Chapter 28 · Memory Isn't the Exit

The recording stopped. Cole's voice hung in the air between them, tinny and desperate from three years ago. Kill me. If I take the deal, kill me.

Ivy stared at the blood on her hands. Not hers. Not Cole's. The soldier they'd pulled from the breach had bled out two minutes ago, and she'd been elbow-deep trying to clamp an artery that had already given up. Now she was standing in a server room that shouldn't exist, listening to a dead man beg her to end him.

Except Cole wasn't dead. He was right there, five feet away, jaw tight and eyes locked on the floor like he could will the recording out of existence.

"Say something," Ivy said.

Cole didn't move. The breach behind them hummed, a vertical scar of light that pulsed in time with his heartbeat. Or maybe hers. Hard to tell anymore.

"Cole."

"I meant it," he said finally. His voice was flat. "I knew what I was signing. I knew I wouldn't be able to stop. So I asked you to stop me."

Ivy wiped her hands on her vest. The blood smeared. "You asked me to kill you."

"Yeah."

"Before the first loop."

"Yeah."