Page 171 of Hell Breaks Loose

And at the twenty-foot vault door at the far end of the fifty-yard enclosure.

“Yes. Yes!” Rachelle’s ecstatic whisper echoes between the narrower walls, up into the vaulted ceiling. “It was here all along. His treasure, taken with him to the grave!”

“Whatever is here, you can have,” I say suddenly, wheeling on her.

Evan tenses, watching me closely, staying perfectly still at my side. I know he could intercept me, toss me aside in a heartbeat if I tried. There’s no chance of making a move on her.

At least she had the decency to leave her raving disciples outside.

“Of course I can. It’s mine.”

“You don’t know how to open the door. I do,” I bluff, squaring off with her.

“Pitiful child. I will get that door open. But you are family. And I would rather not make you do it. So ask me. Tell me what you want in return.”

“Let my friends go. Let Evan go. We’ll leave Sanctum and never come back.”

“You think I would believe that for a minute? After everything you’ve done to salvage the rotting corpse of this city?”

“Yes. You won. I see that now. I just want to walk away with my life. With their lives.” I look beseechingly at Evan, desperately wanting to reach out and take his hand.

He doesn’t meet my gaze.

“The others can live. And I’ll even let them leave. But Evan wants to be here. And your personal survival depends on your cooperation. Now, show me how to open this thing, my dear niece.”

On shaky legs, I cross the long cement causeway, my footsteps clicking all around me in rhythmic echoes.

No visible handles or wheels mark any sort of mechanism to open the vast cog sealing the path forward. Several seconds pass as I scan the walls nearby, looking for a circuit board or box.

“Well?”

“I can’t find the?—”

Rachelle points, guiding my search to a panel on a pedestal to the side of the walkway.

I don’t have to feign my awkward and apologetic grimace as I shuffle over to the keypad. My nerves are shot to shit.

Not just because of the situation.

But because of what could possibly lie on the other side of this door.

It’s a secret I have been searching for since I first learned about the Sinful, some unimaginable treasure buried under one of the mountains.

And it became even more tantalizing when I discovered that I was related to one of the Seven.

That my father was their lead member.

Scouring my frazzled memories, I rifle through what the code could be.

I must have read Damon’s notes through half a dozen times in total.

Yet not a single code emerged from his memoirs.

No hidden message.

Only that this was supposedly all for me.

I’m starting to think it’s all for nothing, a steaming pile of?—

---