. So bought. Doesn’t matter. Sa result."
"Piolet was running it. High-tier buyers on Jupiter. Private circle. Enhancent programs. They didn’t want soldiers. They wanted prototypes."
"Bull was part of the contract. He didn’t know what the cargo was. When he found out, he tore the whole thing apart."
"He hunted Piolet after that," Kylus continued. "Didn’t walk away. He tracked him."
"That’s how he found us."
Kylus finally looked at Lyra.
Silence pressed in around them.
"They injected sothing into our bodies. A compound that rewrote what we were. Not so street stim. Not a muscle boost. It changed how our cells behaved. Triggered dormant genes. Forced growth where it shouldn’t exist. Pushed neural response past safe limits."
"Most of them didn’t last a week. As I said, it was a prototype and we were the experint."
His eyes flicked back to Xavier.
Lyra let out a strained breath, her body tightening again under Xavier’s hold.
He tapped his chest lightly.
Requiem’s expression sharpened.
"She’s Lykaios," Kylus replied. "Her body fought it better. Slower adaptation. Slower breakdown."
"But that doesn’t an it wasn’t there."
"It waited," Kylus said. "Sixteen years of waiting. I am not sure what triggered this. Perhaps, she was having symptoms for a while now but none of you noticed."
Xavier’s jaw set.
"How do you stop it?"
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