Chapter 24 · Nail Time to Her Heart

"Kill them." Vex pointed at the three bodies sprawled across the chamber floor. "Every single one."

I stared at my own face. Three times. Blood pooling under the first one's neck. The second had a sword through her ribs. The third—her eyes were still open.

"They're already dead," I said.

"Are they?" Vex kicked the nearest corpse. It didn't move. "Look at the anchor on your wrist. Look at theirs."

I didn't want to look. The iron cuff on my left wrist pulsed, warm against my skin. I could feel it pulling, like a hook buried in my chest.

"They're loop shadows," Vex said. "Failed versions. Every time you died and reset, the loop spat out a copy. Halrik's been collecting them."

"Why?"

"Insurance." He crouched next to the third body. "You break one anchor, he activates another. You kill him, one of these wakes up and finishes the job. He's got backups."

My stomach twisted. "So we burn them."

"Not enough." Vex stood, brushing dust off his coat. "The anchor's not just on their wrist. It's in their chest. You have to destroy the core."

"You mean I have to—"

"Cut it out. Yeah." He tossed me a knife.