Chapter 6: Breaking Away
356 Words
Chapter 6
Breaking Away
“They’ll announce the engagement tonight.”
Her father said it and left. The door clicked shut.
Elara looked down at the silver cuffs.
They were draining her power.
Seline stepped out from behind the curtain.
“You have to run,” she whispered. “Lorenzo will lock you in the tower.”
Elara tugged at the chain. “How?”
“There’s a forbidden book in the library,” Seline said, handing her a key. “It can break this.”
⸻
The library was freezing.
Elara knelt on the floor, flipping through the book, fingers numb.
“Let me control you,” she whispered to the chain. “Not the other way around.”
The metal turned hot. Then—snap. It broke.
Seline was at the door, pale. “You actually did it.”
Elara rolled her wrist. “Now what?”
“Sleep,” Seline said. “The answer’s there.”
⸻
She dreamed of Raphael.
He stood in a blinding white hall, holding out his hand.
“Where is this?” she asked.
“Your mind,” he said. “Or our future.”
She touched his hand.
Suddenly, she could see the guards’ positions—like a radar inside her head.
“Together?” he asked.
“Together,” she said.
⸻
At dawn, she slipped into the garden.
Closed her eyes. Five seconds.
Three guards coming from the left.
Two smoking to the right.
She dodged easily.
“Idiots,” she muttered, climbing over the wall.
⸻
The basement was full of dust.
The book was just sitting there, like it had been waiting.
“Put it down.”
Her mother’s voice.
Elara tucked the book into her coat. “No.”
“You’re a Montague,” her mother said. “Your life is already written.”
Elara smiled. “Then I’m changing my name.”
As she ran out, she heard glass shatter.
⸻
Seline was waiting at the back gate.
“Go,” she said. “Don’t look back.”
Elara stepped into the sunlight. For the first time, the wind felt warm.
- Writer
