Chapter 27 · After Midnight

"Leah." My sister's name came out wrong, like I'd forgotten how to say it.

She stood in the middle of the crowd, and her eyes were glowing. Not reflecting light. Glowing. The same sick green as the core three floors down.

"You shouldn't have come back," she said. Her voice was hers but the rhythm wasn't. Too even. Too calm.

Mara's gun was still in her hand, but she'd lowered it when the clocks zeroed out. Now she brought it back up, angled at Leah. "Step away from the girl."

"I am the girl." Leah smiled. It didn't reach her eyes. "Jace, tell her."

"That's not you," I said.

"It's me and the reset and every hour you stole." She took a step forward. The crowd around her didn't move. Didn't breathe. Frozen mid-panic like someone had hit pause. "Silas said you'd try to break it. He said you'd pick her over the city."

"Where is he?" Mara's voice was flat, cop-flat, the kind that meant she was two seconds from pulling the trigger.

"Gone," Leah said. "He doesn't need to be here anymore. The loop's permanent now. He built it into me."

I moved before I could think.