Chapter 17 · The Man Who Started the Ninth Reset

Nora pointed at Ian like the gun in her hand had already fired.

"He started it."

The archive shook around them.

Metal screamed somewhere beyond the platform. A row of dead screens blinked awake, each one showing Seren’s face at a different age, a different injury, a different kind of fear. On the nearest screen, she was bleeding from the mouth. On the next, she was smiling at Ian. On the third, she was holding a detonator.

Ian stood between Seren and Nora, empty-handed and pale.

"Nora," he said. "You don’t know what you’re looking at."

"I know exactly what I’m looking at." Nora’s voice scraped. She had one hand pressed to her side. Blood leaked between her fingers and dripped onto the black platform. "I watched you open the ninth gate. I watched you put her name into the trigger field."

Seren’s fingers tightened around the memory key.

It was cold. Too cold. The little metal shard pulsed in her palm like it had a heartbeat of its own.

"Ian." She didn’t look at him. Not yet. "Tell me she’s wrong."

"She’s not wrong about the gate."

The archive gave a violent lurch.

Seren hit one knee.