Chapter 20 · The Engine Picks a Host

"You want to live?" Mara's got the gun two inches from my temple, and the ledger's screaming so loud I can taste copper.

"Not particularly."

"Wrong answer." She cocks the hammer. "Try again."

The node's burning through my ribs like someone shoved a live wire into my chest. I'm on my knees in the center of the subway platform, and the black pages are peeling off the ledger, circling us both like they're waiting for something. Blood's running from my nose. My hands won't stop shaking.

"You kill me," I say, "the node goes with me. You let me live, it takes root and keeps feeding. Either way, you lose."

"So pick."

"I just told you there's no good pick."

"Then I'll pick for you." She moves the barrel down, presses it against my heart. "Last chance. You want to live or not?"

The ledger flips open between us. New names pour down the page, hundreds of them, all the debts Cinderfall's been hiding for twenty years. My name's scratched at the top in something that looks like burn marks. Mara's is three lines down.

"It's not asking me," I say. "It's asking you."

She doesn't pull back.