The Eternal Tomb Read Free Page A

days.”
    Oliver thought that sounded more like a threat than a reassurance. Phlox felt the same way. “Meaning you don’t trust us,” she muttered.
    â€œTrust is irrelevant,” Ravonovich replied. “This is the end game. The final act of a drama that has graced this stage since the binding stitches of the universe were completed. Soon, the vampyr and the Architects will read their final lines. And if we are right, as we know we are, then we shall prevail and be free, finally free, from the shackles of Finity, and the Eternal Tomb will be destroyed.”
    A great chorus of earsplitting hissing engulfed the room.
    Finity? What’s that? Emalie asked.
    Oliver had only heard the word Finity once before, from Bane, in the moments before he was slain. Bane said that Finity was the whole point , he replied.
    The whole point of what?
    Not sure .
    And what are the Architects? Emalie asked.
    Origin beings , Oliver explained. They built the universe, and the Gate .
    â€œThank you all for coming,” said Ravonovich. The vampires stood and gathered their coats. Oliver watched his parents shuffle from the center of the floor. No one spoke to them as they left.
    Come on , said Emalie. Oliver felt her slide back through the door. He turned and did the same.
    â€œHow’d it go?” Dean asked as they left the kitchen.
    â€œIt went,” said Oliver, leading the way to a broken window. He scaled down the hull of the ship to the abandoned dock. Dean jumped down, landing awkwardly on the buckled boards. Emalie reappeared beside them. They hurried away from the pier, under a looming highway overpass, and up steep lengths of stairs into the lonely city streets.
    â€œSo, did they know what Bane was up to?” Dean asked.
    â€œI think Half-Light did, but they didn’t say what,” said Oliver.
    â€œAnd what about Lythia?” Dean asked. “Any news?”
    â€œNo,” Emalie answered, “but they’re worried about her. Désirée, too. They called her the Rogue. And it sounded like they don’t know what to do about her, either.”
    â€œThat makes two of us,” said Dean. They had been to the Underground twice in the last two weeks so that Emalie could get supplies. Both times they had passed Désirée’s shop, and both times it had been closed.
    â€œHalf-Light said they’d be watching me,” said Oliver. “And they’re looking for Bane’s treachery, whatever that is.”
    â€œThe objects you found?” Dean asked.
    Oliver shrugged. “And they said that once the Anointment is completed, there’s no way to undo the prophecy.”
    â€œSo we need to check those objects,” said Emalie. “Maybe I should stop working on the Portal enchantment until we can—”
    â€œNo,” said Oliver. The Portal would take Oliver, Emalie, and Dean back to the night of Oliver’s death. The night that Phlox and Sebastian sired him and killed his parents. Except that maybe, just maybe, Oliver’s parents hadn’t been killed. Their graves had been full of pig bones. And Oliver had been told by the leader of the Brotherhood, Braiden Lang, that they were alive.
    â€œOkay. Well, let’s meet tomorrow at my place,” said Dean. When Emalie wasn’t looking, he winked at Oliver. They had something else planned for tomorrow night as well. “I gotta go meet Autumn at the sewer clubs. See you guys later.”
    Oliver and Emalie walked quietly through the city. Oliver felt like walls were closing in. His destiny was mere days away, and he had no idea how to stop it.

Chapter 2
    New Ashes, Old Answers
    THE NEXT NIGHT, OLIVER awoke to a terrible racket. His eyes snapped open and he was surprised to realize that he’d actually been sleeping. His portable video game player lay on his chest, still pulsing with tinny music and lights, muffled by his sleeping soil. He flicked it off and listened for whatever