Chapter 25 · Kill Her, Save the City

"Kill her."

The prompt sits in my vision like a blade pressed to my throat. Red letters. No fade. No flicker.

[OBJECTIVE: Eliminate Mara Voss before 23:47. Reward: Loop stabilization. Penalty: Total collapse.]

I'm still on my knees. Still holding Elin's wrist. Her pulse is steady now, the core's glow fading from her skin, but she's not waking up. Mara's standing three feet away, breathing hard, her coat torn where the chain caught her shoulder. Blood's dripping off her fingers.

"Rowan," she says. "What's wrong."

Not a question. She knows.

I don't answer. Can't. The prompt's burning brighter.

[23:42 remaining.]

"Rowan."

I look up. Her face is chalk-white under the blood. She's staring at me like I just pulled a gun.

"You got another screen," she says.

I stand. My legs don't want to hold. "Yeah."

"What's it say."

I could lie. Should lie. But the look on her face tells me she already knows the shape of it.

"It wants you dead," I say.

She doesn't flinch. Doesn't step back. Just wipes her hand on her thigh and nods once. "Before midnight."

"Before eleven forty-seven."

"Five minutes."

"Yeah."

She looks at Elin, still curled on the stone floor.