Chapter 15 · The Core's Choice

"Get back!" Ivy grabbed Leon's sleeve and yanked him away from the desk.

The expulsion order smoked between them. Karl Murray's name was bleeding out of the paper, each black letter thinning until Leon Wald appeared beneath it.

"That's my name." Leon stared at the page. "Ivy, I didn't sign—"

"I know. The loop's rewriting the order."

Selina hit the door handle. It didn't move. She slammed her palm against the wood.

"We're locked in. I heard someone outside right before—"

The paper burst into white flame.

Ivy shoved Leon aside as the fire leaped across the desk. It swallowed the files, then climbed the wall in clean, bright lines. The wood stayed dark. No heat touched Ivy's face, but the paper curled and vanished under the flames.

"That's not fire," Selina said. Her back pressed against the door. "It's eating the records."

"Then save one." Leon crossed the room and plunged his hand into the flames.

"Leon, don't!"

He pulled out a smoking folder. White fire clung to the edges like oil.

"You said your alchemy can preserve ink. Do it."

"Not while the file's burning."

"Ivy."

His voice cracked through the panic.