Chapter 7 · The Seventh Time

The chip's still warm in my hand when Mom's voice cuts out.

One second she's staring at Rowan like she's seeing a ghost. The next, static eats the feed and the laptop screen goes black. I smack the side of the machine. Nothing. The drive light's dead.

"What did she mean?" Rowan's voice comes from behind me, too steady. Too careful.

I don't turn around. "I don't know."

"She said seventh time. Like there were six before it."

"I heard her."

"She told you not to let me remember."

I finally look back. Rowan's standing in the middle of the room with her arms loose at her sides, but her fingers are curled like she's ready to grab something. Her halo mark's barely visible under the collar of the stolen jacket, just a flicker of silver when she breathes.

"You think she wiped you," I say.

Rowan doesn't blink. "Six times."

"We don't know that's what she meant."

"Then what did she mean?"

I don't have an answer. I shove the chip into my pocket and stand up, my knees cracking. The laptop's a brick now. Whatever Mom buried in that file, it's gone. Or locked.