Chapter 13 · The Girl in the Pod

The thing in the pod wore my face.

Not a copy. Not close enough to fool someone. My actual face, down to the scar I got at fourteen when I tried to hardwire a surge regulator and it blew back into my cheekbone. The pod fluid made everything look soft, dreamlike, but I could see the entrance wound in her chest. Small. Clean. Right where Kane's bullet went through in loop seven.

I couldn't look away.

"Elara." Kane's hand closed around my wrist. "Don't."

Too late. I was already moving toward the pod. My legs didn't ask permission. The blue light coming off the corpse's eyes painted everything the color of transit fire, and I felt my own eyes watering, burning, like I'd stared too long at a track relay.

"She's not awake," Silas said from somewhere behind me. Calm. Pleased, even. "Not in any way you'd recognize. The core needed a vessel. You gave it one."

"I didn't give it anything." My voice came out steady. Steadier than I felt. I was three feet from the glass now. The corpse's chest wasn't moving. No breath.