Sept. 7, 2025

Midnight Frequencies (Part 3) - "Dead Air"

Midnight Frequencies (Part 3) - "Dead Air"

After using her untrained Command Voice to compel armed agents into forgetting their existence, Lyra learns the terrifying truth about her ancestry: she's descended from the White Siren, a woman so powerful that the Order was formed specifically to stop her. As Kai reveals that her abilities could rival those of the reality-altering Siren who nearly destroyed Salem, their supernatural connection deepens into something that transcends normal attraction. But when the Council of First Voices—transcended Sirens existing between dimensions—contacts Lyra through impossible means, they offer her a choice: embrace unlimited power or remain trapped by human limitations.

Their recruitment attempt is revealed as a distraction when thousands of New Yorkers begin moving in synchronized precision toward the radio district, all under supernatural compulsion. With sunset approaching and a city-wide broadcast planned from her own station, Lyra must choose between fleeing to safety with Kai or facing an enemy whose power dwarfs her own. The lesson the Council promised is about to begin, and the entire tri-state area hangs in the balance.

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Calarogu Shark Media.

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Welcome to Midnight Frequencies, a special Romance Weekly and Ghost

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Scary Stories crossover event. This is episode three, Dead Air.

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The voice that comes out of me isn't mine. It's deeper, older,

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carrying harmonics that seem to resonate in dimensions I can't see.

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When I speak. The air itself bends around the words,

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creating visible ripples that spread out from my throat, like

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stones dropped in still water. Stop. I command, and the

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word carries the weight of centuries, the authority of every

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siren who came before me. Drop your weapons, forget you

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saw us, leave this place, and remember nothing. The effect

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is immediate and terrifying. Six armed agents freeze midstride, their

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faces going blank behind tactical masks. Weapons clatter to the

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floor like dropped toys. They turn in perfect synchronization and

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walk back through the shattered doorway, their movements mechanical, puppet like.

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In less than thirty seconds, we're alone again. I collapse

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against the wall, my legs suddenly unable to support me.

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The power that just flowed through my voice has left

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me feeling hollowed out, like an instrument that's been played

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too hard and might shatter at any moment. Jesus Christ.

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I whisper my British accent, making the words sound absurdly polite.

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After what just happened. I made them forget. I erased

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their memories. Kai is staring at me with something between

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awe and terror. In three hundred years of order records,

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there are maybe five documented cases of untrained sirens successfully

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using command voice, and none of them on their first attempt.

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Is that good or bad? It's unprecedented. Kai moves to

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the surveillance monitor, watching the agents file out of the

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building like sleepwalkers, which means you're either the most naturally

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gifted siren in recorded history or what, or your bloodline

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is far more ancient and powerful than I realized. He

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turns back to me, and I can see something new

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in his expression, not just attraction or protectiveness, but genuine,

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fear lyra What did your grandmother tell you about your

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family history? Anything about where your ability might have come from?

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I try to focus through the exhaustion clouding my thoughts,

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just stories, old folklore about women who could speak truth

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into existence, who could call storms or calm seas with

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their voices. I always thought they were metaphors, nothing about

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specific ancestors, names, locations, dates. She mentioned someone called the

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White Siren once said she was our family's greatest shame

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and greatest glory. But when I asked for details, Grandmother

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would just get this look, like she was afraid of

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the words themselves. Kai goes very still. The White Siren.

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You're certain that's what she called her? Yes, why do

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you know that name? Every listener knows that name, Kai

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says quietly. She's the reason the order exists. The room

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seems to grow colder outside, Dawn is breaking over Manhattan,

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painting the windows with golden light. That feels incongruous with

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the darkness of what I'm learning about myself. Tell me,

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I say, Kai sits down heavily, like the weight of

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what he's about to reveal is physical. In sixteen ninety two,

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during the Salem witch Trials, a woman named Evangeline Morgan

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was accused of using her voice to bewitch an entire town.

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The records say she could compel truth from anyone, command

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absolute obedience, even influence the weather through song. Morgan, I repeat,

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feeling the name resonate in my bones. That's my surname.

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The White siren wasn't just any siren, Lyra. She was

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the first siren to fully manifest what we call the

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true voice, the ability to alter reality through spoken will

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not just influence people's actions, but actually change the fundamental

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nature of things. I think about the armed agents, how

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they didn't just follow my commands but seemed to forget

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on a cellular level that we existed. Is that what

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I just did? I don't know. Maybe the line between

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powerful compulsion and reality alteration is blurry. Kai runs his

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hands through his hair, and I noticed they're shaking. According

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to the records, Evangeline's abilities grew so strong that she

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began to lose control. People who heard her voice would

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become permanently altered, their personalities, rewritten, their memories, restructured. Entire

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communities were transformed into extensions of her will. What happened

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to her? The order was formed specifically to stop her.

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It took thirty listeners working together to contain her abilities

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long enough for Kai's voice trails off. For what for

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her execution? They burned her, but even then her voice

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continued to echo for days. Afterward, the area around Salem

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was considered cursed for decades. No supernatural being could enter

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that region without experiencing what witnesses described as the White

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Sirens scream. The implications hit me like a physical blow.

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You think I'm like her, You think I'm going to

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lose control and start rewriting people's minds. I think you

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have the potential to be exactly like her, Kai says honestly,

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and that terrifies me because it means the Order will

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never stop hunting you. They'll see you as an extinction

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level threat. And what do you see me? As? Kai

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looks at me with an expression so complet I can't

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pass all the emotions in it. I see you as

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someone I'm falling in love with, despite every instinct telling

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me I should run as far away as possible. The

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confession creates that electric resonance between us again, but this

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time it's stronger, more visible. The air around us shimmers

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with silver light, and I can feel our supernatural frequencies

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not just matching, but beginning to merge. Kai I whisper

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something's happening. He sees it too, the way the space

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between us is bending, how our voices are starting to

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harmonize even when we're not trying to match pitch. When

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he speaks, I can hear layers in his words that

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weren't there before, and I know he's hearing the same

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complexity in mine. This is what I was afraid of,

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he says, but he doesn't move away. Listeners aren't supposed

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to be affected by syral nobilities. But you're not just

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any siren, and this connection we're developing, it's creating something new?

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Is it dangerous? Everything about you is dangerous. Kai's voice

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is rough, and when he looks at me, I can

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see desire warring with duty in his dark eyes. But

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I can't seem to make myself care. Before I can respond,

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my phone rings, not the shrill electronic tone of a

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normal call, but something else, a sound that seems to

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bypass my ears and resonate directly in my bones. When

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I look at the screen, there's no number, just a

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symbol that looks like a spiral made of intersecting waves.

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Don't answer that, Kai says urgently, But I'm already reaching

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for the phone, compelled by something stronger than curiosity. The

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moment I touched the screen, the device grows cold in

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my hand, and when I answer, the voice that speaks

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isn't coming from the phone speaker. It's emanating from the

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air around us, daughter of the White Siren, the voice says,

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and it sounds like wind through ancient trees, like waves

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crashing against stone. We have been waiting for you to awaken.

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Who is this, I ask, my voice automatically shifting into

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that compelling frequency. We are the Council of First Voices,

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the original Sirens, those who chose to transcend mortality rather

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than face extinction. We felt your awakening across the spheres,

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heard your command voice echo through dimensions most humans cannot perceive.

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Kai has gone pale. He's gesturing frantically for me to

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hang up, but I can't seem to move my hand.

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Your descendant shows promise. The voice continues, and now I

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realize it's not one voice, but many, speaking in perfect unison.

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But she walks a dangerous path, guided by one who

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would cage her power rather than set it free. I'm

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not caging anything, Kai says, loud enough for the voices

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to hear. I'm trying to help her learn control. Control

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is a limitation imposed by the fearful. The White Siren's

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error was not in her power, but in her restraint.

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She tried to live within human boundaries, to love a

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human man, to pretend she was something less than what

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she was destined to become. And what am I destined

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to become? I ask, though part of me dreads the answer.

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What you were always meant to be a bridge between worlds,

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a voice that can reshape reality according to will and desire.

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But first you must choose remain limited by mortal attackishments,

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or embrace your true nature. The phone grows so cold

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it burns, and I can see frost forming on the

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screen around us. The safe house is changing, walls becoming translucent,

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showing glimpses of other places. Other times I see a

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woman who looks like me standing before a massive tree

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that pulses with silver light, her voice weaving threads of reality,

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like a spider creating a web. The white siren. I breathe,

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your ancestor your template, your warning. The voices are growing stronger,

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more compelling. She fell because she chows love over power.

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Do not make her mistake. Love isn't a mistake, I

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say fiercely, and as I speak, I feel that strange

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resonance between been Ki and me flare brighter. It's what

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makes power worth having. The counsel's laughter is like breaking glass,

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spoken like a child who has never tasted true power.

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But you will learn when your voice grows strong enough

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to reshape continents, When you can speak new realities into

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existence with a whisper, you will understand the burden of transcendence.

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I don't want to transcend anything I say. I just

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want to learn control, so I don't hurt innocent people.

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Innocent people, The voices turne cold. Those are the words

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of someone who still thinks of herself as human. You

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are beyond such concerns. Now you are becoming something that

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exists outside mortal morality. No, the word comes out with

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enough force to make the windows rattle. I won't be that.

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I won't turn into someone who thinks other people don't matter.

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You will have no choice. Power of this magnitude cannot

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be contained by human conscience. The White Siren learned this

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too late. You will learn it in time, or you

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will be destroyed by your own limitations. The connection cuts

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off abruptly, leaving us in sudden, absolute silence. The phone

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screen goes black, and the walls of the safe house

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solidify back into normal matter, But the chill in the

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air remains, and I can still feel the weight of

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the Council's words pressing against my mind. Well, Kai says,

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after a long moment that was worse than I feared.

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Who were they really if they were telling the truth?

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The original sirens who chose to abandon their human forms

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rather than accept limitations on their power, They exist somewhere

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between dimensions, now technically immortal, but no longer quite real

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in any way that matters. Kai moves to one of

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his books, flipping through pages until he finds what he's

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looking for. There are references to them in the oldest

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Order texts. They're said to appear when a siren of

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unusual power awakens, trying to recruit them into transcendence, and

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if I refuse, then they'll either leave you alone to

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face the Order's judgment, or they'll try to force the

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transcendence process. Kai's expression is grim. Both options typically end

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with the siren losing everything that made them human. I

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sink into a chair, overwhelmed by the scope of what

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I'm learning, So my choices are become a reality altering monster,

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Let the Order kill me, or get turned into some

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kind of dimensional ghost. There's a fourth option, Kai says quietly,

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which is we run, We disappear completely, find somewhere the

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order can't track us, and I teach you control, away

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from all this supernatural politics, And then what live in

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hiding forever? Maybe or maybe we find a way to

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prove that you can be trusted with your abilities, build

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a life that's both supernatural and human. Kai sits across

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from me, and when he reaches for my hands, I

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can feel that electric connection sparking between us. It wouldn't

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be easy, and there'd be no guarantees, but it would

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be ours. The offer is tempting in ways I can't

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fully express, But even as I consider it, I can

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feel the weight of responsibility settling on my shoulders. Those

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people who called my show, who confess their secrets and

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destroyed their lives because of my uncontrolled power, they deserve

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better than having me run away from the consequences. What

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about my listeners, I ask the people I hurt with

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my broadcast? What about them? I can't just disappear and

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leave them to deal with what I did to them.

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If I really have this power, shouldn't I be using

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it to help rather than hide. Kai's expression grows troubled, Lyra,

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the road between helping and controlling is shorter than you think.

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The White Siren probably started with the best intentions too,

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But she didn't have what I have, which is I

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meet his eyes, feeling that resonance between us pulse with certainty.

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She didn't have you. She fell because she was alone,

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because there was no one to keep her grounded, to

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remind her of her humaneanity. But you can hear supernatural frequencies. Kai,

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you can monitor my voice, tell me when I'm losing control,

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help me stay connected to what matters. That's a lot

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of faith to put in someone you've known for less

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than twelve hours, is it? I challenge? You've been listening

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to my voice for eight months. I've been unconsciously responding

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to your presence in my audience the same length of time.

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This connection we have, it didn't start last night. It's

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been building slowly, carefully, one frequency finding another across the

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electromagnetic noise of the city. Kai stares at me, and

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I can see the moment he realizes I'm right. Whatever's

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between us has been growing for months, two supernatural beings,

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unknowingly calling to each other across the airwaves. You want

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to stay, he says, you want to face the order,

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deal with the council, learn to use your abilities properly

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instead of running. I want to find a way to

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be what I am without losing what I was, and

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I think the only way to do that is together.

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Before Kai can respond, alarms start blaring again, but this

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time they're not coming from the building security system. They're

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coming from outside, spreading across the city like a wave.

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Car alarms, smoke detectors, emergency broadcast systems all triggered simultaneously.

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Kai moves to the window and his face goes white.

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Oh no, what is it? Look. I join him at

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the window, and what I see makes my blood run cold.

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Across Manhattan, people are streaming out of buildings, moving with

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the same mechanical precision as the agents I commanded earlier.

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Thousands of them, all walking in the same direction, their

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faces blank, their movements synchronized. They're all heading toward Midtown,

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Kai says, grimly, toward the radio district. Why because someone

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with a much more powerful voice than yours just issued

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a city wide command. Kai turns to me, and I

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can see fear and determination warring in his expression. The

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council wasn't just trying to recruit you, Lyra. They were

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buying time for something bigger. As if summoned by his words,

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my phone buzzes with a text message, come to w KNT,

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Come alone, bring your voice, and we will show you

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what true power looks like. The lesson begins at sunset.

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They're using my radio station. I realize they're going to

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broadcast something through WKNT, and if they do, Kai says,

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every person in the Tri state area who hears it

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will be under their control. We stare at each other,

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both understanding the implications. Whatever the council is planning, it's

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going to make my accidental broadcast look like a whisper,

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and somehow I'm the key to stopping it. So much

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for running away, I say, so much for running away,

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Kai agrees, Are you ready to learn what it really

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means to be a siren? Looking out at the thousands

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of people streaming through the streets like an army of sleepwalkers,

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I know there's only one answer I can give. Let's

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go save the city.