Chapter 21 · The Original Maker

"Get back, Rowan! Now!"

Mara didn't just push him. She slammed her shoulder into his chest, pinning him against the jagged metal of the catwalk with a bone-jarring thud.

Above them, the golden eye didn't blink. It was the size of a cathedral window, pupils grinding like massive gears, radiating a heat that made the air taste like burnt ozone.

"What the hell is that thing?" Rowan gasped. He fought for air, his lungs burning. In his mind, there was only a cold, echoing hole where his mother's memory should have been. It made his stomach churn.

"The Overseer," Mara hissed. Her blade was out, the steel humming with a deadly violet light. She didn't look at him; her eyes were locked on the entity. "It’s not supposed to be here. Not yet. We’re not at the end of the countdown."

"Not yet?" Rowan managed to stand, though his knees felt like water. "Mara, it’s staring right at us. I think it knows we’re here."

"It knows everything," she snapped. "It’s been watching every death. Every reset. And now it’s bored. Rowan, if that thing closes its eye, this whole sector becomes a vacuum.