xenonymousss
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- Parts 57
Linkon Institute, Room 102B smelled like ammonia, ambition, and the quiet ache of dreams on the verge of collapse.
The hum of fluorescent lights buzzed overhead like a warning. Terminals blinked in sterile rhythm, casting pale reflections on the polished floor. Students moved like ghosts-focused, frantic, desperate to impress.
Among them, a man stood unnoticed.
He wore the name Skye Altair, a fabricated identity stitched together with forged credentials and charm. But beneath the tailored suit and polite smile was Sylus, the predator cloaked in civility. He wasn't here to judge science. He was here to hunt.
His gaze swept the room like a scalpel-cutting through posturing and mediocrity-until it landed on her.
Lily Sinclair.
She pulled off her protective eyewear with a sharp motion, her brow furrowed in frustration. Her voice cut through the static of the room.
"The capacitor you gave me is malfunctioning," she snapped, holding up the faulty component. "I can't continue the experiment with junk."
Her group mate stammered an apology, but Lily wasn't listening. She was already recalibrating, already rewriting the solution in her mind. Her fingers moved with precision, her thoughts faster than the machines around her.
Sylus watched.
Not the experiment. Not the tech.
Her.
There was something electric in her defiance. A mind that refused to bend. A fire that hadn't yet been extinguished by the world's cruelty.
A beauty and a brain, he thought. Not a student. Not a girl. A weapon.
In that moment, Sylus didn't see a competitor. He saw a future asset. A rare kind of brilliance that couldn't be taught-only claimed.
And he knew.
One day, she would belong to him.