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Ivy's palm burned like she'd grabbed a hot coal.
5:43:12. The numbers ticked backward under her skin, cold and mechanical, counting down to something she didn't understand yet.
Two bodies. Same mark on both.
She shoved off the stone wall and slipped through the side door into the banquet hall. Crystal clinked. Professors laughed at the high table like nobody upstairs had died screaming ten minutes ago. Nobody looked up. Nobody cared.
She scanned the crowd. Strangers, mostly — first-years like her, all nervous smiles and new robes. She spotted Leon by the refreshment table, boxed in by three noble kids. He caught her eye for half a second, then looked away.
Smart. If anyone saw them together after the morgue, there'd be questions neither of them could answer.
She needed someone who actually knew how this place worked. Professor Thorne was too public, locked in conversation with the headmaster. The prefects were all busy herding freshmen.
That left nobody. Except—
"You look lost."
Ivy spun. A woman in dark green robes stood at her shoulder — mid-twenties, sharp-eyed, ink stains on her fingers. A silver key hung from her collar. Restricted-section clearance.
"I'm fine," Ivy said.
"You're Ivy Kline. Scholarship, Rook's End, alchemy track." The woman's smile didn't touch her eyes. "Selina Ost. Thorne's research assistant. You missed kit assignment an hour ago."
"Got turned around. Place is bigger than I—"
"Save it." Selina's voice dropped low. "I watched you come out of the east wing. Blood on your sleeve."
Ivy looked down. Damn. A dark smear on her cuff, right where she'd knelt beside the dead girl.
"There was an accident. Someone fell—"
"Mara Frost. Third-year." Selina's jaw tightened. "Prefects are calling it a fall down the stairs. You buy that?"
Ivy hesitated a half-second too long.
"No," she said. "I don't."
"Good. Because two dead in one night isn't an accident. It's a pattern." Selina glanced toward the high table, then back. "Alchemy wing, third floor, east corridor. Twenty minutes. Don't let anyone follow you."
She turned and vanished into the crowd before Ivy could get another word out.
Two students. Selina knew about both. Which meant she was either involved — or the only other person in this castle paying attention.
The clock over the main doors read 11:17. Forty-three minutes left on whatever her hand was counting down to.
Ivy started for the exit — then stopped. Leon had peeled off from his group, heading down the north corridor alone.
This was her shot.
She followed at a distance, banquet noise fading behind her. He turned a corner. She turned the same corner half a second later and the hallway was empty.
Her stomach dropped. He'd been right there.
"Looking for someone?"
Leon stepped out of a recessed doorway, arms crossed, close enough that she caught the cold off his coat. "You're not subtle. Heard you three turns back."
"We need to talk."
"No, we don't." He didn't back up. Neither did she. "I helped you once. That's done."
"The dead boy in the morgue. He had a mark on his palm. A broken clock." She stepped closer, close enough to see his jaw tighten. "You saw it. Tell me what it means."
"I saw a body. That's all I saw."
"Liar." Her voice cracked on the word. "You looked right at his hand when I turned him over."
"Drop it and go back to the banquet." Flat. Final. "Prefects are already sniffing around the morgue break-in. They connect you to it, you lose your scholarship before class one."
"Two people are dead—"
"Two die and a dozen get expelled every year. That's Nightfall." He pushed past her shoulder, close enough she felt the heat off him for a second before it was gone. "Survive week one. Then care about everyone else."
Footsteps. Gone.
Typical noble. Only cares when it's his own skin.
The clock chimed 11:30.
She ran.
Third floor, east corridor, one door standing open at the end, warm light spilling out.
"Lock it," Selina said, not looking up from a leather journal.
Ivy locked it. Shelves of bottled reagents lined the walls. A copper still bubbled low in the corner.
"Show me your hand."
Ivy held it out. The rune pulsed. 5:28:14.
Selina's face went white. "Shit. You're marked."
"Marked with what?"
"You're in the loop now." Selina grabbed her wrist, turning it toward the lamp. "This happened twelve years ago. Four students died before anyone caught the caster."
"What loop? Selina—"
"You don't know?" Selina's eyes narrowed. "How long have you been awake?"
"Awake?"
"Aware. Remembering things you shouldn't remember." She let go of Ivy's wrist. "Most people caught in a reset just repeat the same actions, no memory of the last time. If you're marked and you remember — the anchor's targeting you. Specifically."
Ivy's stomach dropped straight through the floor. "You're saying tonight repeats."
"Not repeating yet." Selina flipped pages of cramped handwriting. "The rune's a trigger. Countdown hits zero, the loop fires. Everyone inside the barrier resets six hours back."
"Six hours puts me at the front gate. Six PM."
"Exactly." Selina didn't look up. "Someone built a temporal barrier around this school. Bell tower's the anchor — tallest point, easiest focus. Midnight hits, it fires. Everyone resets. Except the caster. And whoever they marked."
"Why mark me? I just got here."
"You saw something. Or you're a threat. Or—" Selina paused. "Or you're a backup. If the caster dies, the loop needs someone else awake to keep it running."
The walls felt like they were closing in. Ivy backed against the door.
"How do I stop it?"
"Find the anchor. Destroy it before midnight." Selina checked her pocket watch. "Twenty-four minutes."
"That's not enough time."
"Then you don't stop it. You reset and try again next cycle." Selina's eyes locked on hers. "But here's the part that matters. Every cycle the barrier gets stronger. Enough resets, it locks. Permanent. Everyone trapped repeating the same six hours forever."
Ivy's hands were shaking. "How many cycles before that happens?"
"Nobody knows. Ten. A hundred." Selina snapped the journal shut. "People start noticing by the third or fourth reset. Memory bleeds through. They go mad trying to figure out why the night won't end."
The wall clock read 11:42.
A bell tolled. Deep. Close enough to shake dust off the shelves.
Selina's face drained of color. "No. Midnight's not for eighteen more minutes—"
Another toll. Closer.
"Somebody's forcing it early." Selina grabbed Ivy's arm, nails digging in. "When you reset — find me. Third floor, alchemy wing. I'll help you—"
The lights died.
Ivy heard Selina's breath catch, sharp — then nothing. The bells kept coming, faster, folding into a single wall of sound pressing behind her eyes.
She tried to move. Couldn't. Her body felt like it belonged to someone else. The rune flared white-hot, bright enough to burn shapes through her closed eyelids.
The bells stopped.
Silence.
Ivy opened her eyes to gray morning light. Iron gates. A leather bag in her left hand. The Nightfall crest gleaming above her on the arch.
An admission card sat in her right hand, ink still wet.
Arrival time: 6:00 PM.
She flipped it over. Handwriting she didn't recognize: Welcome to Nightfall Academy. Orientation begins at sunset. Don't be late.
The rune was gone. Her sleeve was clean. But when she blinked, she still saw them — two bodies on cold stone, hands marked with the same broken clock.
She remembered every second of it.
Someone laughed behind her. A red-haired girl brushed past, smiling, chattering about her first day. Mara Frost. Alive. Five hours from dying and she didn't know it yet.
Ivy's throat went tight.
And there — leaning against the gatepost in an expensive coat, bored while a servant hauled his trunks — was Leon Wald.
He glanced at her. Blank. No recognition at all. No morgue, no corridor, no warning. None of it had happened for him.
It reset. And I'm the only one who—
A hand closed on Ivy's wrist.
She turned, ready to yank free, and froze. Dark green robes. Ink-stained fingers. Silver key at the collar.
Selina. Standing at the gate like she'd never seen Ivy in her life.
Except her eyes weren't blank. They were locked on Ivy's palm — bare skin, no rune, nothing there at all — like she could still see it burning.
"That's not possible," Selina whispered.
Ivy's pulse spiked. "You remember?"
Selina's grip tightened, and her voice dropped to something only Ivy could hear.
"You're not supposed to remember that—"