JADE
Five timesI’ve watched these floating flames dance. Five times I’ve smelled sulfur mixed with cheap alcohol and a burned sleeve from a fire trick gone wrong. Five times I’ve stood in this same spot while the bass thrums through the floor and everyone has no idea they’re about to get slaughtered.
My hands won’t stop shaking.
“Jade,” Logan says, his fingers finding mine. They’re ice-cold, but my electricity jumps at the contact, and color returns to his skin. “This is the last one.”
No more resets. No more second chances. Whoever I save in the next few minutes, I keep. Whoever I lose, I lose forever.
The thought should terrify me, but it doesn’t. I’m too empty for terror. Four loops of watching people die in different ways has scraped me out until all that’s left is the mission.
Get them out of the caves as quickly as possible. Outside, I can end this. Outside, Ihaveended this.
“Hellhounds!” Logan screams through the cave. “Main exit! Everyone move!”
I’m shoving through the crowd before the screaming starts, to the drink table where Sam’s standing.
I grab his arm, and he drops his drink. “Stay behind me,” I tell him. “Don’t stop. Don’t help anyone.”
Glowing red eyes appear in the tunnels. That ancient smell rolls out ahead of them—sulfur, decay, and a bloodbath waiting to happen.
I don’t wait for the first creature to emerge. I’m already dragging Sam to the exit, my free hand crackling with electricity.
Elizabeth and Francis are where they always are, with him leading her to the back of the cave, where more hellhounds will eventually come through.
A hellhound bursts through on my left, and I throw a bolt without looking. Muscle memory from four loops of practice.
“This way!” I’m screaming at Elizabeth and Francis, but the chaos is too loud. Fire is erupting in bursts. People are trampling each other. Deacon goes down hard in front of me and I have to jump over him, dragging Sam with me.
“Jade, wait.” Sam’s trying to slow down, to look back.
“Don’t.” I yank him forward. “Keep moving.”
“But there are people?—”
“There are always people. Move.”
We’re halfway to the exit when I hear it.
“Everyone get behind me! I’ll create a barrier! I’ve studied advanced defensive formations!”
Deidre stands on the platform near the center of the cave, clear and commanding. The angle is different this time, but the same scene plays out ahead of me, her dark ponytail swinging as her hands weave fire into elaborate patterns.
“Deidre, no!” Lauren screams, high and desperate. “You can’t hold that alone!”
She can’t. She never can. But she’s going to try anyway, because she’s Deidre Mitchell, and she has a five-year plan, and no understanding that some problems can’t be solved because you wrote a paper on the subject and got an A.
Her barrier expands, bright and fierce.
One of the hellhounds crouches low, but there are too many bodies between us, and even if I tried throwing a bolt, I’d probably hit someone innocent. That would break me in a way I don’t think even Logan’s time travel could fix.
The creature leaps. Deidre’s mouth opens in surprise. The hellhound’s jaws close.
I look away before her body hits the ground.
“Deidre!” Lauren’s scream tears through the cave, and she tries to run to the body, but she’s dragged back like she was in the first timeline by people trying to save her life.
I grab Sam’s arm tighter.
