Chapter 33 · Mirror Eyes

"Step away from her, Cael." The voice came from my own mouth, and Cael's hand tightened around my wrist before I could turn.

"Don't look at it," he said.

"That's a little hard when it has my face."

The woman behind the glass smiled.

Same dark hair. Same sharp chin. Same gray eyes. But she didn't have the tiny scar under her left eyebrow. She didn't favor her right leg. She didn't breathe too fast when the System started screaming warnings through her skull.

She looked like me if someone had taken out every bad choice and replaced it with clean code.

The glass wall split with a thin blue line.

Cael shoved me behind him.

"You really think standing in front of me makes you useful?" I snapped.

"It makes you harder to shoot."

"Who said anyone was shooting?"

The mirror Lex lifted one finger.

Every security turret in the ceiling turned toward us.

Cael drew his sidearm in one smooth motion. The muzzle pointed at the glass, but his shoulder blocked my view of the woman.

"Now we know," he said.

"Know what?"

"That she controls the room."

"No.