Astra's stomach turned.
Even when they ran, someone watched.
Kael's breath hitched again—pain spiking, then settling into a sharp hum.
"Astra," he rasped, "I didn't mean—"
"Don't," Astra snapped, then softened her voice into something dangerously intimate. "Not now."
Kael swallowed hard. His eyes were dark and furious and too human. "I hate this."
Astra's throat burned. "So do I."
Juno hissed, "Stop talking. I hear—"
A faint scrape behind them.
Not boots. Not stone cracking.
A clean, patient pressure again—like a hand on the back of the passage, pushing.
The Hound wasn't far.
Orin swore and slammed a scar-sigil. The passage ahead shuddered and widened into a low chamber—pipes sweating, dead-sand gutters cut deep, and a thin ribbon of dark water running through the floor like a vein.
They spilled into it.
Orin slapped a muffler hard. The air thickened.
Silence hit like a slap.
For a moment, the chase sound dulled.
Astra's legs trembled. Pain debt, trace heat, cold water earlier still in her bones.
Kael caught her immediately—waist and forearm—holding her upright with brutal gentleness.
"Consent?" he asked, rough.
Astra's pulse kicked at the fact he still asked with a leash screaming in his throat. "Yes."
Kael's fingers tightened for a heartbeat, then loosened like he caught himself before contact became control.
He stared at her throat wrap like it was a bomb he'd been told to defuse with his mouth.
"I don't want that word on me," Kael said, voice low, raw. "Owner."
Astra swallowed blood. "I know."
Kael's eyes burned. "I don't want your collar to respond to my name."
Astra's throat tightened because it had responded. She'd felt it.
Heat, hunger, wrongness.
She forced her face calm. "Then don't feed it."
Kael's jaw clenched. "How."
Astra leaned closer, close enough that the air between them turned hot despite the damp chamber. She didn't kiss him. She didn't touch his crest.
She used the only thing the system couldn't counterfeit without help: explicit consent.
"Kael," Astra whispered, "ask before every touch. Ask before every hold. Ask before every word you speak at the system."
Kael's breath hitched. "That's—"
"Slow," Astra finished, voice low and sharp. "Yes. That's the point."
Kael stared at her like he wanted to argue and wanted to obey. The conflict made him dangerous in a way that lit Astra's nerves.
He swallowed hard.
"May I keep holding your waist," Kael asked, rough.
Heat flared low in Astra's belly, fierce and alive. "Yes."
Kael's hand settled again—warm, steady.
Astra's voice dropped, intimate as a confession. "And if the system offers you an owner command…"
Kael's eyes darkened. "I ask."
Astra's mouth curved razor-thin. "And if you forget."
Kael's jaw flexed. "You stop me."
Astra nodded. "By voice. By name."
Kael's gaze held hers like a vow. "Astra."
The way he said her name—anchoring, chosen—sent a sharp wave of heat through Astra's body that had nothing to do with safety.
It was worse than fear.
It was want.
Astra leaned in—almost a kiss, a breath away—and held there, making the almost-kiss into a line neither of them crossed without choosing it.
"Consent," Astra whispered, mouth close to his.
Kael's breath hitched. His eyes flicked to her lips like he wanted to forget the world and couldn't afford it. "Always."
Astra didn't kiss him.
Not yet.
She pulled back just enough to keep their minds sharp, and it hurt like a wound.
Orin hissed, "We can't hide here long."
Juno nodded, swallowing hard. "They'll find the muffler trail."
Astra dragged her gaze away from Kael and back to her interface.
The proxy owner status sat there like a brand. Correction low, persistent.
And underneath it, a new line had appeared—quiet and cruel.
OWNER PROXY CLAUSE: "SUBJECT SAFETY LOCKDOWN" AVAILABLENOTE: MAY SILENCE WITNESS SEAL + COLLAR STABILIZEWARNING: ACTIVATION MAY REDUCE SUBJECT AGENCY
Kael saw it too—she saw the flicker in his expression.
He looked sick.
Astra's throat burned. "Don't."
Kael's voice was raw. "I won't."
Orin rubbed his face, grim. "We're out of options. They'll corner us. We need a misdirection—something they can smell that isn't you."
Astra's mind raced.
Lyra's escrow. Lyra captured. Lyra's "truth debt."
Astra's stomach tightened with anger.
"We need Lyra," Astra said.
Orin barked a harsh laugh. "We need an army."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "We need her signal."
Astra blinked. "What."
Kael's jaw clenched. "Lyra's mark can carry channel. She already rerouted an escrow. If we can ping her—if we can force a witness action remotely—"
Orin shook his head. "Dead sand eats signal."
Kael's gaze cut to the thin ribbon of dark water running through the chamber. "Not if the water carries it."
Astra's throat burned.
Water interference had already made military "privacy" sloppy.
Maybe it could carry a different kind of message.
Astra swallowed. "If we can get a whisper to her mark, she could specify a new recipient for the escrow lane."
Orin's eyes narrowed. "To who."
Astra's mouth tightened. "Someone neither Rusk nor Dorian can intercept."
Juno whispered, "Does that exist."
Astra didn't answer immediately.
Because the name that surfaced in her mind was the worst kind of answer.
Sister-Matriarch Seraphine Lume.
Church.
Power.
Protection with a price.
Astra's collar tightened slightly as if it liked the thought of holy hands and clean vows.
Astra hated it.
Kael watched her face and read enough. "No."
Astra's jaw clenched. "You have another name."
Kael's throat worked. He didn't.
Orin muttered, "We don't get clean saints in this city."
Juno's disk hummed softly, like it agreed.
Astra's breath came shallow.
Kael stepped closer, voice low and intimate, like he was trying to climb into her decision and steer it with his presence instead of his crest.
"Ask me," Kael said. "Tell me what you want."
Astra swallowed blood. "I want you not to become my owner."
Kael's jaw clenched. "You won't be."
Astra's eyes burned. "The system doesn't care."
Kael's voice went rougher. "Then we do. We make it care."
Astra's pulse kicked.
She hated that those words sounded like hope.
Orin snapped, "Footsteps—faint!"
Everyone froze.
Astra held her breath.
A scrape—stone on stone, patient.
The Hound was close again.
Kael's hand tightened at Astra's waist, grounding. He didn't ask this time, because he was reacting.
Astra caught it, even in the fear.
"Consent," Astra whispered, sharp.
Kael's breath hitched. "Yes."
He corrected himself without argument.
Astra's throat burned with something that wasn't pain.
Orin whispered, "We move. Quiet."
They moved along the ribbon of water, boots careful on wet stone. Orin led them through a narrow slit into a lower throat where the water ran deeper, darker.
Astra's interface flickered again—another update, another knife.
CORRECTION ESCALATION: OWNER PROXY BREACH UNRESOLVEDNEXT STEP: FORCED SAFETY LOCKDOWN (RECOMMENDED)AUTO-EXECUTE IN: 00:00:30
Astra's blood went ice.
Forced safety lockdown.
Silence the seal. Stabilize collar.
Reduce agency.
A "safe" cage.
Kael saw Astra's face change. "What now."
Astra swallowed hard. "Lockdown. Thirty seconds."
Kael's jaw clenched, murderous. "I'll deny it."
Astra's throat burned. "If you deny too much, correction will spike. It will break you."
Kael's eyes burned. "Then it breaks me."
Astra grabbed his forearm hard, stopping him—human grip, not crest. "No."
Kael's breath hitched. "Astra—"
Astra leaned in, voice low and viciously intimate. "You are not allowed to martyr yourself to protect me."
Kael's jaw flexed. "I'm not—"
"You are," Astra cut in. "And I won't let you."
Kael went very still.
Heat snapped between them—anger and want tangled. He looked like he wanted to argue and wanted to obey at once.
Astra swallowed and made it explicit, because the system would love to interpret this as dominance.
"Consent," Astra said, softer, "to staying alive with me."
Kael's throat worked. "Yes."
Astra exhaled hard.
She needed a third path again.
Not confirm lockdown. Not deny it until Kael broke.
A redirect.
A trick.
Astra glanced at the dark water. The witness seal under her cloth wrap vibrated like it remembered drowning signal.
And then she saw the cruel possibility:
If the system triggered "safety lockdown" to protect the subject (Astra), it would probably prioritize collar stability and seal silence. That would interrupt broadcasts.
If she could trigger the lockdown on her terms—just enough to silence the seal without reducing her agency—she could buy time from both Dorian and Rusk.
But activating any owner command required the proxy owner.
Kael.
Kael would have to press a button with the word Owner on it.
Astra's stomach turned.
Kael noticed her hesitation. "What."
Astra swallowed. "We can preempt it."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "How."
Astra forced the words out. "We use a partial lockdown—silence the witness seal only—for sixty seconds. It blocks tracking. It might buy space. But…"
Kael's face tightened. "But it's an owner command."
Astra nodded once. "Yes."
Kael's jaw clenched, disgust and fury colliding. "I won't do anything to your collar."
Astra's throat burned. "I'm asking you to do it with consent."
Kael's eyes snapped to hers, raw. "It still feels like—"
"I know," Astra whispered. "I hate it too."
The countdown in her vision slid lower.
00:00:18…00:00:17…