Chapter 8 · Expunged

"Get back!" Leon shoved Ivy sideways as the gold sphere buckled inward.

It shrank fast, light crushing in like a fist closing around Selina. She threw herself against the inside wall, palms flat, mouth open in a scream that made no sound. The air stank of burned hair and hot metal, so sharp it made Ivy's back teeth ache.

Ivy didn't think. She ripped the dissolver vial off her belt — the one she'd mixed three loops ago for locked doors — and hurled it.

Glass shattered. Black liquid hissed across the gold surface, eating through in smoking holes.

Selina dropped through and hit the stone floor hard, curled on her side, blood running from a cut at her temple. Fresh blood. Ivy had watched this woman die twice before. Never bleeding. Never this scared.

"Selina." Ivy dropped beside her, hands hovering, not sure where she could touch without it hurting worse. "Hey. Can you hear me?"

Selina's eyes snapped open. Brown. Normal. No gold glow left in them. Her hand shot out and closed around Ivy's wrist hard enough to grind bone.

"You remember." Not a question.

Ivy went still.

"You remember the loops.