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The vault door opened three inches, then stopped like it had changed its mind.
A line of black light cut across the concrete floor.
Carson grabbed the back of my jacket and hauled me away from it so fast my shoulder slammed into his chest. Pain burst through the bullet wound in my side.
“Easy,” I snapped, because apparently getting shot by my dead-not-dead father had not improved my mood.
“That thing is opening by itself.” Carson kept one arm in front of me. His fingers had claws at the tips now. Not all the way out. Just enough to make the point.
“I noticed.”
The old speaker above the steel door crackled again.
“Mia?”
I froze.
Jonah’s voice came through thin and choppy. Like somebody had shoved a phone inside a metal pipe.
“Jo?” I shoved toward the door.
Carson caught my elbow. “Wait.”
“Get off me.”
“Mia.” His voice dropped. “That could be bait.”
My brother made a sound through the speaker. Not a word. Just a sharp breath, then something hit hard in the background.
“Jonah!”
The black light under the vault door pulsed.
Then Jonah said, louder this time, “Don’t open it all the way. Seriously. Don’t touch anything red.”
I stared at the speaker.
Carson stared at me.
“You’re giving instructions now?” I said.
“I’m trying not to die,” Jonah shot back. “It’s a multitask thing.”
Relief hit so hard it almost dropped me. He was alive. He sounded terrified, but he also sounded like Jonah. Smart mouth. Bad timing. Still breathing.
I pressed my palm to the cold steel door.
“Where are you?”
“Uh. Not here? I think.” Static chewed through half his answer. “They put me in some kind of transfer room. There are servers. A lot of them. And a woman who keeps smiling like she owns a knife store.”
“Sera,” Carson said.
“Yeah, Mr. Growly, I got that part.”
Carson’s jaw tightened.
I almost smiled. Almost.
“Can you see anything?” I asked. “Street signs? A window?”
“No windows. But I can see the system they’re using.” Jonah went quiet for a second. I heard quick tapping. Keyboard keys. “Oh, wow. This is disgusting. Their security is ancient. Like, rich people ancient. They think putting gold trim on a server rack makes it safe.”
“Mia,” Carson said.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t. He’s inside their system.”
“I heard him.”
Carson stepped closer, lowering his voice. “If Sera has him near Council infrastructure, every connection he makes leaves a trail.”
The speaker hissed.
Jonah said, “I can hear you, by the way. And yes, I know what a trace is.”
“You’re sixteen,” I said.
“I’m seventeen in four months.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“It makes it legally more annoying when you call me a child.”
The vault door groaned another inch open.
This time warm air rolled out.
It smelled wrong. Not rot. Not smoke. Hot metal, old paper, and the copper stink of blood.
Carson’s nostrils flared.
“Blood,” he said.
“Mine?”
“No.” His eyes went dark around the pupils. “Old. A lot of it.”
Great. Love that for us.
The wound in my side started burning under the bandage. Not normal burning. The same sharp, crawling heat from when Gideon had pressed that blood-lock into me.
My father.
The word landed in my head and stayed there like a brick.
Not dead. Not missing. Not trapped somewhere waiting for us to find him.
He had looked me in the face, shot me, and walked away.
I shoved the thought down because Jonah was still on the speaker and I could fall apart later. Maybe in a locked bathroom. Maybe never.
“Jo,” I said, “what can you access?”
A pause.
Then, “More than they think.”
Carson looked at the half-open vault. “This door is linked to the same system.”
“Yeah,” Jonah said. “I figured that out when it started trying to eat my screen.”
“Trying to what?” I asked.
“Metaphorically.”
“Jonah.”
“Mostly metaphorically.”
Carson gave me a look.
I gave him one back. Mine said: if you start, I will bite you.
His said: you probably would.
The speaker popped. Jonah cursed under his breath.
“What?” I asked.
“They’re moving something.” Keyboard clicks sped up. “Okay. So. Bad news. Sera’s people have the Council transit map open. Good news, I’m in their network. Better news, I found the vault controls.”
My stomach dropped.
“Don’t,” I said.
“Mia—”
“Don’t touch it.”
“You literally need the vault open.”
“We don’t know what’s in there.”
“Exactly. That’s why we need to know.”
“No.”
Static buzzed between us.
Then Jonah said, too calm, “You’re doing that thing.”
“What thing?”
“The thing where you decide I’m made of glass because stuff gets scary.”
I looked down at the blood soaking through the edge of my bandage.
“You are not made of glass,” I said. “You’re made of bad decisions and instant noodles.”
“Aw. Family love.”
“You got taken by Sera Voss because you stayed behind to hack a door.”
“I got taken because three armed freaks came through a wall.”
“You should’ve run.”
“And left you?”
My mouth shut.
Carson looked away. Smart man.
Jonah’s voice came quieter now. “You don’t get to tell me I’m useless every time something goes wrong.”
“I never said useless.”
“You don’t have to say it.”
That one got under my ribs worse than the bullet.
The vault door gave another heavy click.
A strip of red light appeared inside.
I jerked back.
“Don’t touch anything red,” Jonah said fast.
“Yeah, heard you.”
“I mean it. The red stuff is tied to blood authorization. If Carson touches it, it might trigger the Vale line.”
Carson’s face went still.
“And if Mia touches it?” he asked.
Jonah didn’t answer right away.
My wound burned hotter.
“Jonah.”
“It might recognize her blood-lock,” he said. “Which is probably why Gideon put it there.”
I swallowed. “You think my father sent us here.”
“I think he wanted you to get inside without using the front door.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No, it’s the answer you don’t like.”
The speaker went quiet.
Then Jonah said, “Mia, I found a video feed.”
Every muscle in my body locked.
“Of what?”
“Of me.”
I heard his breath catch. The cocky edge vanished for one second.
“They’re bringing Sera in.”
Carson leaned toward the speaker. “Can you get us a location?”
“Working on it.”
“You need to disconnect,” I said.
“No.”
“Jonah.”
“No. You need what’s in that vault. I need to get you there before they lock down the transit grid. So let me work.”
“I said no.”
“And I said don’t bench me.”
His voice cracked on the last word.
Not much. He probably hoped I wouldn’t notice.
I noticed.
I stared at the narrow opening in the vault door. Red light. Black light. A room full of things my father had apparently decided I deserved to find after shooting me.
Carson touched my shoulder carefully. Not gripping. Just there.
“He may be right,” he said.
I rounded on him. “Do not start agreeing with my little brother while he’s being held hostage by a bloodline witch.”
“I’m agreeing with the part where we need him alive.”
“I know that.”
“Then hear him.”
I hated that Carson was using that tone. The calm one. The one that made it sound like he had all the time in the world, even with silver still poisoning his blood and hunters probably closing in.
“You don’t know him,” I said.
Carson’s eyes stayed on mine. “I know what it looks like when someone spends their whole life being told to stay out of the way.”
That shut me up.
Because of course he knew.
He was Carson Vale. Heir to a bloodline that wanted him dead. The family monster who had probably been trained to sit still and smile while everyone around him decided what to do with his life.
Jonah cleared his throat through the speaker.
“Wow. Are we having a trauma moment? Because I’m kind of busy being kidnapped.”
“You’re impossible,” I muttered.
“Genetics.”
That word hit strange now.
Genetics.
Mercer.
Gideon’s name carved into my skin.
I looked at the vault again.
“Fine,” I said.
Jonah went silent.
Carson glanced at me.
“Fine,” I repeated. “You get us in. But you don’t do anything that puts you closer to Sera. You don’t start a fight. You don’t try to be a hero.”
“I’m not trying to be a hero.”
“Then what are you trying to be?”
A few keyboard taps came through.
“Useful.”
Damn it.
I pressed my lips together hard enough to hurt.
“Okay,” I said. “Useful. But alive.”
“Deal.”
Carson held out his hand toward the vault. “Tell us what to do.”
Jonah’s voice brightened a little. “Finally. Okay. Mia, you see the red strip?”
“Yep.”
“Don’t touch it. There should be three black plates right under the door seam. You need to press the middle one.”
I crouched, ignoring Carson’s hand when he tried to steady me.
“I can do it.”
“I know.”
That made me look at him.
He didn’t argue. Didn’t smirk. Just watched the shadows behind the door like he expected them to bite.
I ran my fingers along the steel. The middle plate was colder than the others. Cold enough to sting.
“Got it,” I said.
“Press and hold. Carson, don’t move.”
Carson blinked. “That sounds concerning.”
“It should.”
I pressed the plate.
The vault door slammed shut.
I jumped back with a curse.
Then the whole wall shook.
Black symbols raced across the steel. Not painted. Not projected. They rose out of the metal like ink under skin.
My wound caught fire.
I grabbed my side.
“Mia?” Carson dropped beside me.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding through the bandage.”
“I said I’m fine.”
The symbols crawled faster. One of them looked like the mark Gideon had burned into me.
Then a voice came from inside the vault.
Not Jonah.
Not Sera.
A woman’s voice. Flat and mechanical.
“Mercer bloodline recognized.”
Carson’s head snapped up.
The speaker crackled wildly.
Jonah said, “Uh. That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“What do you mean, wasn’t supposed to happen?” I demanded.
“I only opened the outer lock.”
The vault door split down the center.
Both halves rolled back into the wall.
Cold white light flooded the room.
Inside sat a single glass chamber the size of a coffin.
There was no gold. No stacks of cash. No secret weapons.
Just a black metal key floating in a web of red wires.
The key had teeth like a normal old-fashioned key.
Except it was beating.
Slowly.
Like a heart.
Carson stood so fast his knee cracked against the concrete.
“No,” he said.
“What is that?” I asked.
His face had gone pale under the blood and dirt.
“A Moon Gate key.”
Jonah’s breathing came sharp through the speaker.
“I thought those were a myth.”
“They should be,” Carson said.
The mechanical woman spoke again.
“Secondary access request detected.”
Every red wire in the glass chamber lit up.
Jonah swore.
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I didn’t do anything.” His keys clattered. “Wait. Wait, somebody’s inside my connection.”
A new screen flashed to life on the wall beside the vault.
White letters. Clean. Cold.
CARSON VALE: BLOODLINE ACCESS DENIED.
Then another line appeared underneath.
MIA LANE: MERCER BLOODLINE ACCESS LIMITED.
My throat closed.
Jonah’s voice went very quiet.
“Mia.”
The wall screen flickered one more time.
A third name typed itself out, letter by letter.
JONAH MERCER.
For one second, nothing happened.
Then the entire vault screamed.
Not an alarm. Not exactly.
It sounded like metal bending somewhere far underground.
The black key inside the glass chamber turned toward the speaker.
The screen flashed red.
MOON GATE KEY CONFIRMED.
JONAH MERCER DESIGNATED: LIVING ACCESS.
I stopped breathing.
On the other end of the speaker, Jonah whispered, “Mia?”
Then Sera Voss laughed right beside him.