Chapter 2 The Oathbreaker's Bargain

The wind hit her face like a blade as they sprinted through the broken gates of the Oath Hall.

Kiera stumbled over fallen stone, nearly tripping on her torn cloak. Caelen didn't stop. He pulled her behind him like he knew every shadow, every crack in the cobbled path.

Alarms blared behind them. Horns. Footsteps. Shouted orders.

"They'll be tracking my Oathmark," she panted.

"They won't find it," he said. "I already burned it."

She jerked her arm free. "You what?"

He turned, calm as a winter storm. "You'd be dead by now if I hadn't."

"You had no right-" she slapped a hand over her chest. The burning had stopped. The mark was... fading. Her oath was unraveling.

Her power was slipping away.

"Do you want to live," Caelen said coldly, "or keep pretending your precious Order isn't broken?"

Kiera stared at him. The once-golden prince now wore black leathers and a wolf-bone pauldron. A wicked blade hung from his belt - not steel, but Oathshard. Illegal. Dangerous.

Deadly.

"You're a traitor," she hissed. "You burned the capital gates."

"And they told you I did it for power," he replied. "Ask yourself why. Why would a prince burn his own city?"

She faltered.

He took a step closer. "Because I found the first lie. The same one you're wrapped in now."

Kiera's hand twitched toward her dagger - but it was gone. She had nothing left but her fists and fire... and the fire was gone.

Caelen saw the fight in her and smiled faintly. "You can try to kill me later. But right now, if you want to survive, you come with me."

"And if I say no?"

He leaned in. His voice dropped to a whisper. "Then you'll die with a red flame and no name. A criminal. A ghost. Another Oathkeeper they burned to keep their secrets buried."

She stared at him, every part of her screaming to run - from him, from the shame, from the truth.

But something in her heart, broken and raw, wanted answers.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked.

His eyes met hers - calm, cold, certain.

"To the place your Order fears the most," he said. "Where the oaths were born... and where they were first broken."