The alarms didn’t just scream.

They breathed.

Each pulse didn’t feel like sound; it felt like a heartbeat too big for the room, a living, angry pulse vibrating through the reinforced walls, through the seams of Alessio’s armor, all the way into his bones. Red light strobed across the containment cell in harsh, jagged flashes, carving shadows into every surface. For one fraction of a second, every flash painted Noa’s face no, ERA’s face in strips of crimson.

His eyes were black. Not ...