Chapter 20 · The Wedding Pact Breaks

***Evelyn's POV***

The address burns in my head as Kane kicks open the rusted door at 1447 Veyron Street. Underground shrine. Right. More like a tomb that someone forgot to seal.

I'm three steps behind him, my medic bag banging against my hip. The air down here tastes like copper and old incense. My brother's vitals are spiking on my phone—heart rate climbing, oxygen dipping. We've got maybe twenty minutes before his system crashes.

"Evelyn." Kane stops so fast I almost slam into his back. "Stay close."

"I know how to walk."

He doesn't answer. His hand's already on that blade he keeps under his coat. The one that hums when curses get too close.

The tunnel opens into a chamber that shouldn't exist under a Vesper City street. Stone walls covered in symbols I recognize from my mother's journals. Candles that haven't been lit in years suddenly flicker to life as we enter. And in the center, on a stone altar that's seen way too much blood, there's a door.

Not a real door. A gate. Carved into the air itself, held open by silver threads that pulse like veins.

"That's it." My voice comes out thin.