Chapter Five: A Bond Broken, A Heart FreedAria's POV
When I opened my eyes I found myself locked in the western tower .
The door was enchanted with a moonstone seal. A spell etched into the wood burned cold if I touched it, a reminder of the power the Elders still held over my bloodline. The windows were barred, the floor creaked, and the air smelled of forgotten secrets.
I paced like a caged animal, my bare feet brushing cold stone, eyes darting between the slit of moonlight filtering through the bars and the cursed door.
Outside, the drums had already begun.
Steady. Warlike . Like a heartbeat carved in stone.
Tonight was Kael's execution.
They thought I would crumble. That I'd sob in a corner, that my strength had been a momentary outburst born from desperation. They thought they'd broken me.
They hadn't even come close.
Because they made one mistake: they underestimated what a woman in love was capable of.
I was never surrendering. I was planning.
Every second they gave me alone, I counted. Every breath, I remembered the layout of the compound, the timing of the guards, the way Kael's scent always lingered in the western winds.
And when the moon rose full fat and merciless
I made my move.
I reached beneath the floorboard where I'd hidden a silver hairpin the last time I was here. One of the few things my mother left behind when she died blessed by a lunar priestess, old magic wrapped in femininity and fire.
I approached the door slowly.
The moonstone seal pulsed. It sensed rebellion. It tried to hiss me away with burning cold.
I plunged the pin into the carved sigil and twisted.
A flash of white light burst across the door like a scream.
Then click.
The lock broke.
The door swung open with a groan, as if even the wood had grown tired of this charade.
I moved fast, dressed in the ceremonial white they'd shoved me into hours ago. I ripped the sleeves for freedom, tied the skirt at my thigh, and wrapped my hands in cloth for silence.
Every guard on duty was stationed at the Moon Arch for the bonding. The rest were guarding Kael.
They assumed no one would come for him.
They assumed wrong.
The prison smelled like rust and pain.
I moved like a shadow, my steps quiet against the stone. Two guards stood outside Kael's cell young, bored, their eyes half-focused on the candlelight and not the halls.
Perfect.
I picked up a chunk of broken stone from the floor.
Thud.
It clattered across the corridor, just out of sight.
They moved, like idiots.
As they passed the corner, I launched.
One of them turned just in time to catch my knee to his jaw. He dropped. The second drew his blade, but I was faster Kael had taught me how to use a man's strength against him.
His back slammed into the wall.
He didn't get up.
I snatched the keys from his belt and ran to the cell.
Kael was on his knees, chained and bloodied, his head bowed. But when he looked up, and saw me .his entire body jolted like lightning had kissed him.
"Aria," he breathed.
"I told you," I whispered, falling to my knees before him, "I wouldn't let them take you from me."
I crashed my lips onto his between the prison bars
Tears filled his eyes, but they didn't fall. He didn't have the time or the luxury for softness. But I saw it there in the way he leaned his forehead against mine, bruised and broken and still beautiful.
"I thought they'd already…" he started.
"Not yet," I said. "But they will. Unless we run. Now."
The chains hissed as I unlocked them. The metal had burned into his wrists. I winced as I peeled it away, but Kael didn't make a sound.
He only took my hand.
Not like a man grabbing a lifeline.
But like a man touching the reason he wanted to live.
We moved through the tunnels beneath the prison old routes used during wartime, forgotten by most, but not by me.
My mother used to tell me stories about these tunnels. How she'd hide down here with my father during raids. How the stones whispered the secrets of those who dared defy the Moon Decree.
Now, we were the newest secret.
Kael kept pace beside me, limping slightly but unshaken. He hadn't spoken since we escaped the cell. But I could feel his eyes on me every breath, every movement, like he was memorizing me again, afraid I'd vanish.
At the mouth of the tunnel, just beyond the border of the forest, we paused.
"You know this means war," he said quietly.
"I know," I replied.
"They'll hunt us."
"Let them."
He turned to me fully, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. His hands were rough, cut, but his touch was softer than anything I'd ever known.
"We could run far," he said. "Never look back."
"I don't want to run from something," I whispered. "I want to run toward something."
His forehead touched mine.
And for a moment, the world went still.
No drums. No fated bonds. No Elders or brothers or betrayals.
Just Kael.
And me.
And the stars above us, wild and watching.
"I love you," I said, finally, completely.
He closed his eyes, exhaling like he'd been holding his breath for a century. "I've loved you since you were thirteen and threw that book at my face for teasing you."
"You deserved it."
"I still do."
I smiled, even as tears slipped down my cheeks.
"But if we go," he said, voice serious again, "we don't come back."
"I don't want to."
He hesitated, then said something so quietly I barely heard it.
"I want to mark you."
I looked up.
"Not to claim," he added. "Not to bind. Just… to remember. In case they catch me again. In case I don't make it."
"No," I whispered, grabbing his face. "Don't say that. We'll make it. We have to."
But I leaned forward anyway.
And kissed him like the world was ending.
Because in a way, it was.
His teeth grazed my skin, and I didn't flinch. His scent wrapped around me, his warmth pulling me in. And when he marked me low on my collarbone, barely breaking skin I didn't feel pain.
I felt free.
We ran.
Through the trees. Through the fog. Through the bonds of fate and blood and power.
We ran until the Moon Arch was just a glow behind us.
Until the drums could no longer reach our ears.
Until our love was no longer a crime but a vow made of fire