The maze pulses once—displeased. The mirrors flicker out. Silence again.
When I finally stop, I’m in a narrow access tunnel. The lights flicker weakly, and the floor slopes downward into dark.
For the first time since waking here, I sit. Just for a moment.
The hum of machinery fades into the background, replaced by something quieter—something in my own chest. That strange pull again, tethering me to her.
I close my eyes and picture her face—the flash of her eyes, the fury, the defiance. The way she didn’t beg. Didn’t break.
Every Reaper’s born knowing their song. It’s the pulse that binds them to their fate, to their kills, to their pack. Mine always sounded like silence.
Until now.
Now, I can hear her voice in it.
I stand again. No rest. Not until I find her.
The maze can shift, lie, snarl all it wants. It won’t keep her from me. And if I have to carve my way through a thousand dead civilians and Husker’s synthetic nightmares to reach her, then so be it.
Because she’s the only real thing in this machine-built hell.
And if the maze eats its young, then I’ll be the one who bites back.
CHAPTER 7
LIORA
I’m bone-deep tired.
Not the cute kind of tired that gets fixed with a stimshot and a protein bar. No, this is the kind that settles behind your eyes like concrete and whispers mean little things into your ear like“maybe it’s better if you just lie down and rot.”
We’ve lost another civilian today.
That makes… too many.
Her name was Tanley. Brown hair, bad teeth, a weird laugh that kind of grew on you if you let it. She got sick of waiting. Said she could hear something clicking behind the wall and figured she could override it. I told her not to touch anything without clearing it through me first.
She didn’t listen.
The panel slid open so sweet, like it was inviting her in. Thensnap—trapdoor.
She fell screaming into a chasm full of spinning blades that looked like they belonged in a kitchen appliance from hell. We didn’t even hear the thump at the bottom. Just blood splashed back up onto the ceiling tiles like a goddamn Rorschach test.
Dravven muttered, “Guess that’s what we call a trust fall.”
Dirk’s Maze Master flashed up in neon color above the gap. “CONGRATS, PLAYER TANLEY! YOU’VE WON THE DARWIN AWARD!” Digital confetti sprayed out of the wall like bile. “May your genetic material rest in pieces!”
Borzen didn’t say a word. Just stared at the place where Tanley vanished, his fists clenched tight enough to bend steel.
I’m trying not to think about it. Really trying. But every time I close my eyes, I see the blur of her falling. The way her fingers scraped the wall on the way down.
People keep dying.
And it’smygame. My blueprints. My levels. My monsters.
Even if Dirk twisted it, even if he made it worse, it still came fromme.
We find a safe room two hours later. I almost cry when the scanner confirms no trap triggers. Just a single door. A vent I can override. Four hard cots. A water spout with an actual mineral filter.
