Chapter 10 · The File With Her Face

The archive door slammed shut behind them, and Mara's knife was already at Cass's throat.

"You called me Minnow." Her voice was flat. The blade didn't shake. "I never told you that name."

Cass could feel his pulse jumping against the edge. "I can explain—"

"You've got ten seconds before I check if rich boys bleed different."

The air in the archive was thick and wrong. Dust hung in the mage-light like it was afraid to settle. Rows of filing cabinets stretched into darkness that shouldn't fit inside a campus building. Somewhere in the back, something metal groaned.

Cass kept his hands up. "You told me yesterday. Or the day before that. Or the thirtieth time we lived through exam morning."

"You're insane."

"I'm stuck." He met her eyes. They were the color of burnt honey and about as warm. "Every time I die, I wake back up in my dorm room with Nix snoring on the top bunk. I've lived this day fifty-three times. You die in most of them."

Mara's jaw tightened. "Try again."

"First loop, you died in the courtyard. Something with too many teeth came through a summoning circle while Seraphina was showing off.