Chapter 31 · One Last Knife Before Midnight

The ring burned cold against Mara's palm. She didn't look at it. Couldn't. Because the seal was screaming.

Every loop Cass had lived through was unspooling across the tower door like film catching fire. Her blade at his throat. Her boot on his ribs. Her hand shoving him into the thing with too many teeth. Over and over. Different angles. Same ending.

"Mara." Cass's voice cracked. He was still gripping her wrist, the one that wasn't holding the ring. "Don't watch that."

"Kind of hard to miss." Her throat felt raw. The memories kept flickering. In one loop she looked bored. In another she was crying. "How many times did I kill you?"

"Doesn't matter."

"How many, Cass."

He let go of her wrist. His hand dropped. "I stopped counting at sixteen."

Sixteen. She'd murdered him sixteen times and he'd handed her the one thing that could finish the job. The ring sat heavy in her palm, frost spreading up her fingers. The seal was drinking it in. Hungry. The carvings around the door were moving now, serpents eating their own tails, wings folding into throats.

Behind them, Nix swore. "Uh, guys? The floor's doing the thing again.