The Vault of Endings was behind them now — sealed, rewritten, and left under the protection of the First Rewrite.
But Jayden's journey wasn't over.
Not even close.
Because far to the north, hidden deep beneath the ruined spine of the Black Hollow Mountains, the true vampire dominion stirred.
Not the Hollow Court.
Not the Outsiders.
Not rebels.
But the Elder Bloods — ancient vampire lineages that had not walked the surface in over a thousand years.
And now…
> They had summoned him.
---
The Black Carriage
Jayden stood at the edge of the Deadmoor, watching as a sleek black carriage emerged from the mist — no horses, no wheels. It hovered, silent, dragged forward by shadows stitched into the air.
The driver was faceless.
The door opened without a word.
> "They want me to come alone," Jayden said.
Elira narrowed her eyes. "That's not a visit. That's a test."
Jayden nodded. "And I'll pass it."
He stepped inside.
---
Welcome to Vharnyx Keep
The ride took hours — or maybe seconds. Time bent inside the carriage like a folded page.
When Jayden stepped out, he was in the ancient Vampire Keep of Vharnyx — a towering obsidian fortress with walls that bled mist and windows shaped like fangs.
Everything was still.
Until the silence broke with the deep, thundering toll of a bloodbell.
Then came the Elders.
They didn't walk.
They descended.
Floating down from balconies and ceiling spires, dressed in cloaks made from memory, armor etched with the faces of every prey they'd ever killed.
Their eyes glowed — red, violet, black, gold.
> These were not modern vampires.
These were predators of legend.
---
The Blood Assembly
Twelve thrones.
Twelve Elders.
The thirteenth throne — once belonging to the ancient Lord Vellian — remained empty.
Jayden stood before them as the Youngblood, the hybrid, the prophecy-child who had broken the Hollow, defied the Archivist, and now carried the Godfragment.
They spoke one after another.
Duchess Nyserra, with blood-lace dripping from her teeth: "You are chaos given form."
Lord Mordax, eyes like dried veins: "You brought the war to our doorstep, boy."
Count Thorne, youngest of the Elders, smiled: "Or maybe… you're exactly what we need."
Jayden raised his chin. "I didn't come to kneel."
Lady Nyserra hissed. "Then speak fast, before we drink your reason from your throat."
---
The Challenge of Blood
Old vampire law could not be rewritten — only answered.
Jayden was told to prove his worth in the ancient way: The Feast and the Fang.
First, he must drink from the Chalice of Bone — a test of blood memory. If his mind collapsed, he would be erased.
Then, he must survive a night in the Hunt Garden — stalked by the Elders' chosen beasts, and one vampire champion.
Jayden drank the chalice.
Visions tore through his mind — screams, fires, a child burning, a woman holding a fang-shaped blade, a vampire falling in love with a human and being buried alive for it.
> "That was your father," a voice whispered.
"And now his son stands where no hybrid ever has."
He didn't collapse.
He roared.
And the Keep trembled.
---
The Hunt Begins
The gates of the Hunt Garden creaked open.
A red moon rose above.
Jayden was stripped of weapons. Just instinct, blood, and legacy.
From the shadows came the first beast — a Varkyn, blind and skeletal, but able to track heartbeats across dimensions.
He moved.
Dodged.
Used a shard of his Godfragment to blind the creature — and drove its own bone through its chest.
Next came a Bloodwraith, a vampiric spirit that fed on fear.
Jayden let it into his mind — and then overwrote the illusion with memories of Veyna, of Graveton, of the people he'd fought for.
It screamed and vanished.
---
The Final Opponent
Then the champion came.
Not a beast.
Not a spirit.
A pureblood prince — Kaelric's elder brother, once thought dead, now bound to the Elders.
Fast.
Brutal.
Beautiful.
They fought — fangs to fists, blood to blade, crashing through obsidian trees and crimson rivers.
Jayden was wounded. Cracked ribs. Torn flesh. But he refused to fall.
The prince smiled. "You are not like us."
Jayden wiped blood from his mouth.
"No. I'm more."
And with one final surge — part Godfragment, part vampire, part human will — he drove his hand through the prince's chest…
And stood victorious.
---
The Elders' Decision
Back in the Blood Assembly, the Elders watched Jayden kneel — not in submission, but exhaustion.
Mordax rose. "You are the future none of us wanted."
Nyserra licked her lips. "But perhaps… the one we deserve."
Count Thorne laughed. "Let the thirteenth throne remain empty no longer."
Jayden stood.
> "I don't want your throne."
> "Then take something else," Nyserra whispered.
"A key."
A blood-forged key was tossed to him — a passage to the Bloodvault, where the Red Scriptures were kept: the secret history of vampirekind, and a prophecy long sealed.
Jayden caught it.
And somewhere in the halls beyond, he felt the pages begin to tremble.
Something old was waking.
And it knew his name.