Chapter 18 · You've Killed Me Before

Kane's gun was pointed at her head.

Not at Silas. Not at the core humming behind them with Cassian's stolen voice. At Elara.

"You're the break point," Kane said. His hand didn't shake. "Every reset. Every collapse. It's always you."

Elara couldn't move. Cassian's body was still warm on the floor beside her. The core pulsed in the walls like a second heartbeat, waiting. And Kane—Kane looked at her the way he had in the fourth reset, right before he put a blade through her ribs in the transit hub.

"Kane." Her voice came out raw. "Put the gun down."

"I remember." His eyes were wrong. Fractured. Like he was seeing a dozen different versions of her all at once. "I remember what you did. What you're going to do."

Silas hadn't moved from his position near the core interface. He was watching them both with that calm, clinical interest. Like they were lab rats running the maze exactly the way he'd designed it.

"What do you remember?" Elara asked. She kept her hands visible. Palms up. No sudden moves.