The elevator didn't just drop; it fell. My stomach lurched into my throat as the floor indicator bypassed 'L' and descended into a series of negative numbers that shouldn't have existed in the blueprints of Valerius Tower.
"What did you do?" I demanded, slamming my palm against the emergency stop button. The metal hissed under my touch, beginning to warp from the heat radiating through my skin. "My father built this tower. There is nothing below the parking garage but bedrock."
"Your father built many things the world wasn't ready to see, Elara," Julian replied, his voice terrifyingly calm despite the freefall. He didn't pull his hand away from my arm. If anything, his grip tightened, and a strange, numbing chill began to counteract the fire in my veins. "And your uncle was about to let the wrong things in."
The elevator slammed to a halt at Floor -13. The doors shrieked as they forced themselves open, revealing not a basement, but a sprawling hangar of black steel and flickering blue bioluminescence.
Rows of weapons—none of them conventional—lined the walls. Swords that hummed with electric frequency, rifles that looked like they fired concentrated light, and suits of liquid-metal armor.
"Welcome to the Vane Armory," Julian said, stepping out.
I followed him, my boots clicking against the cold floor. "You said the hunt started early. What hunt? And what was that sound in the boardroom?"
Before he could answer, a roar tore through the ventilation shafts above us. It wasn't human. It was deep, guttural, and vibrated in my very marrow. Above us, the ceiling of the hangar groaned as something heavy slammed against the concrete.
"The Hounds of the Board," Julian said, walking toward a central terminal. "Your uncle isn't just a traitor; he's a cultist. He didn't just sell your debt to me to save the company. He sold the city's safety to the Void to get rid of you."
Suddenly, the steel ceiling panels buckled.
A creature plummeted down, landing twenty feet from us. It was a nightmare stitched together from shadows and teeth—six legs, eyes that glowed with a sickly green rot, and skin that seemed to smoke in the presence of light.
It was a Void Stalker. A monster that fed on kinetic energy.
"Perfect," I snarled, my hair beginning to whip around my face as the temperature in the room spiked. "I've been dying to burn something all morning."
"Wait—" Julian warned, reaching for a sleek, obsidian blade on the rack.
But I was already moving. I launched myself forward, my fists trailing plumes of white-hot flame. I swung a right hook, aiming for the creature's snout. The moment my fire made contact with its shadow-flesh, the beast didn't scream. It inhaled.
The flames were sucked from my hands into the creature's throat. It grew larger, its muscles pulsing with the orange glow of my own power. It turned its predatory gaze toward me, snarling with newfound strength.
"I told you," Julian's voice came from right behind my ear. "It feeds on energy, Elara. The more you burn, the stronger it gets."
The monster lunged. Its claws, long as steak knives, swept toward my throat.
In a blur of motion, Julian moved. He didn't use fire. He didn't use force. He simply stepped into the creature's shadow. The air around him turned into a literal black hole, a void so absolute it made my fire look like a candle in a hurricane.
He drove the obsidian blade through the creature's skull. The beast dissolved into black soot instantly, its stolen heat dissipating into the cold air.
Julian stood over the ashes, his suit not even wrinkled. He turned back to me, his storm-gray eyes locking onto mine.
"Your fire is a gift, but in the dark heart of this city, it is also a dinner bell," he said, wiping the blade with a silk handkerchief. "If you want to survive the next hour, you're going to have to do something you'll hate."
"And what's that?" I spat, frustrated that my power had failed me.
Julian stepped closer, his presence looming. He held out his hand. Not to shake mine, but to offer a heavy, silver collar etched with the same runes as the contract.
"You need to let me bind your power to mine," he said. "My shadow can cloak your fire. Together, we are invisible. Apart, you are a beacon for every horror your uncle just let loose."
"You want to put a leash on me?" I laughed, a harsh, dry sound. "Not in this life, Vane."
The ceiling above us began to crumble entirely. Five more shadows detached themselves from the darkness of the vents, their green eyes multiplying in the gloom.
"Then we die in this one," Julian said simply, raising his blade. "Choose quickly, Elara. The door to the Vault is opening, and your father is on the other side of it."
My heart stopped at the mention of my father. I looked at the monsters, then at the silver collar, then into Julian's cold, beautiful eyes.
"Fine," I hissed, grabbing the collar. "But if you ever try to use this to make me sit or stay, I will find a way to burn your shadow out of existence."
Julian's eyes flashed with something that almost looked like admiration. "Deal."
I snapped the collar around my neck. A jolt of ice-cold energy shot through my spine, and suddenly, the world went quiet. The heat in my blood didn't disappear—it concentrated. It became a laser instead of a bonfire.
Julian grabbed my waist, pulling me flush against him as the five Stalkers leaped at once.
"Hold your breath," he whispered.
The shadows swallowed us whole.