Page 2 of Broken Fates (Severed Flames #3)

Chapter 2

Kian

T he candlelight flickered, or maybe my vision was just going to shit.

My sight blurred as I stared at the battle maps, the border lines melding together as I tried to figure out where Girovia might hit us next. Idris was counting on my centuries as his top general to make this call, and I was no closer to an answer.

The coming dawn meant it had been two godsdamned days since the battle.

Since everything changed.

Since Vale had stopped breathing.

Since the mages had torn through the castle.

Since she’d broken the curse.

And still, it felt like we were missing a step—some vital signal from the gods that we were on the right course.

I dragged a hand down my face, the scrape of stubble against my palm, a jarring reminder of how long I’d been awake. My body ached, my muscles tight with exhaustion, but none of it mattered. Sleep hadn’t been an option. Not when the bond was frayed, flickering like a falling star, too quiet for too long.

My chest ached as I remembered Vale walking into the war room, her voice steady despite the weight pressing against all of us. How many hours had it been? Five? Ten?

She’d looked me in the eye and begged for us to listen to her, and what had we done?

I clenched my fists against the wood of the war table, breathing through the sharp sting in my chest. She was avoiding us—that’s what I told myself. That’s what made the most sense.

After everything that had happened—who could blame her?

Vale’s sister was the only thing she’d cared about—the only thing that kept her going—and Idris had shot her pleas down without even bothering to listen…

He’d been so cold, distant, blaming her for something I doubt she had even an ounce of control over. Xavier had tried to meet her halfway, but there was too much left unsaid between all of us.

And me?

I’d let her leave.

I’d just sat there and watched her go. I didn’t fight for her. I didn’t stand up to Idris. I didn’t even ask her to stay.

I’d let her walk away, even when I knew she was fraying at the edges. Even when I wanted nothing more than to reach for her. To tell her that I knew. That I saw the way she was unraveling, breaking apart right in front of us.

But I hadn’t done a damn thing, and now I was suffering the consequences.

I’d given her space. Too much space.

And now?—

The bond lurched, and I froze. Not silence, not shielding. No, this was different.

This was absence .

A sharp, searing emptiness ripped through my chest, and I shoved up from my seat so fast the chair scraped against the stone. The world tilted, my pulse roaring in my ears as I reached for her in my mind. The bond, honed by distance, should have given me a sense of where she was. The closer she was to me, the stronger it was. But right then?

The tenuous thread was barely there.

She wasn’t avoiding us. She wasn’t hiding. Vale was gone.

Cold slammed into my ribs. I had felt her in the bond yesterday—frayed, wavering, but still there. Still connected. But this?

I was already moving before I had a thought to stop myself, my feet pounding against the stone floor as I barreled through the halls, past the guards, too exhausted to do more than blink at me. I followed the fading thread of her scent, my breath coming too fast, too shallow.

No. No. No.

I shoved the doors open to Idris’ chambers, half-expecting to see her curled up somewhere, half-expecting my own idiocy to slap me in the face.

The icy air hit me like a blow.

The fire had long since burned out. The bed sat untouched, the linens—while rumpled—were cold from disuse. The room still smelled like her, but it was fading fast.

And the bond?—

It was frayed, thin, stretched so far, I could barely feel it.

No.

My gaze swept the room, frantic, landing on the bedside table and the jeweled dagger—the one I’d given her what seemed like ages ago. It gleamed in the dim light.

The breath punched from my lungs.

I stared at the weapon, my pulse hammering in my skull. She’d once told me it was the nicest gift she’d ever been given—the only gift—and she’d left it behind.

My throat tightened as I reached for it, the cool metal biting against my palm.

She’d left it behind.

She left.

She fucking left.

The weight of it crashed into me, searing through every fiber of my being. The bonds weren’t just distant now. They were all but cut. Not gone. Not broken. But damaged enough that they might as well be.

I braced a hand against the doorframe, my claws digging into the wood as I tried to pull air into my lungs.

She was alone. Unprotected.

Why would she do this?

Because we didn’t listen.

I squeezed my eyes shut, the last image I had of her flashing behind my lids. Vale standing in the war room, her shoulders squared, her voice steady, even as her hands curled into fists at her sides.

"You think I don’t know that? You think I don’t feel the weight of it every second?"

I should have said something to Idris—should have stopped her. Instead, I had let her walk out of that room, and now she was gone.

A door slammed—sharp and abrupt—cutting through the buzzing in my skull.

Xavier.

I pushed off the frame, moving before I even made the conscious decision. The others were about to realize what I already knew. And when they did?

Gods help us all.

The room was too damn quiet. Even with the guards patrolling, the torches flickering, the distant murmur of the wounded being tended to, there was an unnatural stillness that crawled under my skin.

Or maybe that was just the absence of her.

The dagger in my grip felt heavier than it should. The sharp facets of the gemstones bit into my palm, grounding me in a way that did nothing to dull the ache in my chest. She had left it. Left us.

Left me.

I hadn’t slept. None of us had. And now, all of it—the exhaustion, the frustration, the fucking guilt—was boiling over inside me, coiling so tight I could barely breathe.

And then I heard his footsteps.

Xavier was moving fast, his boot falls sharp against the stone floor. He wasn’t quite running, but there was urgency in the way he carried himself. The moment he turned the corner, his icy gaze locked onto mine, and I knew. He felt it, too.

His expression twisted in confusion, in the first spark of realization. “Kian?” His voice was rough, strained. He’d barely spoken since the battle. “What the fuck?—?”

“She’s gone.” The words were bitter in my mouth, and they landed like a punch.

Xavier stopped short, the tension snapping tight between us. His brows drew together, his whole body going still. “What do you mean she’s gone?”

“I mean she left.” I threw the dagger onto the nearby table, the clatter of metal echoing through the corridor. “She’s not in the castle. She’s not in the fucking wards. And that bond?” I thumped my fist against my chest, my voice shaking with anger. “It’s barely there.”

His pupils flared, the faintest crackle of his magic snapping in the air. “No,” he murmured, his head shaking slightly. “She wouldn’t?—”

“She did.” My voice was sharper than I intended, but gods, I couldn’t hold it in. “She walked out of here alone, and none of us noticed until now.”

Xavier’s jaw clenched, the muscle ticking as his breathing turned shallow. His hands curled into fists at his sides, tension locking his body in place.

No. Not just tension. Panic.

Because it was sinking in now. The bond. The absence. The fucking truth.

His chest rose and fell too fast, his usually unreadable expression shifting between rage and something worse—fear.

He felt it now. That yawning emptiness splitting his chest wide open.

His ice-blue eyes darkened, his nostrils flaring as the flames of his power licked up his arms. “How the fuck did this happen?”

I let out a bitter laugh. “How?” I took a step forward, my own control slipping as scales danced over my flesh. “Because we let her walk away in that godsdamned war room. Because none of us said the right fucking thing. Because she thinks she’s alone in this—again. And instead of fixing it, we let her suffer in silence.”

Again.

Gulping, I squeezed my eyes shut, the memory of her breaths dying, her bloody and broken in my arms.

Xavier shook his head, taking a step back, his hands raking through his silver-streaked hair. “No. No, we would have noticed?—”

“Would we?” I cut him off, stepping closer. “We’ve been so caught up in this fucking war, in Idris’ rage, in our own godsdamn guilt, that we let her slip right through our fingers.”

His breaths were coming shorter now, faster. Shit.

I exhaled hard, raking a hand down my face as the weight of it all pressed down on me. Xavier and I had always been the ones closest to her. The ones to notice when things were off. To fucking protect her.

And we failed.

His lips parted like he wanted to say something, but no sound came out. His gaze flicked to the dagger, then back to me. His fists trembled at his sides.

“How long?” His voice was quieter now, rough and hoarse.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I don’t know. A few hours. Maybe more. She could have left the second she walked out that door.”

Xavier swore under his breath, turning sharply, his magic crackling in the air as he moved—not pacing, not aimless, but calculating. His mind was already working through the details, the possibilities.

“She doesn’t know how to travel alone,” he said, almost to himself. “She’s barely been outside the castle without us.”

I nodded, my jaw tightening. “She’ll need supplies. A horse. We need to check the surrounding villages?—”

Xavier’s head snapped up, his eyes flashing. “She would have gone for Nyrah.”

The words cut through me like a blade. That fucking mage filling her head with fear.

The chains are breaking, little queen. Every realm trembles because of what you’ve done.

I hadn’t understood at the time, but he’d been talking about Zamarra. Zamarra was breaking free, and Vale told us exactly what her priority was. She hadn’t been lying or bluffing. Vale knew what was coming, and she still left.

The knowledge struck deep, leaving me reeling.

“She thinks she has to do this alone,” I said, my voice tight, my heart withering.

Xavier let out a slow breath, but it did nothing to settle him. “Then we find her.”

I nodded once. “We find her.”

But first, I’d need to put my fist in Idris’ stupid fucking face.

My stomach twisted.

Xavier met my gaze, the same grim understanding passing between us.

This was going to be bad.

The war room was too damn quiet.

Not the good kind of quiet—the kind that came after a battle when the dead were counted, and the survivors took their first breath. No, this was the thick, suffocating kind that settled over a place right before it burned to the ground.

And Idris was standing in the middle of it.

I should have known he wouldn’t react the way we did. Should have known that when I stormed in here, when I said the words that tore me apart—"Vale is gone”—he wouldn’t even fucking flinch.

I’d spent the last two days drowning in exhaustion, running myself ragged trying to piece together our defenses, trying to breathe around the frayed edges of the bond I still had with her. I’d felt her slipping away—an inch, then a mile, and I had done nothing.

I’d convinced myself she needed space. That after everything that had happened, we all did.

And now?

Now she was gone.

And Idris knew.

Not just now—not when I’d burst into the war room, shoving the words down his throat like a fucking dagger.

No, he had known , and he hadn’t said a godsdamned word.

The chair scraped against the stone as I shoved back from the table, my claws flexing at my sides as I tried to breathe through the fury tightening my chest.

“Look at me, you fucking coward. I just told you that your Queen, your wife, your mate is gone, and you’re not going to even acknowledge me? She’s gone, Idris.” The words tasted like ash. “She fucking left .”

The silence pressed in on me as I stared at my King.

The fucker couldn’t even bother to lift his head from that godsdamned map.

I moved before I even had a thought to stop myself. My fist connected with his jaw, snapping his head to the side with a sharp crack .

Xavier didn’t move to stop me—didn’t even fucking blink—because he felt it, too. The raw, searing ache in our bond, stretched so far it was barely there.

Idris righted himself, slightly rolling his head on his shoulders. He flexed his jaw, testing the damage, but he still didn’t look at me.

He just exhaled slowly, finally—finally—meeting my gaze. “I know she’s gone.”

He knew?

The fury inside me cracked wide open.

“Gods damn you, Idris!” I roared, the words clawing their way out of my throat. “You knew and you didn’t say a fucking thing?”

A muscle in his jaw ticked. “She made her choice.”

I fought off the urge to pummel him until he was mincemeat. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that I needed him conscious to fix this.

“She made her choice ?” I echoed, my voice sharp, edged with something dangerously close to breaking. “You pushed her to that choice.”

His golden eyes burned, but they were empty. No rage. No fight.

Just steel. Just cold.

“We let her walk away,” Xavier said, his voice quieter, more controlled than I ever could have managed. He was standing still, hands at his sides, his magic crackling in the air like a frozen storm. “We let her think she had to do this alone.”

“We abandoned her.” The words felt like shattered glass in my mouth.

And it was our fucking fault.

All of it.

We let her stand there in that godsdamned war room, pleading with us to listen, and we let her walk out alone. And now she was gone.

I could still feel her if I focused, but it was faint, a flicker at the edges of my mind. She wasn’t shielding herself from us—not entirely.

She was far, and if we didn’t leave now, she’d be too far to reach.

“Why aren’t you doing anything?” I demanded, moving closer to Idris. “Why the fuck are you just sitting there?”

He squared his shoulders, his expression unreadable. “What would you have me do, Kian?” His voice was dangerously calm. “Tear through the continent after her like a reckless fool? She knew what she was doing when she left.”

The words landed like a blow, stealing my breath, but not from anger—from fucking disbelief.

“Is that what you think?” My voice was hoarse. “You think she left because she wanted to? Because she planned this?”

He didn’t answer—didn’t need to. I saw it in his face.

The doubt.

The hesitation.

The guilt.

Xavier took a slow, controlled breath. “She thinks she’s protecting us,” he murmured. “That’s what she does. That’s what she’s always done.”

“Even when it’s killing her,” I added bitterly.

Idris closed his eyes, bowing his head. He’d watched her take those final breaths, too—the ones so agonizing, we’d known there was no way to put her back together again. He’d begged her not to, but she’d put him— us —first.

She’d been willing and ready to die for us, and he’d just let her leave.

A long, heavy pause filled the air with all the things none of us wanted to say. Then Idris rose from his chair, his fingers pressing into the table like he was steadying himself.

“Get the horses.”

I exhaled sharply. “So, you actually do give a shit. Fantastic.”

His jaw clenched. “She’s my queen.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “Oh, yeah? Maybe it’s time you fucking acted like it.”

I expected Idris to snap back—expected him to hit me the way I’d hit him.

But he didn’t.

And maybe that was worse. Because this version of Idris? The one who wasn’t fighting? That scared me more than anything else.

I turned sharply, my magic sparking against my fingertips as I moved for the doors.

Xavier followed.

The bond still flickered in the back of my mind, and I clung to that, clung to her, because if we were fast enough, if we moved now?—

Maybe we could still bring her back.

Before it was too late.

Before she was truly lost to us.