Chapter 15: An Oath of Silence

RORY

I thought maybe I’d gotten away with it.

That I could go back to pretending I hadn’t heard anything in that shadowed stairwell.

But by morning, the unease had settled into my bones. I could barely look at Nikolai at breakfast without wondering if he’d guessed. He was his usual unreadable self—black shirt, black coffee, black mood—but every time his eyes swept the table, my throat tightened.

Jace kept shooting me little smirks over his mug, like he knew some private joke I wasn’t in on. Enzo was humming under his breath, lazy and charming as ever, while Kai just stared at his plate, knife scraping rhythmically against toast.

I pushed eggs around with my fork and counted the minutes until I could excuse myself.

I made it as far as the top of the stairs before I heard someone behind me.

“Keep walking,” a voice murmured.

The hair at the back of my neck rose.

I didn’t turn. I didn’t need to—Kai’s voice was distinctive. Flat. Controlled.

I moved down the hall, pulse quickening, until I felt a hand at my elbow. He steered me, not roughly, but with enough pressure to make clear I wasn’t choosing the direction.

He pushed open a door to one of the sitting rooms. It was empty. Curtains drawn.

The door clicked shut behind us.

Kai stood between me and the exit, arms loosely at his sides, eyes cold. “You were in the servants’ corridor last night.”

It wasn’t a question.

My mouth went dry. “I was—”

“Don’t lie.”

I bit my lip, weighing my options. Denying it would be useless. He wouldn’t have pulled me in here unless he was sure.

“I was just walking,” I said finally.

His gaze sharpened. “You heard something.”

I looked at the carpet. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He stepped closer. “If you repeat anything you think you heard, you won’t like the outcome.”

My chest tightened. “Are you threatening me?”

Kai’s voice didn’t change, but something in his eyes did—just a flicker. “I’m promising you.”

I forced myself to meet his stare. “What if I’m not scared of you?”

That earned me the faintest curve of his lips. “Then you’re a fool.”

He moved around me, slow, like a predator circling. “You don’t understand the kind of men you’re dealing with. The kind of consequences that follow.”

I swallowed hard. “Then explain it to me.”

“No,” he said simply. “Because then you’d have more information than you should.”

I hated how small the room felt, how close he stood. He wasn’t yelling, wasn’t even touching me anymore, but the weight of his presence was enough to pin me in place.

“What happens,” I asked carefully, “if I don’t stay quiet?”

Kai’s expression didn’t change. “Someone disappears.”

My breath hitched. “Me?”

“Maybe. Maybe not.” His tone was so casual it sent a chill down my spine.

For a moment, we just stared at each other. I tried to read him, to see if there was any crack in that icy composure. If there was, I couldn’t find it.

Then he leaned in slightly, his voice so low it was almost a whisper. “If you value your life—and anyone else’s—you will not repeat a word. To anyone.”

I didn’t know whether to be angry or terrified. Maybe both.

“Do you always threaten women to get your way?” I asked.

His eyes flickered—amusement, maybe. “Only the ones stubborn enough to make me.”

He stepped back finally, giving me room to breathe. “This is your only warning, Rory.”

Then he opened the door and walked out like nothing had happened.

I stood there for a moment, pulse thundering, trying to process what had just been said.

Only warning. Not a threat I could test. Not a bluff.

I should have been furious at being intimidated like that. And I was. But beneath the anger was something heavier—a gnawing awareness that he might actually be telling the truth.

I couldn’t be sure what exactly I’d overheard in the dark. But whatever it was, it mattered enough for Kai to corner me about it before the day had even started.

Which meant it mattered a lot.

I left the room, feeling eyes on me even when the hallway was empty.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. I stayed out of their way as much as possible, hiding in the library, pretending to read. But I could feel them moving around the house—Jace’s laughter echoing from somewhere down the hall, Enzo’s smooth voice drifting up the stairs, Nikolai’s quiet footsteps that always seemed to pause near wherever I was.

It was like they were all waiting for me to slip.

By evening, I was wound tight. The warning kept replaying in my head, tangled up with last night’s overheard words.

She doesn’t know yet.

She can’t.

Attached.

I didn’t know what it meant. But I knew this much—it wasn’t just about me.

And if Kai thought scaring me into silence would keep me from asking questions… well, maybe it would’ve worked on someone else.

Just not me.

That night, I lay in bed with the lamp on, unable to make myself turn it off. My ears strained for any sound outside my door.

Around midnight, I heard a knock.

Soft. Three taps.

I sat up slowly. “Who is it?”