Chapter 17 · The Priestess Makes a Deal

Don did not look away. "Kaelen—" The last lie in the room still had teeth.

The door was already closing on the secret. Share pain to survive bone sluice

Kaelen stepped in close enough that she felt the old bond pull. Sluice eats souls — only pact shields

"Say it," Don said. "If I walk now, it breaks."

He did not reach for a weapon. He reached for her wrist, then stopped, waiting.

The last threat paid itself in public: a name spoken, a vow unhidden, a choice that could not be taken back.

Mark flares — captain whispers 'old lord's crest'

She laughed once, wrecked and alive. "Then we stay."

They left the wreckage standing. The night air hit like a pardon they had stolen.

In the morning there would still be work. Tonight there was a hand in hers and no more running.

Don kept his gaze. The future was not soft, but it was theirs, and she would not give it back to the people who had tried to write her ending.

Don kept his gaze.