THE FOURTH SEAL

*THE PRICE OF A NAME*

*CHAPTER 2:

*POV: VEYLA*

The building had stopped shaking, but my bones hadn’t.

The emergency lights painted everything in sick yellow. Outside the 90th floor windows, New York was a graveyard. No power. No cars. Just sirens screaming into the dark.

My phone felt like it was burning through my palm.

__DAY 1 OF 30 HAS BEGUN.

CHOOSE ONE.

OR THE WORLD ENDS.__

I looked up at the four men in black suits. The four men I had just married.

"What happens if I don't choose?" I asked. My voice didn’t crack. I refused to let it.

For a second, no one spoke.

Vale was the one who answered. He was still standing at the head of the table, hands in his pockets, like this was a contract negotiation.

"The Seal remains open," he said. "And we stop pretending we’re human."

"English, Vale," Maeve snapped. She was still in front of me with a broken champagne flute.

Knox turned from the window. His eyes were gold again. Not brown. Gold, like something had been lit on fire behind them.

"It means War starts a war," he said. "Famine starts a famine. Pestilence starts a plague. And Death collects."

"How long do we have?" I asked.

"Twelve days," Riven said. He was sitting now, scrolling through his phone like the apocalypse was a meeting he could reschedule. "From the moment the Seal breaks to the moment the world ends. That’s how it’s always been."

Zade laughed. It wasn’t a nice sound. "Last time you took too long to decide, Veyla. We got to 3 billion before you finally put us back to sleep."

The name hit me like a slap. _Veyla._ Like they’d said it a thousand times.

"I don’t know you," I said.

"You will," Evelyn said.

My grandmother stepped off the elevator.

Evelyn Cross. 78 years old. She used a cane and wore black like she was already at a funeral. In her hands was a box.

"Grandmother?" I said. "You’re supposed to be in the Hamptons."

"I was," she said. "Until I felt the blood in me scream."

She set the box on the table, right on top of the marriage contracts we’d signed ten minutes ago.

"This is the Ledger," she said. "Every Seal before you is written in here. What they chose. How they died. How the world died."

She opened it.

The pages weren’t paper. They were vellum. And the ink was moving.

_Elara. 1023. Chose War. 40 years of blood._

_Maris. 1401. Chose No One. 12 days._

_Veyla Cross. Day 1. Seal Broken._

And underneath, in handwriting that was mine but wasn’t: _Don’t trust Death._

My stomach dropped. "I didn’t write that."

"You will," Evelyn said. "You always do."

"So I just pick one?" I asked. "Lie if I have to? Tell one of them I love them and save the world?"

"No," Evelyn said. Her eyes were old and tired. "The Seal reads your heart, child. It’s not a contract. It’s a truth. If you choose without love, it knows. And the punishment is worse than if you’d chosen no one."

"What punishment?"

"The three you didn’t choose die," Knox said. Flat. "Slowly. And the one you did choose becomes bound to you for a thousand years. And the world still ends."

The room went quiet.

"So there is no winning," I said.

"There is," Vale said. "If you find one of us to love in thirty days."

I looked at them.

Knox, who bought my father’s company and fired 500 people.

Riven, who told me my husband was going to die and then walked away.

Zade, who slept with my best friend and wrote a song about it.

Vale, who got the man who put me in the hospital out of jail.

"That’s your solution?" I asked. "Fall in love with my enemies in 30 days?"

"That’s the only solution," Riven said.

*POV: VALE*

She was breaking. I could see it in the way she held herself. Rigid. Like if she moved, she would shatter.

Good.

She needed to break a little. The last time she was soft, she hesitated. And hesitation cost millions of lives.

Evelyn was wrong about one thing. There was no rule that said we couldn’t force her.

There was only the rule Veyla herself had written: _Don’t trust Death._

Smart girl. Even without her memory.

My phone buzzed. Private number.

_Day 1. Make her bleed first. Then she’ll remember._

War.

I deleted it.

War was already moving. Iowa. Agricultural grid down. Crops dead overnight.

He always started with food. It was cleaner that way.

"Who goes first?" Knox asked.

"Me," I said. "I’m counsel. I should explain the terms."

"No," Zade said. "I go first. I’m the most fun."

"You’re the most likely to get her killed," Riven said without looking up.

"Enough," Evelyn cut in. "One of you per day. Starting tonight. No skipping. If she refuses, the day counts against her."

Veyla’s phone buzzed.

She looked down.

__DAY 1. 23:00:00.

YOUR FIRST DATE BEGINS NOW.

KNOX. ROOFTOP. 10 MINUTES.

DON’T BE LATE.__

She looked at Knox.

He was already walking to the elevator.

*POV: KNOX*

I didn’t want to do this.

I didn’t do dates. I did takeovers.

But the text was clear. If I didn’t go, we lost a day. And we didn’t have days to waste.

Veyla followed me into the elevator. She didn’t speak. She just stood in the corner, arms crossed.

The doors closed.

"You don’t have to pretend to like me," I said.

"I’m not pretending anything," she said. "I hate you."

"Good," I said. "Hate is honest. I can work with honest."

The doors opened to the roof. Cold air hit us. The city was black below.

I walked to the edge. "My father died when I was twelve. Car crash. Drunk driver. Company went to my uncle. He bled it dry in two years."

I turned to her. "That’s why I bought your father’s company. Because I knew what it felt like to watch something you love get gutted."

"Don’t," she said. "Don’t try to make me feel sorry for you."

"I’m not," I said. "I’m telling you why I’m a monster. So when you choose, you know exactly what you’re choosing."

She didn’t answer.

Below us, a building exploded. Far away. But the sound reached us a second later.

War had started moving.

*POV: ZADE*

This was bullshit.

I was stuck in an office while Knox got rooftop time?

I kicked a chair. "This is rigged."

"He’s ruthless," Riven said. "She respects ruthless."

"She respects honesty," Vale said.

"And what do you have, Death?" I asked. "A good smile and a body count?"

Vale didn’t answer. He just looked at the door.

The lights flickered.

When they came back on, there was frost on the floor. Footprints. Leading from the door to where Veyla had been standing.

But she wasn’t there anymore. She was with Knox.

Someone had been in the room.

*POV: RIVEN*

My pager went off.

Mass casualty. Fever. Hemorrhaging. Unknown pathogen.

I was already moving. "I have to go."

"You can’t," Evelyn said. "Your day isn’t for three days."

"People are dying," I said. "Because of me."

Veyla was gone. On the roof with Knox.

And I was going to a hospital to watch what I was do.

The irony wasn’t lost on me.

*POV: VEYLA*

The roof was freezing.

Knox was standing at the edge, hands in his pockets. He looked smaller up here. Less like a CEO and more like a kid who’d lost everything.

"Why did you sign?" I asked.

"Because if the curse was going to take someone, I wanted it to be me," he said. "Not you."

"That’s stupid."

"Probably."

Another explosion. Closer this time.

My phone buzzed.

__DAY 1. 22:30:00.

YOU HAVE 29 DAYS LEFT.

HE’S NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN BLEED FOR YOU.__

I looked at Knox. "Did you send that?"

"No."

Then who did?

The door to the roof slammed open.

We both turned.

No one was there.

Just the wind. And on the concrete, written in frost:

_CHOOSE WRONG AND I’LL TAKE THEM ALL._

My blood went cold.

*POV: VALE*

I saw the message on the security feed.

_CHOOSE WRONG AND I’LL TAKE THEM ALL._

It wasn’t from War.

War wanted her to choose.

This was someone else.

Someone who wanted her to fail.

I looked at the other three.

Zade was angry. Riven was gone. Knox was on the roof.

And I was the only one who knew the truth.

Last time, she didn’t choose any of us.

And I was the one who held her while the world burned.

I wouldn’t let it happen again.

Even if I had to make her hate me to do it.

To be continued....

_____