CHAPTER FIVE:Velvet Oath

Alarms echoed like a heartbeat that had lost its rhythm.

Elara ran through halls that no longer felt like a maze but a memory—every turn she had walked before now guiding her away from both cages and promises. Voices clashed somewhere below. Doors slammed. Orders were shouted, controlled but urgent.

She didn’t know where she was going.

She only knew she wasn’t going back.

A hand caught her wrist.

She spun, breath sharp.

Cassian.

“Don’t,” she warned.

“I’m not stopping you,” he said. “I’m keeping you alive.”

They moved together, not as allies, not as enemies—just two people tied to the same disaster.

“Nyx is inside the grounds,” Cassian said as they descended a side stair. “This wasn’t a full invasion. It’s a test.”

“A test of what?”

“Of how tightly we hold you.”

Elara yanked her hand free. “I’m not a rope.”

“No,” he said. “You’re the knot.”

They reached a long corridor that ended in a steel door. Cassian pressed his palm to a hidden scanner. It opened with a quiet hiss.

Inside was a narrow passage that led away from the house and into darkness.

“A tunnel?” Elara asked.

“A choice,” Cassian replied. “This leads beyond the hill. Away from both sides.”

She hesitated. “And what happens if I take it?”

“You become something the oath never planned for.”

“What about you?”

“I stay,” he said. “Someone has to hold the lie together.”

Elara searched his face. “You don’t believe in it anymore.”

“I believe in damage control.”

She shook her head. “That’s not the same as justice.”

“No,” Cassian agreed. “But it’s the language this city understands.”

Footsteps thundered behind them.

Cassian stepped back. “Go.”

Elara looked at the tunnel, then at him. “If I leave, everything you’ve protected might collapse.”

“And if you stay,” he said quietly, “everything you are will.”

She ran into the tunnel.

Behind her, the door sealed.

The tunnel smelled of stone and cold. It sloped downward, then up again, twisting like a secret it didn’t want to share.

Elara ran until her lungs burned.

When she finally stopped, she was outside the city—on a ridge overlooking lights that flickered like fragile stars.

She fell to her knees.

For the first time since she was taken, the air felt real.

She touched her chest, half-expecting to feel chains there.

Nothing.

Just a heart that didn’t know what to do with freedom.

Back in the house, Cassian stood before his father.

Silas Dray’s face was calm, which made him terrifying.

“She’s gone,” Silas said.

“Yes.”

“You let her go.”

“No,” Cassian replied. “She chose.”

Silas studied him. “You’ve always been weak.”

Cassian lifted his head. “No. I’ve always been human.”

Silas turned away. “Find her.”

“And if I don’t?”

Silas’s voice sharpened. “Then you will become what the oath requires instead.”

Cassian understood the threat.

He left without another word.

Elara didn’t know where to go.

She walked until dawn, then hid until night.

She avoided cameras. Avoided crowds. Avoided names.

But secrets have gravity.

They pull.

In a quiet market on the edge of the city, she felt it again—the pressure of being seen.

She turned.

Nyx Calder stood behind a stall of silver trinkets, smiling like he had found something he’d lost.

“Elara Vale,” he said softly. “You look tired.”

She stepped back. “Stay away from me.”

“But you’re the most interesting thing in this city.”

“You want what I carry.”

Nyx tilted his head. “I want what you are.”

She clenched her fists. “I’m not a lock.”

“No,” Nyx agreed. “You’re a door.”

People moved around them, unaware.

“You don’t even know the secret,” Nyx said. “How tragic—to be owned by a truth you’ve never heard.”

“I’ll never tell you.”

He smiled wider. “Everyone tells eventually. Pain has a voice.”

“I won’t.”

Nyx leaned closer. “Then someone else will suffer for you.”

Her chest tightened. “You’re no different from them.”

“I’m honest about what I am,” he replied. “They dress control as protection.”

She ran.

Nyx didn’t chase.

He didn’t need to.

Cassian found her three days later.

She was hiding in an abandoned train station, sketching the map of the tunnel from memory.

“You’re not good at disappearing,” he said from the shadows.

She jumped, then steadied. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Neither should you,” he said. “Nyx knows you escaped.”

“Then your family failed.”

“No,” Cassian said. “I did.”

She met his eyes. “Why come after me?”

“To warn you. Nyx will use others to reach you.”

“Like your father would.”

“Yes,” Cassian said. “That’s the problem.”

She stood. “Tell me everything. No lies. No control.”

He hesitated.

Then he spoke.

“The secret is proof that the first war was engineered. That families like mine created chaos to rise from it. If it’s revealed, every empire here collapses.”

“Good,” Elara said.

“And thousands will die in the collapse.”

She swallowed.

“You think keeping the lie saves lives,” she said. “I think the lie keeps killing slowly.”

Cassian watched her. “You don’t belong to any side.”

“I belong to truth.”

Nyx’s voice echoed from the far end of the station.

“Beautiful answer.”

Guards appeared—Nyx’s and Dray’s, shadows with orders.

Elara stepped between Cassian and Nyx.

“This ends when I speak,” she said.

Nyx smiled. “Or when you’re silenced.”

Cassian looked at her. “Whatever you choose will change everything.”

She lifted her head.

“Then let it.”