Echoes of Ash (Part 3)
The night Vale Corp stopped feeling like an office building and started feeling like a trap.
The company tower rose above the river, its mirrored glass glittering like a blade. From the street, it looked serene—late workers, night guards, a hum of productivity. Inside, it pulsed with secrets.
Damian and I moved through the underground access corridor like ghosts. My fake ID badge burned cold against my chest, coded with just enough clearance to pass a casual scan. The hum of servers overhead was a mechanical heartbeat.
Jase's voice came through my earpiece, low and steady.
> "You've got six minutes until the maintenance patrol loops back. Kendra's card pinged on the east stairwell. She's in motion."
"Copy," Damian said. His voice had dropped into that tone I'd learned meant violence was just beneath the surface. "Keep eyes on her. If she veers, tell me."
We emerged into the service level. A breeze of cold recycled air brushed my face. The smell of ozone and disinfectant burned my throat. Somewhere above, the city breathed—but down here, the building exhaled secrets.
We took the stairs to Floor 34. Each step echoed too loud. My mark tingled, sensing power. The presence inside me stirred.
> She's close.
I ignored it.
The corridor outside 34B was silent except for the hum of servers behind glass walls. Rows of black machines blinked with tiny green lights. Damian scanned the corridor. Nothing moved.
"Where is she?" I whispered.
He touched his earpiece. "Jase?"
No reply. Just static.
"Signal jam," Damian muttered. "She's cutting our feed."
I stepped toward the glass door of 34B. Inside, a single light glowed. Someone was in there.
"Kendra," I said, more to myself than him.
Damian moved in front of me, body blocking my view. "Stay back."
He swiped a card against the scanner. The lock clicked. He opened the door slow, careful.
Inside, Kendra stood at the terminal, typing fast, her movements efficient—not panicked. The screen reflected in her glasses: a map of the Veil's coordinates, the same anchors Damian had shown me in the upper realm.
"Kendra," he said.
She froze. Then, without looking back, she smiled. "You're early."
"Step away from the console," Damian said, voice even.
"I don't think so," she replied, her tone lighter than it had any right to be. "You have no idea how long I've waited for this."
I moved closer, heart pounding. "For what? For Evelyn? For money?"
Kendra turned then, finally looking at me. Her expression was something between pity and triumph. "For a world that doesn't belong to your kind," she said. "Evelyn opened the first door, but I held it open."
The screen behind her pulsed, a symbol glowing across the data—a crescent fused with a crown. My breath caught. I'd seen it before. On my ring.
"What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything," she said. "I just called home."
The servers began to hum louder. The lights flickered. A vibration ran through the floor like the building itself was inhaling.
Damian lunged toward her. "Cut it off!"
But Kendra only smiled wider. "You can't stop it now."
Then the glass shattered.
A gust of black smoke punched through the air like a physical force. It hit the room hard enough to throw Kendra against the wall. Damian grabbed me, pulling me behind the terminal. The lights went red. Alarms screamed.
Through the fractured window, something crawled in. Not smoke. Not shadow. Something between. It slid along the floor like liquid, forming limbs and eyes and a face that wasn't one.
> We remember you, the presence inside me hissed, but the words came through my mouth.
Damian's head snapped toward me. "Aria—"
"I can feel it," I gasped. My skin burned. The mark on my wrist flared like molten metal. "It's the same energy from the gala—she brought it here!"
Kendra laughed, broken but triumphant. "You can't kill it. It's hers now."
The creature lunged.
Damian met it mid-air, his arm flaring with light. The impact shook the room, sending sparks through the servers. I ducked under the table, crawling toward Kendra, who was pinned against the wall.
"You opened the Veil," I shouted. "You're going to close it."
Her smile cracked. "You think you can control it? You are it, Aria. You're the key, the lock, and the curse."
Something inside me snapped.
The light poured out again, uninvited. It surged through my veins, through the floor, through the cables. The computers exploded in sparks. The creature screamed—a sound like metal twisting.
Damian was thrown backward. I caught his fall with one hand, light spilling from my fingers. He landed hard but alive.
"Don't stop!" he barked. "Push it back!"
I did.
The energy burned. It ate through me. Every nerve screamed. The shadow resisted, clawing at the walls, the ceiling, my skin.
> Let me drive, the voice inside me urged. You're too slow.
"No!" I shouted, my voice breaking. "You don't get to win!"
Damian's hand caught mine, grounding me. "Focus on me, Aria! Right here!"
I looked at him. His eyes were silver fire. He was bleeding, pale, but his grip was strong.
"Breathe," he said again. "Four in. Six out. You control it."
I did. I forced the light into a single pulse, a spear instead of a storm. It slammed into the creature's chest, driving it backward through the glass wall. The thing convulsed, screamed once, then exploded into smoke that vanished into nothing.
Silence followed. The alarms died. The lights flickered, steady again.
Kendra lay on the floor, unconscious, her hand still clutched around a broken data drive.
I fell to my knees, gasping. My whole body trembled with leftover energy. Damian dropped beside me, catching my shoulders.
"You did it," he said.
I laughed weakly. "I almost killed us."
"Welcome to my world."
He pressed his forehead to mine for a brief, disorienting second. His breath was uneven. It wasn't romantic; it was survival pretending to be tenderness. But it was something.
Then the monitors crackled. The image of Evelyn March filled every screen.
"Congratulations," she said, her voice calm, almost maternal. "You've proven your potential, Aria. You've confirmed what I suspected. The Silver Line is still alive."
Damian tensed. "Evelyn."
"Don't look so shocked, Damian," she said. "You really thought I was your loyal operations director? I've been keeping the Veil balanced for decades. And now, thanks to your little wife, I can finally stabilize it permanently."
I forced myself to stand. "You're the one who sent them. The shadow things."
"I invited them," she corrected. "They are the Veil's original guardians. You just never learned to speak their language."
"What do you want?"
"Order," she said simply. "And you, Aria. Alive."
The feed cut.
Damian cursed under his breath. "She's moving faster than I thought." He hauled me to my feet. "We have to go. Now."
"What about Kendra?"
"She made her choice."
I looked down at her, unconscious but breathing. For a heartbeat, pity warred with anger. Then I turned away.
We ran. The building around us trembled again. Somewhere below, alarms blared anew. The smell of smoke followed us up the stairwell, mixing with the faint, electric tang of my power.
When we burst through the rooftop access, the city air hit like a slap. The skyline burned orange under the first hint of dawn. Helicopters spun distant circles.
Damian turned to me, chest heaving. "She's not done," he said. "That transmission—it came from the Core Facility."
"The Core?"
"The heart of Vale Corp. The place no one's supposed to enter. If Evelyn's there, she's going to merge the Veil completely."
"And if she succeeds?"
He looked at me. His eyes held a thousand futures, all burning. "Then the human world ends."
The wind tore across the rooftop, whipping my hair. I felt the ring pulse once, as if the Veil itself was listening.
And then the voice inside me whispered—calm, almost eager:
> Then we stop pretending to be human.