Chapter 31 · You Killed Me Once

The stench of burnt wiring and formaldehyde clung to Eli Quill’s throat like a wet rag as he stepped between Sera Vale and the thing that had just crawled out of the containment tank.

Fluorescent lights flickered overhead, casting half-shadows over its face—his face, down to the faint scar along the jawline he’d woken up with three years ago, no memory of how he’d gotten it. The only difference was a thick, silvery slash bisecting its left eyebrow, a mark Eli didn’t carry. Not that he could remember, anyway.

Sera leaned against a dented console behind him, her left arm soaked through with dark blood where a shard of enchanted glass had torn through her tactical suit ten minutes prior. Her pulse pistol was raised, knuckles white around the grip, and her jaw was set so tight Eli could see the muscle ticking in her cheek.

“Remind me,” she said, her voice sharp with suppressed pain, “why every time we dig a little deeper into your past, we find another version of you trying to kill us?”

Eli didn’t answer.