Page 18 of Broken Fates (Severed Flames #3)

Chapter 18

Vale

H eat. Deep, bone-deep heat.

It wrapped around me, cocooning me in the scent of embers and something spiced, something rich. My mates.

Idris lay beneath me, his chest rising and falling in a slow, steady rhythm, his heartbeat thrumming against my ear. My legs tangled with his, my body draped over him like I never wanted to leave. Maybe I didn’t.

Xavier’s hand rested low on my hip, his breath slow and even at my back. Even in sleep, he anchored me, his fingers curled over my skin in that quiet, steady way of his. Kian was at my other side, his arm flung loosely over my waist, his fingertips tracing idle patterns along my spine.

Held by them, wrapped in their warmth, I should have felt safe. I should have been dead to the world.

But something was wrong.

Beneath me, Idris went still. Not just still—rigid. Every muscle in his body locked, breath turning shallow. A slow, quiet inhale through his nose. A controlled exhale through his mouth.

The kind of measured breath someone took when they were trying not to move.

A warning.

Sleep bled away in an instant. My pulse kicked up as I stiffened against him. “What is it?” My voice was barely more than a whisper.

He didn’t answer right away. His golden eyes flickered in the dim light, his grip tightening on my waist.

Kian hummed low, half-asleep, and drowsy, his lips brushing my shoulder. “What’s got you all wound up?”

Then Idris exhaled. The bond between us pulsed. “She moved.”

I blinked, sleep draining from my limbs. “Who?”

His jaw clenched. “Nyrah.” Idris paused for a beat. “She moved.”

Then he shook his head like he was trying to clear it. “I spelled her to sleep. It… connected me to the Dreaming inside her.” His golden eyes burned, unfocused. “I just felt her move, but she didn’t wake up.”

The bond between us all thrummed with something restless, something cold. I went still. My breath caught, my fingers clenching against Idris’ chest.

Nyrah.

I scrambled upright, but Idris was already moving, shifting me effortlessly as he sat up.

Awake in an instant, Xavier’s hand wrapped around my hip to steady me. The bond surged, thick with golden fire and something sharper—something like dread.

And then a pulse rippled through the air.

I didn't think. Didn't hesitate.

My hands flew out, grabbing for the first thing I could reach. A tunic—soft, oversized, Idris’ scent still clinging to it. I yanked it over my head, not bothering with laces, just enough to be covered. Underwear, boots, blades.

Behind me, the bed shifted violently as Idris stood, golden magic flickering over his skin. He dragged his leathers up his legs in one fluid motion, practiced and precise.

Kian was already moving, his usual mirth replaced with sharp, lethal focus. He grabbed his pants first, but his weapons second, the blackened scales of his dragon flitting over his skin.

Xavier barely took the time to shove on his trousers, snatching up his blades before he moved.

The house trembled again.

I didn’t wait. I ran, bursting from the room into the corridor.

The hallway stretched. Just for a second, just for a breath. Then the walls shuddered, pulsed, the wood bending inwards, curving toward me. A whisper—too low to understand, too high to ignore—brushed over my ears.

Then everything snapped back.

The door to Nyrah’s room was ahead—Briar’s voice sharp on the other side.

I didn’t slow. I threw the door open. And everything stopped.

Nyrah was there, still unconscious, still asleep. But something else was, too.

The air twisted. The air warped, the space around Nyrah bending like ripples over glass. Magic thickened, twisting, shifting—like a veil between realms had just torn open.

Briar covered Nyrah with her small body, doing her best to protect her.

I barely had a chance to take one breath.

The Dreaming didn’t pull. It ripped.

One breath, I was standing in Nyrah’s room, the scent of old magic thick in the air. The next, I was wrenched downward, yanked from reality with an unnatural force.

Cold.

Not the crisp bite of winter, not the creeping chill of a shadowed room—this was deep cold. Ancient. A void that had never known light. It wrapped around me in an instant, numbing my skin, clawing at my bones.

I reached—for the bond, for my mates, for anything solid. But there was nothing.

The world around me warped. Up and down bled together, gravity shifting sideways, backward—wrong.

A heartbeat pounded in my ears, but it wasn’t mine.

I gasped, trying to orient myself, but the floor wasn’t there. There was no floor. No sky. Just an endless stretch of swirling, fractured light.

And then I hit the ground.

Hard.

The impact cracked through me, stealing my breath, sending pain lancing up my spine. My palms scraped against stone—smooth, shimmering like molten silver. The air vibrated, thick, humming, alive. Like it had been waiting.

I sucked in a sharp breath and pushed up onto my hands and knees, blinking fast, my body aching from the landing.

And that’s when I saw him.

Rune.

He stood at the center of it all, his massive scarlet form coiled around something— someone . His wings were flared, talons digging into the ground, his golden eyes burning through the shadows.

Defiant. Furious. But fading.

The edges of his scales flickered, unstable, as though he was barely holding himself together. And between his massive claws, Nyrah lay motionless.

My stomach lurched. “Rune,” I breathed, scrambling to my feet.

His head snapped toward me, golden eyes locking onto mine, and for the first time in my life, a dragon looked afraid.

And then the shadows moved.

Terror flooded my chest, but it wasn’t mine. It poured through the air, thick and suffocating, snaking through my bones like smoke. Heavy. Old. And laced with something sharp, something ragged and raw.

This wasn’t my fear.

It was Rune’s.

My stomach knotted, the bond flaring white-hot inside me, surging past Idris—past all of them—and into the heart of the dragon who stood before me.

Rune’s massive chest heaved, his form shimmering at the edges, struggling to hold its shape. His talons flexed against the iridescent stone beneath him, his scaled lips peeling back in a warning snarl, his golden eyes full of fire and death.

A growl rumbled through the void, low and lethal.

“You are not welcome here.”

I flinched. His voice wasn’t like Idris’ anymore. It was deeper, older, a living storm ready to break.

But he was wrong.

“I am,” I said, lifting my chin. “And you know it. You know me.”

Rune’s wings flared, his massive form blocking out everything else, but I wasn’t afraid of him. Not when I could feel the truth beneath his fury—the pain. The fear. The looming death sinking its claws into him.

He was dying.

And if he died—really died—so could Idris.

Rune bared his fangs, golden light cracking along the seams of his body. His voice came as a snarl of pure agony. “I will not let you take her.”

My gaze traveled to where she lay curled beneath his massive form. Unmoving. Pale. Barely breathing. Her pale hair and small form a dead giveaway.

Nyrah.

He was protecting my sister. Guarding her from Zamarra’s influence, from the Dreaming that wanted to swallow her whole.

The shadows around them twisted. Reached.

Zamarra.

I didn’t think. I lifted my hands, and power surged outward. It wasn’t the flickering flame of my magic before—it was more. Bigger. Brighter.

The moment it hit the air, the Dreaming screamed. The shadows reeled back, hissing, writhing like steam meeting fire.

Rune flinched. His massive body recoiled, his wings rustling, his golden eyes going wide.

He didn’t just see me. He felt me.

His breath hitched. “You ? —”

The bond flared, and for a second, Rune shivered—trembling as I spoke into his mind.

“It’s me, Rune. It’s Vale.”

I stepped forward, my magic burning through the dark, illuminating the twisted world around us.

“You’re not alone.” My voice was quiet, but steady. “ I’m here, Rune. And I will not let you fall.”

A scream tore through the Dreaming. Not a voice—the realm itself.

The moment my power lashed out, the void around me twisted, shrieking, as if I had burned it. And then it fought back. The darkness lunged forward. I gasped, staggering as it slammed into me, sinking its claws deep into my chest.

Cold. Bone-deep, soul-deep cold.

It wrapped around my limbs, my throat, slithering like something alive. A breath. A whisper.

"You do not belong here."

I choked, my body jerking, but the shadows coiled tighter. My magic flared too slow. I couldn't move, couldn't break free.

"Vale!" Rune's voice was a snarl of fury, of pain.

I twisted in the dark, barely able to see him through the shifting void. He fought the shadows, tearing at them with his talons, but he was losing.

The edges of his form wavered, his massive scarlet body phasing in and out like he was barely clinging to existence. His claws dug into the stone, his tail lashing wildly as he tried to shield Nyrah, to hold onto what little strength he had left.

But the Dreaming wanted him gone. It wanted him devoured. Shattered. Erased. And if I couldn’t stop it—if I couldn’t free him—it would succeed.

My pulse thundered. I reached, straining for my magic, shoving it outward with everything I had, but the shadows crushed down, drowning me.

No. I was so close to fixing everything. Nyrah, Rune—everything I’d ruined.

A sudden roar shook the realm, deep and shattering, and then…

Idris was there—they all were.

Magic exploded through the Dreaming, a shockwave of raw, furious power. The shadows reeled back, hissing, retreating into the void as golden flames ripped through the darkness.

A blast of wind slammed into my chest as Kian's illusions unraveled the Dreaming’s hold on me. Xavier was already moving, his blade slicing through the air, his magic snapping like a whip as he severed the threads trying to pull me deeper.

And at the center of it all—Idris burned.

His golden eyes locked onto Rune, onto me, onto the void trying to steal us away. His voice was steel, fire, an unshakable command that shook the Dreaming to its core. " Enough ."

The realm shuddered. Rune staggered, his massive body barely holding together, his golden eyes blazing with desperation, with defiance, with fear.

And then the final battle for his soul began.

The Dreaming raged—it lashed, howled, tore at the edges of reality, trying to consume everything. But my mates stood like unbreakable pillars, golden fire, and raw power slashing through the dark.

Rune trembled. His body shuddered, flickering, his massive form struggling to stay whole. The void clawed at his wings, his talons, trying to rip him deeper into the Dreaming’s grasp. And Rune—for the first time in centuries—was losing.

"I won't let it take you." The words burst from me, fierce and unwavering.

Rune’s golden eyes locked onto mine, burning through the shadows. For just a second, uncertainty cracked through his fury. He was terrified.

Not of me. Not of the Dreaming. Of what would come next.

"If I do this." Rune’s voice cracked—raw, old, haunted. "If I merge with him… do I disappear?"

The Dreaming lurched. The void screamed. Rune’s massive form fractured at the edges, gold light spilling from every crack.

This wasn’t just pain—this was annihilation.

I grabbed onto him. Not just his body—his soul. Rune had saved me over and over again. I wouldn’t let him fall—not ever.

"No." I breathed it, willed it, carved it into the bond between us.

My magic surged, flooding the space between us, burning through the cold, through the dark, through every inch of him. I felt him.

Not just his power.

Not just his fire.

Him.

Rune—the dragon who had once been Idris’ other half, the guardian who had fought for me, who had always fought for me.

"You don’t disappear," I whispered. "You become whole."

His eyes widened, moving a single step forward as the darkness threatened to pull him back.

And Idris met him halfway.

The Dreaming shuddered as he moved between us, his golden eyes locking onto Rune’s.

“I am not whole without you.” Idris’ voice was low, raw, absolute, echoing through the bond that was so much stronger now. “I never have been.”

Rune’s form flickered, his massive chest heaving, his claws gouging into the stone beneath him.

The void tightened.

Rune flinched, but Idris did not. The golden fire around him surged.

“I will not be ruled by the years we lost,” he said, stepping closer. "Not the mistakes, not the failures. Not anymore."

A muscle in Rune’s jaw ticked. His great wings shuddered, his tail flicking in hesitation.

“I’m afraid,” Rune admitted. The words were so soft, I barely heard them over the roar of the Dreaming.

Idris lifted a hand—not demanding, not forcing, but offering. “Then let’s do this together.”

Rune stared at him.

Then, slowly, painfully, he reached forward, skin meeting scales, and the Dreaming exploded.

Light surged outward—blinding, burning, golden fire consuming everything. Rune’s massive form shattered like breaking starlight, his body collapsing into Idris, golden magic wrapping around him, sinking into his King.

And Idris’ back arched, his body bowing, golden fire consuming him.

For the first time in two hundred years, the missing piece of himself returned.

The shadows screamed. The Dreaming fractured. Magic crashed through me, through them, through everything.

A deafening silence followed like the whole realm had exhaled. I staggered forward, blinded, breathless, heart pounding.

And when the world finally settled, Idris stood before me.

Whole.

Alive.

Changed.

His golden eyes burned, brighter than they ever had before. And when he finally spoke, his voice was steady, unshaken, absolute.

“My Queen.”

I felt relief for one shining second before the Dreaming twisted around us. The void lurched, the fractured light of this realm pulsing like a dying heartbeat. Then the walls of the Dreaming tore open.

A shockwave of golden fire erupted from Idris, forcing reality back into place. The void shuddered, howling, but it didn’t collapse.

It bled.

Like darkness seeping into twilight, the edges of the Dreaming leaked into the waking world, a creeping, hungry rot slithering through the seams of existence.

My breath caught. "No."

Nyrah.

She was still there—still trapped beneath where Rune had shielded her. The Dreaming buckled. Shadows snapped at my ankles, a new wave of darkness cascading toward her.

I lunged for my sister.

Idris' magic snapped out, gripping my wrist before I could touch her, before I could dive into the dark and take her with me.

"Vale—" His voice was sharp, commanding, but edged with something raw. Desperate.

She was right there. I couldn’t leave her.

The Dreaming screeched, a sound that rattled through my ribs. The ground beneath her cracked, split.

"Let me go!" I yanked against him, fighting, reaching, clawing, but Nyrah wasn’t there anymore.

The shadows surged, swallowing her whole.

"No!" I reached with my magic, my power screaming outward, but Idris’ magic collided with mine, wrapping around me, yanking me back.

"We have to go!"

The Dreaming collapsed inward.

Xavier and Kian were already moving, their magic shredding a path toward the waking world, tearing open an exit.

My breath hitched, my body shaking, my magic still straining for her—for my sister.

Then the world snapped, and the Dreaming spat us out. I hit the ground hard, gasping, the waking world crashing back into me. The scent of embers. The solid floor. The glow of golden magic still flickering over Idris’ skin.

And the sharp, terrifying absence where Nyrah should have been.

I didn’t even feel the tears spill down my face before Idris was there, before Xavier caught my shoulders, before Kian’s voice murmured something—anything—to bring me back.

But all I could do was stare at the empty bed.

Empty.

Nyrah was gone.

And the Dreaming was coming for us next.