Three months passed. The Zenith Tower remained a jagged tooth against the skyline. It was no longer a palace. It was a carcass. The city government called it a hazard. The Underbelly called it a gold mine.
Clara Vale sat in the back of a dim bar called The Leak. She wasn't a cleaner anymore. She was a legend. People came to her with problems that money couldn't solve. They came to her because she was the girl who killed a god.
"He's back. Clara."
Jax slid into the booth. He looked tired. He had traded his neon hair for a buzz cut. He looked like a man who hadn't slept since the station blew. He dropped a grainy photograph on the scarred wood of the table.
Clara picked it up. Her heart stuttered. The photo showed a man in a crowded market in the North District. He was wearing a hooded coat. His face was in shadow. but his posture was unmistakable. He stood with a grace that didn't belong in the mud.
"Vane?" she whispered.
"I don't know." Jax said. "I tracked the biometric signature. It's him. but it's not. The systems say he's dead. The ledger says he's erased. But the cameras keep catching this ghost."
Clara looked at the photo. "Why hasn't he come for me?"
"Maybe he can't. Or maybe he isn't the only thing that came back from that well." Jax leaned in. his voice dropping. "There's a new group moving into the East End. They call themselves The Hollow. They don't want the money. They're looking for the bone shard. Clara. They know you have it."
Clara felt the weight of the white bone in her pocket. It was a target.
"They think the shard is a key to the old world." Jax continued. "They think they can restart the cycle. And they have a leader. A man who claims to be the rightful heir to the Thorne bloodline. Someone Silas kept in the cellar."
Clara stood up. She grabbed her jacket. "Where is the man in the photo?"
"He was last seen heading toward the Iron Vault ruins. He's looking for something in the rubble."
Clara didn't wait. She stepped out into the rain. The Underbelly was louder now. more violent. The order was gone. and the chaos was hungry.
She reached the base of the Zenith Tower. The security fence had been torn down. She climbed over the debris. her boots crunching on broken glass. She made her way toward the service elevator shaft.
She saw him standing by the edge of the pit.
He wasn't a shadow. He was real. He turned as she approached. The moonlight hit his face. It was Vane. but his eyes were a piercing. electric blue. A color that didn't belong to humans or the old pact.
"You shouldn't have come here. Clara." his voice was deeper. vibrating with a power that made the ground tremble.
"You're alive." she said. She took a step toward him.
Vane shook his head. He held up his hand. Faint blue lines of energy pulsed beneath his skin like glowing veins. "The well didn't kill me. It changed the frequency. I'm not a Vesper. and I'm not a man. I'm the ghost in the machine now."
He looked into the darkness of the vault.
"My brother is out there. Clara. Silas had a second son. A twin he kept as a spare. And he's coming to reclaim the sky. He has the other half of the ledger."
Clara gripped her knife. "Then we finish it again."
Vane looked at her. A flash of the old love crossed his face. but it was replaced by a grim hunger. "It's not a ritual this time. Clara. It's a war."
From the shadows of the vault. a dozen pairs of blue eyes blinked into existence. The Hollow had arrived.