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"They all knew something." Karl's voice still scraped through Ivv's skull when the dean stepped up to the ceremony podium. "They all knew, and nobody warned me."
Sixth time. Same freshmen. Same chandeliers. Same dean clearing his throat like half the room wouldn't be dead before midnight.
The crystal in Ivy's pocket burned against her thigh.
She stood before the speech reached "legacy and excellence." Then she slipped through the side door and ran.
"Third door," she muttered. "Left side. Move."
Twenty minutes, maybe less. That was how long the first body had lasted in the other loops.
She counted doors down the infirmary hall, pulled the acid vial from her belt, and dripped it over the lock. Metal hissed. The latch sagged.
The body was already inside.
Ivy stopped with her hand on the door.
"You're not supposed to die for fifteen more minutes."
The boy lay across the exam table, robes scorched, chest split open. Burnt flesh clogged the air. Under it sat a sharp chemical stink that didn't belong in any living body—or any normal murder.
"Fine," she said. "You want to ruin the schedule? I'll ruin yours."
She opened her kit.
This part never changed. Mix the reagents. Dust the trace powder. Let the corpse answer what its mouth couldn't.
The powder turned blue.
Then it flared white and split. Blue over the wound. Red beneath the boy's left ribs.
"Red means a mark," Ivy whispered. "A hidden one."
She leaned close. Cold spilled off his skin. Beneath it, a bruise-dark shape rested under the flesh, too clean to be an injury.
Her mentor had forbidden the next compound on living tissue.
"Good thing you're dead," she told the corpse.
The liquid touched the red.
The skin cleared.
A tiny crest appeared, burned straight into the muscle.
Ivy's breath caught. "That's the academy seal."
She wiped at the mark with one gloved finger, then pulled back.
"No. Not the current one."
The towers pointed upside down. The moon in the crest was full instead of crescent. Somebody had taken the academy seal and turned it inside out.
"I've seen this before," she said. "Third loop. Different body. I called it a coincidence because the alternative was worse."
She slammed the kit shut.
"It's not a coincidence."
The next room was two halls over. Ivy kicked in the door without touching the lock.
A girl lay on the floor, blonde hair stuck to her cheek, neck bent at an angle no neck could survive.
"Don't make me ask twice," Ivy said, dropping to her knees. "Show me."
The powder went blue, then red beneath the left ribs.
The same inverted crest surfaced.
"What the hell are you branding them for?"
Four more bodies answered her.
One stabbed. One burned. One poisoned. One with a broken neck. The deaths changed every time. The mark didn't.
Ivy crouched over the fifth corpse and stared at the dark crest.
"You're not just killing them," she said. "You're claiming them."
Footsteps struck the hall.
Ivy froze.
The powder still glowed against the girl's ribs. Three seconds, maybe two, before whoever was outside reached the door.
"Come on," Ivy breathed. "Go out. Go out."
She shoved the vials into her belt and smeared the light with her sleeve. The glow dragged across the skin in a red streak.
The door opened.
Leon stood there.
His eyes went from Ivy to the body, then to the dying glow beneath the girl's ribs. There was no smile, no polished charm. This wasn't the Leon who had flirted through five versions of the ceremony.
"What are you doing?"
"Checking bodies." Ivy got to her feet. "You?"
"Looking for the person who put them here."
"Then you're late."
His gaze sharpened. "You're the scholarship girl. Ivy, right?"
"Don't say it like you've earned the right to know my name."
"I haven't. Have you found anything?"
She should've lied. In five loops, Leon never believed her about the resets. He'd either laughed, threatened to report her, or walked away with that irritatingly perfect smile.
But he was searching the infirmary too.
Maybe this time he was finally looking in the right place.
"They're marked," Ivy said. "Under the skin. Left ribs."
"What kind of marks?"
"The academy seal, except it's wrong. Inverted."
"Show me."
"Ask nicely."
"Ivy."
"That wasn't nice."
His jaw tightened. "Please."
She almost smiled. Almost.
Ivy reopened the kit and coated the girl's ribs. The crest rose from the flesh, precise and black-edged.
Leon crouched beside her. He didn't touch the body. His shoulder brushed Ivy's arm when he leaned in, and heat pressed through both layers of cloth.
"That's not the academy seal," he said.
"You noticed. Congratulations."
"The real seal has a crescent. These towers face down."
"So what is it?"
He studied the crest. "An old version. Before the rebuild. My family has one in the archive."
"Your family has a murderer's brand in its archive?"
"My family has a lot of things it doesn't explain."
"Convenient."
Leon lifted his eyes to hers. He was close enough that she could feel his breath against her cheek.
"You want answers or an argument?"
"I can do both."
"The old seal belonged to the academy when it was a fortress. Whoever's using it wants these deaths tied to what existed before the school."
"Or they're trying to wake something."
His expression changed.
"How many bodies?" he asked.
"Six."
"Six?"
"Different deaths. Same mark."
Leon rose, his hand hovering near the weapon at his belt. "Then the mark comes first."
"Exactly. The killer chose them before tonight."
"Before the ceremony?"
"Before they arrived."
He looked toward the hall. "They're all freshmen."
"We all took the entrance exam."
"Written test. Practical. Blood seal for the registry."
Ivy stared at him. "They took our blood."
"It's standard. The wards use it to track students on campus."
"Or the wards use it to mark us."
"Don't jump."
"I'm already there. The registry feeds the wards. The wards run through the barrier core. Someone with access to the core can reach every student whose blood is in that registry."
Leon went pale. "They can brand anyone in the school."
"Now you're catching up."
The crystal pulsed in Ivy's pocket.
Leon looked down. "What is that?"
"A problem."
"I asked what it is."
She pulled it free.
White light leaked between her fingers. The crystal had gone hot enough to sting her palm.
Leon grabbed her wrist. "Put it away."
"Let go."
"Ivy, put it away."
"You first."
His fingers tightened. His pulse beat hard beneath her skin.
"Where did you get it?"
"Someone gave it to me. Someone who's been trapped in this night longer than I have."
Leon released her as if she'd burned him. "This night?"
"You heard me."
"No, I heard a scholarship student claim she's been trapped in a night. Explain."
"We don't have time."
"You keep saying that. Why?"
She nearly said it. Loop. Reset. Midnight. The hook that dragged her back every time the night broke.
Then she remembered Leon laughing in the first loop. His suspicion in the second. The blade at her throat in the fourth.
Not yet.
"Forget it," she said. "The person behind this needs direct access to the core. We find the main fragment, we find the killer."
The crystal flashed.
"Ivy—"
She dropped it.
The shard struck marble, and white light burst through the infirmary. Cracks of radiance raced along the walls. For one breath, stone turned transparent.
A web of magic showed beneath the academy, lines crossing in tight geometric patterns.
One point burned brighter than the rest.
Leon stared. "Where?"
"Library. Third floor. Restricted section."
"That's where the core is?"
"You tell me."
"Run."
The light vanished.
Ivy snatched up the crystal. It scorched her palm, but she held on.
They tore through the halls.
"You run like you've done this before," Leon said.
"You talk like you want to slow down."
"I'm trying to understand you."
"Try faster."
They crossed the garden. Ivy passed the fountain where Selina drowned in the fifth loop and the dorm where the second body appeared.
Leon stayed beside her, close enough that his sleeve kept striking hers.
"The library locks after eight," he said.
"I know."
"How?"
"Because I pay attention."
The library doors stood wide open.
Leon slowed. "That's wrong."
"Someone's already inside."
"You sound pleased."
"I'm pleased when I find proof."
"Proof of what?"
"That I'm not the only one who knows how tonight ends."
She shoved through the doors.
The library lamps were dark. The old shelves rose around them, packed with books that predated the academy's rebuild.
"Stay behind me," Leon said.
"Try making me."
"Ivy."
"If something jumps out, I want to see it first."
They took the stairs two at a time. The iron gate to the restricted section hung from one hinge.
Leon drew his blade. "Now you stay behind me."
"You don't get to order me around because you finally brought a knife."
"I do if the thing that opened this gate can cut through you."
"Then keep up."
She stepped through first.
Old paper filled the air. Under it came the stink of scorched stone.
At the far end, a black pedestal stood beneath the highest shelves. Geometric lines covered its surface.
The center was empty.
Smoke curled from a fresh scorch mark.
Leon lowered his blade. "The core fragment was here."
"How long ago?"
He held his hand over the pedestal without touching it. "Minutes."
"Then whoever took it is still in the building."
"We split up."
"No."
"You just spent the entire night telling me to move faster."
"And now I'm telling you not to die alone in a dark library."
His eyes held hers for one beat too long.
"Worried about me?" he asked.
"Worried you'll leave me with all the questions."
"That almost sounded like concern."
"Don't get excited."
Ivy threw trace powder over the pedestal.
Blue light raced along the carved lines. Then it struck something and turned red.
A handprint appeared on the stone.
Fresh. Glowing.
Leon leaned close. His warmth reached her shoulder, but his voice dropped beside her ear.
"Can you follow it?"
"Move your face."
"You can feel my breath from there?"
"I can feel your ego from across the room."
"So that's a yes?"
She dripped the second compound over the print.
The red spilled off the pedestal, crawled across the floor, and climbed the wall. It moved like a living trail.
Leon stepped back. "Where's it going?"
"Out."
The glow ran through the gate and down the stairs.
Ivy grabbed her kit. "Back to the ceremony."
"The killer's targeting the freshmen?"
"The trail is."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one you've got."
They ran.
Three flights down. Across the garden. Through the side hall.
The crystal burned through Ivy's pocket now. Voices carried from the ceremony hall. The dean was still speaking. Two hundred freshmen still believed the night was normal.
Leon caught her arm before she pushed through the door.
"If the person in there has the core fragment, you don't rush them."
"You want to explain that to the bodies?"
"I want you alive long enough to explain the loops."
The words hit harder than they should have.
Ivy pulled free. "Then don't blink."
She opened the door.
The dean kept talking. Nobody looked around.
Ivy raised her hand. Reagent still coated her fingers.
The glow snapped toward the third row.
One student sat too still among the others. His shoulders were square. His eyes stayed fixed on the stage.
The trail brightened.
Leon stopped beside her.
"That's impossible," he said.
"You know him?"
"I know me."
The student in the crowd turned his head.
Slowly.
His face was Leon's face.
The crystal jerked in Ivy's pocket, answering him.
The double smiled and spoke without moving his lips.
"Ivy."
The real Leon's hand closed around her wrist.
"Don't answer him," he said. "If that thing has the core, it can use your blood seal."
The double rose from the third row. Students shifted around him, still listening to the dean, still unaware that a second Leon had stood among them all night.
"Ivy," it said again. "Choose."
A red line appeared beneath the skin of her left ribs.
Leon saw it.
His grip tightened. "The mark's on you."
The double lifted one hand.
The crystal tore itself from Ivy's pocket and flew toward the stage. Leon lunged after it, while the double reached for her blood seal—and Ivy raised her burning palm toward...