Chapter 12 · Echoes of a Broken Loop

"Get your hands off me before I break them," I snapped.

I didn't move. I couldn't. Dax had me pinned against the peeling wallpaper of the safehouse, his chest heaving against mine. The air between us tasted like ozone and old blood.

"You saw it, didn't you?"

His voice was a jagged wreck. He wasn't looking at me. He was staring at the blood-red letters screaming on the wall—the ones that spelled out my rebirth.

"The loops. The deaths. You saw me kill you."

"I saw a lot of things," I spat. I shoved his shoulder, but he didn't budge. He was a wall of granite and desperation. "I saw you look like you were mourning me while you slid a knife into my ribs. Care to explain? Or is that just how you say 'hello' in your world?"

Dax finally looked at me. His eyes were bloodshot, pupils blown wide. He didn't look like a feared enforcer anymore. He looked like a man who'd been drowning for a century and just found a piece of driftwood.

He leaned in. His breath was hot against my ear, his voice dropping to a dangerous, trembling whisper.

"It wasn't a choice, Mara.