Chapter 10 · The Backup He Buried

"Run, Mara Venn. Before he remembers how to kill you."

The dead Dax wasn't looking at the living one. He was looking right at me.

Same face. Same scar through his left eyebrow. Only his throat was black. Burned. Like someone seared a collar straight into the skin. And his sigil — that Tribunal badge on his hand — was cracked clean down the middle.

"Don't listen to it," Dax snarled. His hand clamped around my wrist. Too hard. Shaking. "It's not me. It's a playback. Just code."

"It's not code," I snapped back. "It's you. A you that already died in here. So what'd you do?"

The holo-table between us pulsed. Cold blue light washing up our faces. Leo was dead weight against Dax's chest, breathing shallow. The archive door had sealed behind us with a sound like teeth snapping shut.

"Archive designation: Calder, Dax. Arrest Judge, Grade One," the dead one said. His voice was flat. Empty. "Accessing personal log. You want the truth, courier? Or the version he can live with?"

"Mara, don't," Dax said. Low. Right against my ear. His chest heaved against my shoulder. That blue was crawling at the edge of his eyes again.