The descent felt like a fall into the throat of a beast. The elevator moved slow. The runes on the glass walls glowed a deep. angry crimson. Vane stood at the front. His back was straight. His hands were clenched at his sides. He had traded his silk shirt for a tactical black jacket. He looked like a soldier going to a war he knew he would lose.
Clara stood behind him. She felt the vibration of the building in her teeth. The Zenith Tower was screaming. The steel was moaning under the weight of a debt that was overdue.
"When the doors open. do not look at the corners of the room." Vane said. His voice was low. "The shadows will try to show you things. They will show you your father. They will show you every regret you ever had. They feed on the salt in your tears."
"I stopped crying years ago." Clara replied. She gripped a small. serrated blade she had taken from the penthouse kitchen. It was a toy compared to the forces in the vault. but it made her feel less like a lamb.
The elevator stopped. The doors groaned open.
The vault was no longer silent. It hummed with a sound like a thousand whispers layered over each other. The air was thick with the smell of ozone and rotting lilies. At the center of the room. Silas stood by the stone altar. He had stripped to the waist. His skin was a map of black veins. He looked like a corpse held together by spite.
"You are late." Silas said. He did not turn around. He was sharpening a silver curved knife on the stone. The sound was a rhythmic screech. Scree. Scree. Scree.
"The moon hasn't peaked." Vane stepped into the chamber.
Silas turned. His eyes were gone. In their place were two pits of swirling black smoke. He looked at Clara. He licked his lips with a grey tongue. "The Key has arrived. The blood is singing. Can you hear it. Vane? The ancestors are waking up. They want to be fed."
The shadows in the corners began to move. They crawled along the floor like ink spilled in water. They had no faces. only long. wispy fingers that reached toward the light of the single candle.
"Stay back. Clara." Vane moved to the left. drawing his father's gaze.
"There is no 'back' anymore. my son." Silas raised the silver knife. "The circle is closed. The girl dies. or the Vesper name dies. There is no middle ground. There is no mercy in the ledger."
Vane lunged.
He moved with a speed that blurred the air. He hit Silas with the force of a wrecking ball. They crashed into one of the iron pillars. The sound of bone hitting metal echoed through the vault. Vane rained blows down on the old man. Each punch sounded like a hammer on a drum.
But Silas did not break. He laughed. He caught Vane's fist in a hand that looked fragile but felt like granite.
"You forget." Silas hissed. "I have the power of the pact behind me tonight. I am the high priest. You are just the sacrifice's keeper."
Silas flung Vane across the room. Vane hit the stone altar and slumped to the floor. The shadows swarmed over him. pinning his arms and legs to the ground. He struggled. his gold eyes burning bright. but the dark mass was too heavy.
Silas turned his attention to Clara. He began to walk toward her. The silver knife caught the red light of the moon filtering down through a narrow ventilation shaft.
"Now. little bird." Silas said. "Let us finish what your father started."
Clara backed away. but a shadow rose from the floor behind her. It wrapped a cold. numbing coil around her waist. She tried to stab it with her kitchen knife. but the blade passed through the smoke as if it were nothing. She was pulled toward the altar.
"Vane!" she screamed.
Vane roared. He shifted his weight. throwing off the shadows for a split second. He reached for the Blood Ledger. which he had dropped near the altar. He didn't grab the book. He grabbed the candle.
"Silas!" Vane shouted.
The old man paused. his knife inches from Clara's throat.
"The ledger is bound in skin." Vane said. his voice shaking with effort. "It is old. It is dry. What happens to the pact if the record is burned before the ritual is complete?"
Silas paled. The smoke in his eyes flickered. "You wouldn't. You would kill us all. The feedback would tear this tower apart."
"I told you. I don't care about the tower." Vane held the flame close to the yellowed pages of the book. "Let her go. or we all go to hell together."
"You are bluffing." Silas sneered. but he stepped back from Clara. "You love the power too much. You love the immortality."
"I love her more." Vane said.
The words hit the room like a physical blow. The shadows recoiled. The humming sound stopped. For a heartbeat. the vault was silent.
Clara looked at Vane. He wasn't looking at the book. He was looking at her. He meant it. He was willing to erase two hundred years of history for a girl he had known for three days.
"Fool!" Silas screamed. He lunged at Vane. not with the knife. but with his bare hands.
Clara felt the shadow around her waist loosen. She dropped to the floor. She saw the silver knife Silas had dropped in his panic. She crawled toward it. Her fingers closed around the cold hilt. It was heavy. The metal felt alive. It throbbed in her palm.
Vane and Silas were locked in a death grip. They rolled across the stone floor. Vane was younger. but Silas was fueled by the raw energy of the moon. The old man had his thumbs pressed into Vane's throat.
"Die with your pride." Silas growled. "I will take the girl myself. I will start a new line. I will forget you ever existed."
Clara stood up. She didn't head for the door. She headed for the altar.
She saw the Blood Ledger. It was open to the last page. Her name was glowing bright red. Beside it. the space for the date was empty. waiting for her blood to seal the deal.
She didn't stab Silas. She didn't try to help Vane. She knew she wasn't strong enough to fight the old man. She looked at the iron pillars. They were etched with the same runes as the elevator. These were the anchors of the spell.
She took the silver knife and drove it into the center of the altar.
The stone cracked.
A bolt of blue light shot out of the crevice. hitting the ceiling. The vault began to shake.
"What are you doing?" Silas screamed. letting go of Vane's throat.
"I'm not the sacrifice." Clara shouted over the roar of the crumbling stone. "I'm the Key. And a key can lock a door as well as open it!"
She twisted the silver knife in the crack. She felt a surge of heat go up her arm. She felt the lives of everyone in the ledger. Their pain. Their fear. Their stolen years. She channeled all of it into the blade.
"Close it!" she yelled.
The altar exploded.
A wave of pure white energy blasted outward. It hit Silas first. He didn't bleed. He simply began to unravel. His skin turned to dust. his bones to ash. He didn't even have time to scream before he was swept away by the wind.
The shadows vanished. The red light of the moon turned to a soft. natural white.
The tower groaned one final time. A massive crack appeared in the ceiling. debris raining down. Vane scrambled to his feet and tackled Clara. shielding her body with his as a section of the iron roof collapsed.
Then. silence.
The vault was a ruin. The altar was a pile of rubble. The Blood Ledger was gone. turned to fine grey powder that coated the floor like snow.
Vane moved. He groaned and sat up. He looked at his hands. They were trembling. He looked at his reflection in a shard of broken glass.
A line appeared on his forehead. Then another around his eyes. His golden eyes faded to a deep. warm brown. He looked older. He looked tired. He looked human.
"Is it over?" Clara whispered. She was covered in dust. her clothes torn. but she was alive.
Vane took a deep breath. He felt the air in his lungs. He felt the ache in his muscles. He felt the rapid. frantic beating of a heart that had been still for a century.
"The pact is broken." Vane said. His voice was raspy. "The money is gone. The tower is just a building now."
"And you?"
Vane looked at her. He reached out and touched her face. His hand was no longer cold. It was warm. It was shaking.
"I'm dying." he said with a small. shaky smile. "For the first time in my life. I'm actually dying. It's wonderful."
Clara leaned her head against his chest. She heard it. The steady. rhythmic thud of a human heart.
"Not today." she said. "We have to get out of here before the police arrive. I know a place in the Underbelly where no one looks."
Vane stood up. He staggered. but he kept his balance. He offered his hand to her.
"Lead the way. Clara Vale. I've spent enough time in the clouds."
They walked toward the elevator. The sun was beginning to rise over the city. The Zenith Tower no longer glowed. It was just glass and steel. silhouetted against a new day.