Alaira had gone quiet.
We stood in the mirror room still, the pages in my hand trembling less than the realization settling in my chest.
"I wasn't the only one who made a deal," I said softly.
She didn't answer right away. Her gaze wandered to a broken mirror—one that showed her weeping over a burning letter.
"I was supposed to forget," Alaira whispered. "He said I'd only remember if you started breaking the loop."
My breath caught. "You knew me before?"
"In the first loop, we weren't friends. But I saw what they did to you. How the prince lied. How the court used you as a scapegoat." Her jaw clenched. "I tried to stop it. And I died for it."
My heartbeat pounded in my ears.
"He offered me a choice," she continued. "Lose all memory and live peacefully, or remember just enough to protect you this time. I chose the second."
"And now?" I asked.
"Now I remember too much."
The air around us changed. The mirrors began to crack, one by one.
"Warning," the ink-void voice echoed in the chamber. "Two bound souls. Parallel paths. One deviation too far."
Alaira met my eyes. "You're not the only threat to his control anymore."
"No," I said, stepping forward. "We both are."
The door ahead opened on its own. No longer sealed.
The Author had noticed.
But so had we.