The ballroom had not recovered from the gunshot.
Music still played, but it sounded wrong like a machine failing to imitate life. Chandeliers swayed gently, their crystals chiming with every distant scream. Guests huddled behind pillars and marble statues, masks half-removed, faces pale with panic.
Elaris stood frozen near the fountain.
A body lay on the white marble floor, blood spreading slowly beneath silk and feathers. The red looked unreal, like spilled paint. Her fingers tightened around the stem of her champagne glass until it trembled.
Then Kael's hand closed around her wrist.
Firm. Grounding. Real.
"Stay close," he said quietly, pulling her back into the shadows between two towering columns. His voice was sharp, controlled. "This isn't an accident."
She didn't argue.
For a second, their masks turned toward each other — black and gold. Predator and phantom. She felt his pulse through his grip. Fast. Focused. Dangerous.
Not fear.
Something worse.
The assassin moved.
A figure in white slipped through the chaos like a ghost. Long coat. Porcelain mask cracked at the cheek. A blade glinted in their hand, still wet with blood.
Their head turned.
Their eyes locked directly onto Elaris.
Her breath caught.
Before she could move, a familiar voice cut through her earpiece low, urgent, encrypted.
Xyren: "That's no random killer. They're here for you. Get out, El. Now."
Her heart slammed against her ribs.
Kael tilted his head slightly, as if he could hear the silence between her breaths. His grip tightened.
"Who's talking in your ear, little ghost?" he whispered.
She didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
The assassin advanced.
Guests screamed as the white-clad figure pushed past them, blade flashing. Someone fell. Someone else cried. The ballroom became a maze of fear and firelight.
"Move," Kael said.
They ran.
They burst into a golden corridor, chandeliers lining the ceiling like captured suns. The assassin followed, footsteps light, precise, relentless.
A fallen candle rolled across the carpet.
Fire caught silk.
Screams echoed.
Elaris's wrist-console pulsed sharply a DreamWare alert forcing its way through adrenaline and fear.
Security Override Request: Pending.Power fluctuation detected.
Even now.
Even here.
Her life never stopped demanding decisions.
"Left," Kael ordered.
They turned just as the assassin lunged.
Kael spun, slamming Elaris against the wall, his body shielding hers. Steel sliced through the air inches from her face, close enough that she felt the cold kiss of it.
Their breaths collided.
"You're too close," she whispered, trembling but not weak.
He smirked, eyes dark behind the mask.
"Not close enough to keep you alive."
They broke apart and ran again.
Elaris typed commands into her wrist-console as she moved, fingers flying despite the shaking.
Redirect power. Override chandelier rigging. Manual drop.
The lights above flickered.
Sparks rained down as one chandelier crashed behind them, blocking the corridor in a burst of fire and glass.
The assassin didn't stop.
They leapt over the wreckage.
Relentless.
Focused.
Personal.
They reached a smaller ballroom empty, silent, petals crushed underfoot. Moonlight poured in through tall windows, reflecting off shattered mirrors.
Nowhere left to run.
The assassin stepped forward slowly, blade raised.
"Why?" Elaris demanded, her voice sharp despite the fear coiling in her chest.
The figure paused.
Then slowly reached up.
The porcelain mask came off.
Elaris felt something inside her crack.
It wasn't a stranger.
It was the DreamWare Corp security chief.
Someone she had trusted. Someone who had approved her systems, guarded her company, smiled at her in meetings.
Betrayal hit harder than the blade ever could.
Kael let out a low, humorless breath.
"So," he said calmly, dangerously. "Even your house eats its own."
Behind the scenes, alarms exploded across DreamWare's holo-grid. Unauthorized access. Upstream breaches. This wasn't just personal.
It was corporate war.
The assassin attacked.
Kael moved first.
Precise. Ruthless. No wasted motion.
Steel met steel as Elaris hacked into the chandelier's remaining power feed, hands steady now survival sharpening her focus.
"Now!" Kael shouted.
She executed the command.
The chandelier above them shattered in a storm of sparks and glass.
The assassin screamed as debris crashed down, pinning them to the marble floor. Blood mixed with crushed rose petals.
Silence followed.
Heavy. Final.
Kael stepped back, breathing hard.
Elaris stood still, pulse roaring in her ears.
He reached up and brushed a shard of glass from her hair. His fingers lingered longer than necessary.
"You can lie to the world," he said softly, dangerously. "But not to me. One day, you'll choose which mask to bleed in."
Her wristband pulsed again.
DreamWare notifications waited.
Staff approvals. Security audits. AI alerts.
Even here, responsibility never loosened its grip.
Hours later, alone in her quarters, Elaris scrubbed blood from her hands.
She stared into the mirror.
For a moment, her reflection glitched.
Xyren's face replaced hers.
Xyren: "The masquerade wasn't theirs. It was ours. And now the board knows you're the crack in the circuit."
Her screen chimed.
A single message.
A digital rose, blood-red.
No name. No signature.
She didn't need one.
Thunder rolled over the Crimson Coast.
Inside, both her lives waited human and digital, love and war demanding she survive them all.
If betrayal starts at home… where does safety exist?