Chapter 36 · And the field?

"And the field?"

"It takes the first living identity it can reach."

"So it takes yours."

"Apparently."

The floor split behind him. A line of white fire raced toward my feet.

Adrian grabbed the vault door with both hands and pulled it wider.

Metal shrieked beneath his grip. The collapsing frame drove into his shoulders, forcing him down inch by inch.

"Go," he said.

"I'm not leaving you under that."

"You have the ledger."

"I don't have the ledger yet."

"Then get it."

I ran.

The memory field snapped at my ankles as I crossed the aisle. Every step dragged at me, filling my head with broken voices.

My mother's voice.

A child's laugh.

Marlow shouting an order I couldn't make out.

Then Adrian's voice, younger and raw.

"Give me ten minutes. That's all I need."

I stumbled.

His voice came again through the static.

"If she wakes up, they'll erase her."

My mother answered, clear as a blade.

"You don't get to decide what happens to my daughter."

I reached the steel table and slammed both hands against it.

The ledger wasn't a book. It was a thin stack of black glass sheets held together by a silver spine.