Chapter 11 · Dead Men Keep the Score

The copy was waiting at the core.

Rowan kicked through the last gate and there it was. Same beat-up coat. Same scar above the left eye. Same way of standing with weight on one leg like hanging was still an option if this went bad.

Except this one was holding Pip's wrench. The one Rowan had dropped three loops ago.

"Took you long enough," the copy said.

Rowan's blade was out. His hands weren't shaking. That was new. "You know why I'm here."

"Sure." The copy tilted its head. "You're here to kill me before I kill your sister. Except I don't want to kill her. I want to know why you keep saving everyone but yourself."

Rowan didn't answer. He stepped left. The copy mirrored him.

Behind it, the core pulsed. Black glass, chest-high, humming like a dying bell. Mara had said the thing was feeding on reset data. Every death. Every loop. Every time Rowan woke up with his neck burning, this thing got fatter.

And now it was spitting out copies.

"You're not real," Rowan said.

"Neither are you." The copy smiled. "How many times you die now? Twelve? Fifteen?