Chapter 25 : Fractured Loyalty - A Pause in Time
Cassian hit the ground hard.
The world spun in a violent rush of colour and sound as the Shadow Priest’s blast sent him crashing into the side of a rusted shipping container. His lungs seized, air slamming out of him. His ears rang. For a moment, he couldn’t even remember where he was, only that Aria’s scream had pierced through the chaos—
“Cassian!”
He tried to rise — failed — then forced his arm to move. The metallic tang of blood filled his mouth as he pushed to his knees. The alley was a haze of shadows, black smoke curling like living tendrils. He had lost sight of her. Lost sight of all of them.
“Aria!” he rasped.
No answer.
Panic sharpened him like a blade. He staggered to his feet, vision swimming. The streetlamps flickered. The shadows moved unnaturally — the Priests still lingered, though he could not see their masked faces. His heart thudded violently as he stumbled forward.
A second blast erupted behind him, scorching the pavement where he had stood seconds before. He dove behind a broken wall, teeth bared, shifting partially to his wolf. Claws tore through skin. Senses sharpened.
He scanned the area.
No Aria.
No Kael.
His pulse spiked with dread.
He’d been thrown metres away — far enough that he’d lost her scent under the smoke. His wolf clawed inside him, desperate to track her, desperate to run to her. But the reek of dark magic circled the street like a trap.
And Kael… Kael had vanished with her.
Cassian bit back a growl.
Of all the people she could have ended up with, it had to be him.
Not that Kael didn’t care. Cassian knew, more than most, how deeply the prince felt. How violently. How absolutely. But that was exactly the problem.
A cursed wolf who had lost every Luna he ever touched…
A prince whose control snapped like brittle glass under the bond…
A man whose bloodline was poisoned by the very magic hunting Aria now…
Kael was the greatest danger to her — even if he didn’t mean to be.
And Cassian knew it.
Yet he also knew that if he had not been thrown back — if he had been just a few seconds faster — Kael wouldn’t have reached her first.
The realisation knifed deep.
He had failed her.
Again.
A shadow moved behind him. Cassian spun, claws raised, but it wasn’t a Priest — it was Rowan’s hawk form swooping overhead. The bird dropped sharply into the darkness, shifting mid-air, landing in a crouch.
“Cassian!” Rowan hissed, rushing to him. “Where is she? What happened?”
Cassian’s jaw clenched. “She was taken.”
Rowan froze. “Taken—?”
“Not by them.” Cassian swallowed hard. “Kael intervened.”
The silence that followed was charged.
Rowan’s face hardened in a way Cassian had never seen before — cold, sharp, furious. “You lost her to him.”
Cassian bristled. “I didn’t lose her. I was knocked back. And Kael—”
“Kael always arrives at the perfect moment, doesn’t he?” Rowan snapped. “Always when she’s at her weakest.”
Cassian narrowed his eyes. “Careful.”
But Rowan wasn’t listening. His chest rose and fell rapidly, breath shaking with barely concealed emotion. Cassian recognised it — the fear, the protectiveness, the anger at being kept in the dark too long. Rowan cared for Aria in ways he didn’t understand yet. Maybe in ways he wasn’t allowed to.
Cassian placed a hand on Rowan’s shoulder. “We’ll find her. But running blindly will get us both killed.”
Rowan shoved his hand away. “I don’t need you to tell me what will get me killed.”
Cassian bit back a retort. Rowan had never spoken to him like that before — the boy had always been even and steady. But now? Rowan’s wolf, his magic, his true nature — the one he’d kept buried to blend into Aria’s human world — was cracking through the surface.
He was changing.
And Cassian didn’t have time to process what that meant.
Because her scent finally hit him.
Faint. Distant.
Leading away from the alley.
He turned sharply. “This way.”
They ran — silent shadows cutting through the city. Rowan shifted again, feathers bursting where skin had been, soaring ahead to scout. Cassian followed the trail until—
It ended.
Abruptly.
As if swallowed.
Cassian skidded to a stop, chest heaving. The scent vanished like it had been severed.
A ward.
A shield.
Ancient magic.
He felt Rowan land behind him. The boy shifted back, panting.
“You felt it too?” Rowan whispered.
Cassian nodded slowly. “Someone cloaked her.”
“Kael?” Rowan’s voice trembled.
“Either him… or someone older. Stronger.” Cassian scanned the empty air. “This magic predates the Dominion.”
Their gazes met, fear mirrored in both pairs of eyes.
Aria hadn’t been dragged away.
She had been hidden.
Protected.
Cassian exhaled shakily.
Thank the Goddess.
The relief hit him so hard his knees nearly buckled — but guilt followed fast on its heels.
He should have been with her.
He should never have let Kael get to her first.
He had promised to protect her, and yet—
His beliefs twisted painfully.
He had spent years condemning Kael’s pull toward her. Calling it dangerous. Reckless. A curse waiting to consume her. And yet here he was, relying on that same dangerous pull to keep her alive for another day.
Hypocritical.
Unfair.
But true.
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “We need to return.”
“To whom?” Rowan snapped. “To the Dominion? To the prince who stole her?”
“He didn’t steal her,” Cassian said with forced calm. “He saved her. As much as I hate to admit it.”
Rowan turned away, jaw flexing — unwilling to hear it.
Cassian looked up at the moon. “She is alive. That’s what matters now.”
But the words tasted hollow.
Because deep inside him — under the protector, under the warrior, under the loyalty to the Draven family — Cassian knew what terrified him most.
Kael wasn’t her danger.
Kael was her destiny.
And Cassian…
Cassian was the one standing in the way of it.
Not maliciously.
Not deliberately.
But because admitting the truth meant admitting that Aria was never his to protect alone. That all his warnings, his anger, his distrust —
—were rooted in fear.
Fear that Kael would take her away.
Fear that Cassian would fail her.
Fear that history would repeat itself.
The night grew colder around them.
Cassian looked once more at the empty horizon — where Aria’s scent had vanished.
“Hold on, little Luna,” he whispered.
He didn’t know if she could feel it.
But he prayed she could.
Because the war was turning.
The Priests were moving.
Kael was defying the throne.
And Cassian… Cassian had just chosen a side he could never step back from.