Chapter 23 · The Failsafe

"Step away from him." Selina's voice cracked across the archive before I could turn. Karl had Leon pinned against a shelf, one hand twisted in the boy's collar, while loose pages burned between his fingers.

"You reported me," Karl snapped. "You sent Aldric after me."

"I said step away." Selina crossed the doorway, her assistant badge glowing the same sick green I'd seen before she died in loop four. Leon's boots scraped the stone. His eyes rolled back, and a wet line of blood slid from his nose.

Karl shoved him away. Leon hit the floor hard enough to rattle the shelves.

I dropped beside him. "Leon. Look at me."

His fingers clawed at my sleeve. His mouth moved, but no sound came out.

"Don't touch him," Karl said.

"Then stop making him worse."

Karl's laugh broke sharp. "He's already marked."

Selina's gaze cut to the letter in my fist. The paper had gone hot again, the date flickering between the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth.

"What did you do?" she demanded.

"Me?" I looked at Karl. "He was the one holding Leon against a shelf."

"I was trying to keep him from screaming." Karl's scars pulsed under his rolled sleeve.