Alexis Tomar's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

The Mother had promised to name the price in the vault below the chapel. But the vault could wait one more hour. First Alexis needed to know what she was walking into. She found Tyler where he stored old records, in a side chamber of the great library castle, its domes glowing orange against the night sky. He crouched between two shelves, sorting brittle scrolls by candlelight. "You came here," Alexis said. "Not the throne hall." "No cup to fill for an hour." Tyler set a scroll down. His hunched back made every movement slow. "So I read. Old habit from before." His red eyes found hers. "You want to know the price before you agree. That's why you're here and not down there." "She said it would be severe. She didn't say what it was." Alexis knelt so they were level. "I won't sign my name to something I can't see. Not even for you." "Smart." He almost smiled. "You spent your whole life reading people. Read her." He pushed a scroll toward her. "I found this three nights ago. Strigoi Vii binding law. She wrote it herself." Alexis unrolled the brittle page. The witch's hand was cramped and old. She read it twice. Her stomach dropped. "A binding can only be broken by feeding it a life," she said slowly. "The one who breaks the bond pays with their own." "That's the price." Tyler's voice stayed flat. "You free me. You die. She won't say it out loud in the vault because she wants you to guess wrong. She wants you to think you can bargain it down." Alexis stared at the page. She had come to the library for a fact, and the fact was a wall. If she broke Tyler's curse, her own life ended. That was the severe price. That was what the Mother would offer her down in the dark. "Then I don't agree to her terms," Alexis said. "Not blind. Not now." "Good." Tyler exhaled. "I don't want a real meal that badly." "I'm not giving up." She rolled the scroll and slid it into her coat. "I'm changing the question. She said a life must pay. She never said it must be mine." Tyler went still. "That's a dark road." "It's the only one that doesn't end with you kneeling and me gone." Alexis stood. The candle threw her shadow up the shelves. "I know every ruler in the mortal world. I know their sins. Somewhere out there is a life the world won't miss." She now knew the true cost. She would not pay it with herself, and she would not agree to the Mother's terms as offered. But finding another life to feed the binding meant hunting one down. The empty hand was gone. In its place was a worse plan.