Chapter 6 - Midnight at St. Gabriel'sThe church had been abandoned for six years.
Rain fell hard against the stained-glass windows as Claire and Adrian entered through the side door.
The building smelled of dust, wet stone, and old wood.
Claire held the two-part key tightly.
Adrian carried a pistol beneath his coat.
“You trust me?” he asked.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You should.”
“I trusted Mason.”
“You're comparing me to Mason?”
“I don't know you.”
Adrian smiled faintly.
“That may be the smartest thing you've said tonight.”
They reached the altar.
Claire remembered her parents' wedding photograph.
Her mother had worn a simple white dress.
Her father had looked absurdly happy.
Now Claire wondered how much of that happiness had been real.
She found the symbol carved beneath the altar.
A wolf.
A rose.
Two interlocking circles.
She pressed the key into the center.
Nothing happened.
“Maybe it's wrong.”
Adrian knelt.
“Turn it.”
She did.
A mechanism clicked.
The altar moved.
A staircase appeared beneath it.
Claire stared.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
She followed him down.
The staircase led to a hidden room.
Inside were dozens of locked boxes.
Documents.
Photographs.
Recordings.
Claire opened the first box.
Her father's journal.
The second.
Her mother's passport.
The third.
A series of bank statements.
Then she saw a photograph.
Her mother.
Alive.
Standing outside a hospital.
Taken eleven years after the supposed plane crash.
Claire covered her mouth.
“She survived.”
Adrian approached.
He found another image.
This one had a date.
Two weeks ago.
Her mother's face was older.
But unmistakable.
“She’s alive now.”
Claire grabbed his arm.
“Where?”
Before he could answer, the church bells rang.
Midnight.
The hidden room door slammed shut.
A voice came from the stairs.
“You shouldn't have come.”
Adrian raised his weapon.
“Show yourself.”
A man stepped from the darkness.
Not Victor.
Not Mason.
Someone else.
An older man with gray hair and a scar across his throat.
He looked at Claire.
“You have your father's eyes.”
“Who are you?”
He smiled.
“The man your father trusted most.”
Adrian lowered his gun slightly.
“Elias.”
Claire looked at him.
“You know him?”
“He worked with my father.”
Elias laughed.
“No, Adrian.”
He looked at Claire.
“I betrayed him.”
Claire's blood ran cold.
“You killed my parents?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Elias looked at Adrian.
“Ask him.”
Claire turned.
“What is he talking about?”
Adrian was silent.
Elias smiled.
“Your father wasn't killed because he found Halcyon.”
“Then why?”
“Because he found out who created it.”
Claire already knew the answer.
“Victor.”
Elias shook his head.
“No.”
He looked directly at Adrian.
“It was his daughter.”
Claire frowned.
Adrian went pale.
Elias continued.
“Halcyon was created by Adrian Voss's mother.”
Silence.
Claire turned slowly toward Adrian.
He didn't deny it.
Her heart sank.
“You knew.”
Adrian whispered, “Not everything.”
“You lied to me.”
“I protected you.”
“You knew your family was connected.”
“Yes.”
“And you still let me trust you.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
Before Claire could react, the room filled with the sound of gunfire.
Elias was hit.
He collapsed.
Claire screamed.
Adrian dragged her behind the boxes.
Bullets tore through the wooden shelves.
Then a woman's voice echoed from the doorway.
“Claire.”
Claire froze.
She knew that voice.
It was the voice she remembered from childhood.
Soft.
Warm.
Almost forgotten.
“Mama?”
A figure stepped into the dim light.
Her mother.
Alive.
Claire burst into tears.
But her mother wasn't smiling.
May you like
She was holding a gun.
And it was pointed directly at Adrian.
