In a city stitched together by vows, every promise has weight and every sentence can cut. Street-artist Lina keeps a sketchbook of forbidden doorways—thresholds that flare when a lie is told. Nadir, once an apprentice to the oathkeepers, carries the shame of a failed binding that cost him more than a name. When a relic surfaces—the Bay’at Manuscript, a living archive of clauses and counter-clauses—both are dragged into a war of language where speech itself is a blade.
As salt lines are broken and kitchen windows start whispering witness, the city’s old pacts unravel. Brides walk at noon under rules no one remembers signing. Children inherit “The Child Clause,” a bargain written in the dark. Every locked hinge is a question. Every answer demands a price. To stop a reversal that will unmake the streets by dawn, Lina and Nadir must navigate the grammar of power—learning which words bind, which open doors, and which are knives hidden in ordinary conversation.
Told in luminous, breath-held prose, this is literary occult horror that favors dread over gore, the hush before the door swings wide over jump-scares. The world-building is exact and strange: rituals measured in pinches of salt; rings that remember their owners; neighborhoods where a contract can change the weather. As the clauses tighten, Lina and Nadir discover that the only way out is through a vow neither of them is sure they can keep—and breaking it may cost the city its voice forever.
Perfect for readers of atmospheric, slow-burn horror and mythic urban fantasy, this novel braids intimacy and menace until the final pages—where language itself becomes the battleground.
Content note: psychological/occult themes; ritual imagery; no graphic gore.
Hamza Abushalha is a passionate storyteller known for crafting gripping tales that blur the line between reality and the supernatural. With a unique talent for weaving psychological tension and vivid imagery, his stories pull readers into worlds where fear feels real and the unknown is only a page away. When he’s not writing, Hamza explores the hidden corners of human emotion, always searching for the next story that will keep readers awake at night.