Chapter 24 · The Memory She Can't Lose

The blade's still in my hand when the room changes.

Not the door. Not the core. The air itself shifts like someone's rewriting the code around me, and suddenly I'm not standing in the Throne anymore. I'm in my apartment. My real apartment—the one with the water stain on the ceiling and the kitchen counter I never bothered to wipe down because who cares when you live alone.

I can smell it. Coffee grounds in the trash. That weird dust smell from the radiator.

"What the hell."

Nyx is still here. Still bleeding light from the wound in his chest, but he's standing in my living room now like he belongs there. His coat's torn. His face is pale. The black veins are crawling up his neck.

"This is what you're fighting for," he says quietly. His voice sounds wrong here. Too soft. Too real. "This is the life you want to go back to."

I look around. The place is a mess. Dishes in the sink. Laundry on the couch. My laptop's open on the coffee table, frozen on a bug report I never finished. The screen's cracked. I don't remember doing that.

"I don't—" My throat's tight.