Chapter 12 · The Name Behind the Door

Quinn's body is still dissolving into pixels when I start running.

Nyx catches my wrist. "Where are you going?"

"The core." I yank free. "You heard him. I wrote you first. That means something."

"It means you trapped me here." Her voice is flat. "Before you trapped yourself."

I stop. Turn. She's standing in the wreckage of Quinn's last stand, her coat torn, her weapon still drawn. There's blood on her hands—his blood, even if it's just code. Even if he respawns somewhere. Even if none of this is real.

"You think I did this on purpose?" I ask.

She doesn't answer. Just stares at me with those golden eyes that see every loop, every reset, every time I forgot her.

"Nyx."

"Don't." She sheathes the blade. "Don't say my name like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you know me."

I want to argue. Want to say I do know her—I've died to her, bled for her, kissed her in a church while the world broke around us. But Quinn's last words are still ringing in my ears. Vera wrote Nyx first. If that's true, then every memory I have of meeting her is a lie.