Ava's fingers trembled as she scribbled the first word onto the parchment. The quill felt alive, as if channeling her darkest desires. The _Liber Nocturna_ pulsed in sync with her heartbeat, urging her to write.
"Choose wisely," Elian whispered, his breath cold against her ear. "The vampire lineage hangs in the balance."
Ava's gaze drifted to Lucas, who leaned against a shadowy bookshelf, arms crossed, eyes watchful but unreadable. _Does he want me to save them… or doom them?_
The quill moved of its own accord, ink bleeding into the page like dark veins. Ava's thoughts swirled—_Catherine, the girl she'd lost, the mistakes she'd made…_
She wrote: _"Elian, bound to darkness, shall walk the mortal world, forever changed."_
The room trembled. Elian's smile faltered, a flicker of shock in his eyes. "What have you done?"
Ava's hand flew to her mouth. Had she doomed him… or freed him?
Lucas pushed off the bookshelf, stalking closer. "Ava, what did you write?"
The _Liber_ pages flipped, revealing a mirror-like surface. Ava's reflection stared back—her eyes now flecked with gold.
"You altered the pact," Elian growled, backing away. "You bound _me_ to the mortal coil. No turning back now."
Ava stood, quill still clenched. "I… I didn't mean—"
Lucas laughed, a low, wicked sound. "Oh, you meant _something_, Ava. The _Liber_ doesn't forgive mistakes."
The shop's shadows swirled, whispers sharpening into screams. Ava spun—figures materialized, spectral collectors bound to the _Liber_, their eyes glowing with hunger.
"Your first edit comes due," they chanted. "The price is blood. _Pay it._"
Elian grabbed her wrist, pulling her close. "To survive, you must rewrite the price. _Now._"
Ava's fear sharpened her focus. She plunged the quill back into ink, scribbling furiously. Words flowed—chaotic, desperate—rewriting the debt, binding the collectors to her will.
The screams stopped. The shadows retreated. The _Liber_'s glow intensified, pages fluttering like wings.
Lucas watched, a mix of awe and wariness on his face. "You're not just a restorer, Ava. You're a creator… of fates."
Elian released her, eyes burning with a new hunger. "And now, you're bound to _us_. The _Liber_ won't let you walk free."
Ava's chest tightened. _What have I done?_
The night dragged on. Ava stumbled through edits, the _Liber_'s demands growing clearer—and crueler. Rewrite a human's fate, save a dying vampire, erase a secret… each stroke of the quill bound her deeper.
At dawn, exhaustion claimed her. Elian caught her as she collapsed, the quill slipping from her fingers.
"Welcome to eternity, Ava," he whispered, carrying her into shadows. "You're one of us now."
Lucas watched, eyes stormy. "This isn't the end. It's a war."
Ava's dreams swirled with ink, blood, and the _Liber_'s endless pages. _What next?_
The darkness closed in, the _Liber_'s whisper her only companion: _"The pact is sealed. The game begins."_
Ava's eyelids flickered open. She was in a bed, soft sheets tangled around her. A window showed Prague's rooftops, twilight creeping in. The _Liber Nocturna_ lay open on a nearby desk, its pages blank… waiting.
Elian leaned against the wall, arms folded. "Sleeping beauty awakes."
Ava's memories flooded back—the pact, the edits, the binding. "What now?" she whispered.
"Now," Elian said, stalking closer, "you learn to wield the _Liber_. And survive the ones who want it… and you."
Lucas appeared at the door, a gunmetal-gray box in his hands. "Ava, you have a visitor. _The Order_ wants to collect the debt."
Ava's heart raced. _The Order?_
Elian smiled, cold and deadly. "Let them come."