52. Father’sDaughter
Father’sDaughter
Playlist: Innocente (DJ Tiesto Remix) - Delirium, Tiesto
Lyra
Kael and I enter the lab later than normal.
It’s bright and cold inside, but for some reason everything looks clearer, feels warmer.
I’m still carrying the comfort of last night inside me: the softness of his sheets, the solid weight of his arm draped across my stomach when I woke.
It’s been quite some time since I’d opened my eyes next to someone and felt safe.
Rows of monitors flicker with data streams like vertical rain.
Ember’s already here, hunched over her terminal with a cup of something steaming, probably TurboTea.
Her copper hair is piled up in a knot; a stylus runs through the middle, so does a broken antenna from a cybernetic remote, holding it in place.
She glances up, looking at us above the rim of her cat-eye glasses.
“Good morning...you two?” Her brows arch just enough to show surprise.
I can tell she’d been expecting only Kael, not me following in behind him like a ghost. “I didn’t see anything in the logs about your holo-feed being transferred to the penthouse? ” She looks panicked.
Kael doesn’t answer. He’s already moving like a swift ocean current, jacket off, sleeves rolled up, heading for the central bank of consoles. His fingers fly on keys, eyes flicking from screen to screen. His silence is a brick fortress of determination. Ember’s question bounces off it and dies.
I break the tension, stepping up to her desk with a smile. “Good morning. There’s been a little development. Right now, I’m probably not appearing in the logs.”
She blinks, then grins back. We exchange awkward glances and then a sudden giggle bubbles between us, like schoolgirls sharing a secret. She trusts that Kael will fill her in when needed. He moves to his office, door closed, screamy music turned up.
The lab is too quiet without him filling it with his presence. He’s sealed himself away again in his office, the frosted glass glowing faint with monitor light as his shadow moves back and forth. He’s probably relieved to have space from me. But I still feel watched, even when he isn’t in the room.
Ember breaks the morning calm first. She crosses her ankles on her chair and grabs the cup of tea, her fiery hair catching the pale light of the monitors.
She motions for me to pull up a chair. Ash is nowhere in sight, probably sleeping off whatever mess he happened into last night. For once, it’s just the two of us.
I sit, chin in my palm. I feel giddy, like I’ve gone back in time and it’s just me and my high school girlfriends on the beach, discussing boys, books, and makeup.
“So.” Ember folds her arms, tilts her head. “You and Kael. That’s a thing now, huh?”
I shrug. “I don’t know what this is exactly. It’s a thing we can’t control. He’s...confusing.” My cheeks flush. “I’m trying to learn to fully trust him.”
Her smile is sly, almost passing judgment. “That sounds a lot like love, Lyra.” She swivels in her chair, eyes bright like she’s been waiting for this. “What’s it like sleeping in Kael Ryudon’s bed? Is the sex steamy?”
Heat rises in my cheeks. “Excuse me?”
“Oh, don’t play innocent.” She smirks, tapping her pen against the table. “I’ve always wondered why he’s never been seen with anyone. He’s all brooding and dark and gorgeous. The tortured architect twenty-four seven.”
I’ve never seen this side of her. I kind of like it. It’s real.
“You walked in here with him this morning with the ‘just been fucked blush.’ I half-expected him to carry you in bridal style.” She takes a sip of her tea.
I glare, though it does nothing to stop my mouth from curving upward. “Nothing happened...yet.”
“Mhm.” Ember leans back, twiddling a strand of fallen hair, mischief glinting in her eyes. “But you wanted it to.”
The laugh that escapes me is more of a snort. “I don’t know what I want with him.”
“Liar.” Her grin softens. “You wouldn’t look at him that way if you didn’t.”
We shift, as girls do, from teasing to confessions.
“What about you and Ash?” I ask, letting the question barrel into the conversation. Like a bull in a china shop.
Her fingers still. She looks down at the terminal, cheeks flushed the color of her hair. “Ash is...” She pauses, chewing her lip. “Annoying. Infuriating. Chaotic.”
“And?” I need more information.
“Handsome, charming, and the only person who makes me laugh when everything else in my life feels shitty.” She shakes her head, smiling despite herself. “Don’t tell him I said that. His ego would combust. It’s already enormous.”
We laugh, and for a moment we’re just two normal girls gossiping in the middle of Vikktor Vosse’s sterile empire. But the moment doesn’t last.
There’s so much I need to know. After all, she is the daughter of the man holding my brother hostage. Heir to the throne of one of the most ruthless men in the history of corporations. “Do you hate your father?” I ask bluntly. Bull, china shop again, yes that’s me.
Her expression shutters. She looks like I’ve put her on the spot. A bit of sadness creeps into her eyes. “Every day.”
The words hang heavy, and when she speaks again, her voice is much smaller.
“I was nine when I learned what loyalty meant to Vikktor Vosse. His assistant was cleaning his desk and accidentally broke a vase he’d purchased while traveling abroad.
He was furious with her. He made me watch while he whipped her with the cord from his LINKpad for it.
” Her hands clench tight in her lap. “He didn’t care that it was an accident.
He just wanted me to understand: Mistakes are not acceptable.
They have swift consequences and often demand blood. ”
I swallow hard, throat tight. “Has he ever threatened or hurt you?”
“Yes.” One simple, honest word. “Kael is the only one who has ever stood up for me to my father.”
That’s Kael, loyal to a fault, no matter who it is. “I’m sorry.” I have no words for the type of cruelty being inflicted on all of us by this man.
“You want to know why I follow Kael?”
I glance at her. “I assume it’s because your father runs everything, and Kael’s the safer option.”
Her laugh is humorless. “My father doesn’t run everything. He owns it. There’s a difference. Nothing about him is safe. But Kael is safe, Lyra.”
Her expression turns cold, and then, with a crack in her armor, she adds, “He never wanted a daughter. He wanted a son, an heir. Just someone to shape into his likeness. He was stuck with me. I wasn’t a person to him.
I was a brand extension; our family was just a positive corporate image he liked to project on ads across the city. ”
She sets her mug down, knuckles white as she grips the edge of the desk. “Kael...he’s not easy to work for. He’s passionate and driven. But he sees me. He trusts me. That’s more than I’ve ever had before.”
I don’t know what to say, so I just let it be.
Then she looks at me sharply. “What about you? You hated Kael, and now? What changed? Something’s different.”
I take a breath. “I thought I did. He built the system I’m trapped in. He’s dangerous, arrogant, infuriating. Possibly a murderer. He should be my enemy.”
Ember smirks. “But?”
“But every time he looks at me, I feel...I don’t know, something?
” I raise an eyebrow, the words rushing out before I can stop them.
“A pull I don’t want but can’t ignore. Like I’m supposed to be around him, with him.
Like the universe is saying we have to be near each other whether we like it or not.
” I shift nervously in my chair. “It’s maddening.
I hate myself for it. But I’m tired of fighting it. ”
Ember studies me, then smirks again, softer this time. “So that’s why you spit fire every time he’s near. You’re terrified of wanting him?”
“Yes,” I whisper. “Because I know if I stop fighting, I’ll fall...hard.” I joke to break the tension building in the air like bricks being stacked. “Plus, he has a really big d—”
“Stop! No!” Ember takes another sip of her tea. She’s laughing so hard it threatens to escape through her nose. “Mental picture not needed of my boss.” She’s studying me over the rim of the mug. “You’re not stupid, Lyra. You know what Kael is.”
I bristle. “And what is he?”
“Just how big?” She turns toward me. Her lips twitch.
“Kidding. He’s a brilliant man who’s the architect of the largest corporate system in the world.
A man who doesn’t stop once he’s set his mind on something.
A man who is also, unfortunately, beautiful, obsessive, arrogant, impossible...
” She laughs softly to herself. “But loyal.”
Her admission gives me something to think about. “I used to think he was the same as your father. Cold. Ruthless. Corporate.”
“And now?” Ember interjects.
My eyes flick toward the frosted glass of Kael’s office again, where his shadow still moves. “Now, I know he’ll burn the world down for what he wants. The question is, does that include me?”
The hum of the servers suddenly feels louder. Kael’s presence is still heavy even behind a wall. For a moment I swear his shadow hesitates, like maybe he’s listening.
Silence again. Then Ember actually laughs, surprising even herself. “We’re a mess, aren’t we? Falling for men who’ll ruin us.”
I turn away, heart pounding. Ember shifts back to her keyboard, pulling up another file. Cup in one hand, keys tapping with the other. For a moment, it looks like routine, until she mutters under her breath and pushes her chair back. “Wrong file. I’ll fix it later.”
I can’t quite make out the look on her face. Her lips curve, but it’s not a real smile. It’s a practiced one. The kind you wear when you’ve had a lifetime of hiding things.
“Everything okay?” I glance at her screen. Maybe I went too far with my sharing.
“Fine. Just a log I need to check out in the archive. She turns the monitor toward me and nervously lifts her tea. “Be right back.” She points to the empty cup. “More TurboTea needed. I’d offer you some, but I don’t think it would have the same effect on you as before.
” She stands and walks toward the door to the back room of the lab where Kael stores shelves full of data chips containing backups and histories.
I drift closer to her terminal and look at her screen, expecting to see some code gibberish or a long list of to-dos from Kael, but instead I see names and dates, U21 magic abilities, and the name they’ve been assigned to describe their magic. I take a closer look before she returns.
The screen she left open isn’t just junk data. It’s a log. Detailed records of names, locations, and status updates.
At first I think it’s another list of anomalies destroyed by the Corporation, the proof I need on Kael’s ruthlessness. But then, one column catches my eye in bold red: Transferred. Relocated.
I scan to the top of the document: ANOMALY RELOCATION—AUTHORIZED BY DR. KAEL RYUDON—SCI (SENSITIVE COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION)
I touch one of the names on the screen, and a file card appears. Names, faces I don’t recognize but could almost swear I’ve seen on the news feeds.
In the bottom corner of the card, labeled as HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL, are relocation coordinates and rebel safehouse codenames. Jett Novarre’s name is attached to every line, and his sigil is etched at the bottom.
I force myself to breathe. Not execution orders. Not deletion logs. Not blood on his hands.
Relocation. Freedom. He’s been reporting anomalies to Vikktor but also to Jett, pitting them against each other, seeing who gets there first. He’s trying to save them from the CIC without getting caught. It’s a huge risk.
Kael hasn’t been killing them.
The floor seems to tilt. I feel like Kael’s sword has been shoved through my chest. The hatred I’ve carried, the certainty that he was my captor and an executioner, it falls to the pit of my stomach.
Everything I thought I knew about him, about his cold compliance, shatters like glass. Why did I pass such a hard judgment? I’m no better than Vikktor passing judgment on non-citizens or U21s. I place my hand over my mouth as shame fills the space where my heart is.
Ember returns with her steaming cup and pauses when she sees me staring. For just a moment, she doesn’t reach for the keyboard. She lets me read and lets me process the data.
She did it purposely.
She wanted me to see Kael through her eyes, not the clouded image portrayed in the corporate-driven media.
“Lyra?” She tests the waters of the flood she’s just released.
I force a nod, swallowing the firestorm in my mind. “Fine. Just thinking. Understanding.”
Her eyes meet mine, steady and intentional. “He’s not what you think.”
Inside, I’m anything but fine. Kael has been living a double life, one foot in Vikktor’s empire, the other feeding anomalies into Jett’s shadow rebellion. He’s been playing both sides, risking everything, trying to save me and my brother, and somehow keeping me in the dark.
I don’t know whether to feel relief or betrayal. Maybe both.
No, Lyra. He told you last night. He’s protecting you. Bearing the weight of all this so you don’t have to. Keeping you safe in case it all goes wrong and something happens to him.
The thought of Kael not existing in my life threatens to expel the whiskey sitting in my stomach from last night.
I smile back at Ember, hiding the quake in my digital gut.
For now, I’ll keep this to myself. But tonight, when Kael looks at me with those dark, tortured eyes, I’ll know there’s more to him than he’s ever let me see.
He can’t escape my questions forever.
And suddenly, after everything that happened last night, the closeness we shared, the trust we built, it feels fragile.
I didn’t allow myself to care what he was feeling, didn’t ever ask him how he felt. I just kept demanding more. Rescue Eli, save me, do this, do that, U21 good, Corporation bad.
How could I have been so selfish? I feel like I don’t know who Kael is at all, and it’s entirely my fault.
And through it all, he still stood by me, not as the villain I feared, but as the hero I needed. Vowing to be my dark knight in shining armor, willing to destroy the world quietly behind the scenes. I know why he did it; the truth breaks open inside me.
He did it so I wouldn’t have to stand alone as a single source of light swallowed by the pitch black. Self-sacrifice.
My brilliant, logical, data-driven architect would explain it very plainly if he were standing before me:
Love is just a simple equation of subtraction; I am willing to become nothing if it ensures you remain whole.