Page 22 of Broken Fates (Severed Flames #3)

Chapter 22

Vale

W e kept falling.

Silver light swallowed us whole, stretching out in every direction. There was no sky, no ground—just a weightless descent into nowhere.

I couldn’t breathe. Not from pain, not from fear, but because the Dreaming itself was breathing around us. The air pulsed. A heartbeat, too deep, too vast, vibrating through my bones.

Then, everything snapped.

First, the ground wasn’t there, and then it was.

I hit hard . The impact should have shattered me, it should have broken bones, but instead, it was soft. Like sand, like silk. Shifting, shifting—then suddenly, solid.

I gasped, the air was thick and wrong in my lungs.

Somewhere beside me, Talek swore. “Fucking—” He cut himself off, rolling onto his hands and knees, his usually wild magic crackling uneasily around him. His gaze flicked to the silver-lit sky. “This place feels… wrong.”

Xavier growled, pushing himself up, his pale, iridescent scales blinking bright in the never-ending light. A heavy, dragging breath pulled from Idris’ lungs as he stood, his massive body trembling for a breath before he found his balance. Then Kian let out a low, sharp growl.

The moment we landed, the Dreaming settled. The ground stopped shifting, the pulse in the air slowing. Everything stilled.

And then something moved .

Talek stiffened. His nostrils flared, his color-shifting gaze snapping to the shadows. “That’s not?—”

A snarl tore through the stillness—sharp and wrong.

I twisted toward the sound—just in time to see it rising.

The last of Zamarra’s creatures.

I shoved to my knees, my breath sharp as the beast unfurled from the darkness, blotting out the light. It was different now. Bigger. More real. No longer flickering between shadow and smoke, no longer just something summoned from the fractures.

Now the Dreaming had twisted it into something worse. A creature of pure void, its body moved like black fire, but its limbs?

Those were solid—too solid.

Its claws, sharpened to razor points, gleamed, even in the strange silver glow of this place. And it was coming right for me.

Kian was already moving. He lunged first, his massive dragon form snapping toward the beast with brutal force—only for his jaws to clamp down on empty air. The shadow passed through him like mist, reforming on the other side.

“Oh, fuck this,” Talek snarled, slamming his hands forward. The wind roared, a force meant to rip the creature apart—but it didn’t even shift. Talek bared his teeth. “Are you shitting me?”

Xavier snarled, his pale-blue eyes narrowing. Magic curled around his claws, power building—then releasing in a blast of blue flame. It burned, searing hot, but the beast didn’t scream. It didn’t even slow. The fire licked over its body, slipping off like it wasn’t even there.

“Shit,” Xavier hissed.

Idris braced his stance, golden eyes flashing. “It’s not corporeal. Our magic won’t work.”

Kian twisted midair, banking hard to avoid another lunge. “Well, that’s fucking convenient.”

I knew.

I didn’t know how I knew, but I did. This thing wasn’t something my mates could fight. But I could.

I moved without thinking, and the Dreaming answered my plea before I even asked. Light flared in my hands, unbidden and alive. I didn’t summon it. I didn’t shape it. It shaped itself.

A dagger materialized, gleaming and wicked, formed from pure light. It wasn’t the first I’d ever conjured, but this was something more. This wasn’t just my light—this was pure magic pulled directly from the Dreaming.

The creature lunged for me as I leapt for it, far faster than I should have. It swung, claws streaking toward my throat.

I ducked, twisting beneath its reach, then drove the dagger into its chest.

The creature screamed—a bitter plaintive cry that threatened to shatter my skull. It wasn’t like before—not like the others, no black mist, no dissolving into nothing.

It shattered .

A burst of darkness ripped apart, pieces of it distorting, writhing, and then the Dreaming devoured it.

I stood there, my chest heaving, hands clenched around the blade. The dagger pulsed once before it vanished into thin air.

Silence descended as I tried to grasp what I had just done.

Xavier exhaled sharply, his voice reeling through the bond. “What the fuck was that?”

Talek didn’t hear him, but he didn’t need to. His magic was still snapping at the edges, the Dreaming’s pulse twisting through the air. He let out a slow breath, rubbing at his forearm like he was trying to shake off a static charge.

“That was not normal,” Talek muttered, casting a wary glance at the shifting air around us. His voice was low but edged with something uneasy. “You didn’t just kill that thing, Vale. You changed something.”

Kian, still in dragon form, stepped forward, his molten amber eyes narrowing at me. “Vale?”

I lifted my chin, the power still thrumming beneath my skin. "Me. There might be something to this whole ‘born of the Dreaming’ nonsense."

My words settled between us, heavier than the silence.

Then Idris shifted. His great dragon form melted away, his golden magic curling around him until he was standing in front of me once more, but he didn’t say anything.

He just reached out, fingers brushing mine, feeling the power still crackling against my skin. The power of the Dreaming.

Of who I was.

I let out a slow, steady breath and met his gaze.

The Dreaming wasn’t done with me yet.

It shifted as the silver light that stretched into eternity pulsated, deep and rhythmic, like the breath of something vast and ancient. The ground beneath my feet rippled, not like solid earth, but like something alive, something aware.

The air felt different now, charged with a quiet knowing. I exhaled slowly, trying to steady myself as the last echoes of the creature’s existence faded into nothing. My body still hummed with power, the pulse of the Dreaming settling in my bones.

Then, the air moved.

No footsteps. No warning.

Just a whisper of light, forming shapes.

A dozen figures emerged from the glow. Not stepping forward, not appearing, but becoming. Their bodies flickered, shifting between solid and translucent, as if they weren’t fully here, not completely separate from the Dreaming itself.

The Luxa.

I knew them instantly, not by their faces—most were unfamiliar, their features blurred at the edges—but by their presence. A shimmering thread of recognition tightened in my chest. The Dreaming was part of them. And now, they stood before me.

A woman in the front moved closer. Her hair was pale as starlight, her form draped in flowing silver that melted into the space around her. She didn’t walk so much as drift, the air shifting lazily with her movements.

Her gaze found mine.

“You came,” she murmured. Her voice wasn’t a sound, not really. It was a feeling, a resonance that settled deep into my bones.

“It’s not like you gave her much of a choice,” Kian muttered beside me, his stance still braced like a fight might break out at any second.

The woman’s unreadable gaze flicked toward him briefly, then back to me.

“You are as she said you would be,” she said. “Just as Lirael promised.”

At the name, my throat tightened. My… mother . The being who had created me from this place. I was still having trouble wrapping my mind around it.

“What is this?” Idris asked, his voice low and controlled, though I could feel the tension threading through our bond. “Why are you still here?”

The woman directed her full attention to him. “Because we had to be.”

Her words hung between us, heavy with meaning.

Another figure stepped forward, a woman with sharp, angular features and a gaze like fractured light. “Two hundred years ago, we should have died. Our magic should have burned out when Zamarra took everything from us.” Her voice was rougher, more human, more real.

“But we fled,” she continued. “We clung to what little we had left and escaped into the Dreaming before we could be destroyed completely.”

Xavier let out a pensive growl . “And now?”

The woman looked at me. Only at me. “Now, we give what remains to you.”

Silence. It stretched on for what seemed like an eternity.

Meanwhile, her words dropped like a stone in my chest. I already knew what she meant before she said it, but hearing it aloud sent a chill through my veins.

They weren’t just giving me power.

They planned on giving me themselves.

Kian tensed beside me, his wings ruffling as his entire body tensed. “No.” His voice was low, sharp—an order wrapped in fear. “She can’t take any more power. You don’t know what it does to her.”

“We do,” the woman said softly, answering my mate, even though she shouldn’t be able to hear him. “And so does she.” Her gaze met mine, full of quiet knowing.

I swallowed hard, my throat tight. “If you do this… what happens to you?”

The Luxa didn’t hesitate. “We move on.”

The way she said it—gentle, unafraid—sent an ice-cold tremor racing up and down the length of my spine.

“No.” Kian’s voice turned dangerous. “Fuck that. Find another way.”

Xavier’s power crackled through the air, the bond between us throbbing with a storm of emotions. “Vale.” His voice was taut, fraying at the edges. “Tell me you’re not actually considering this.”

I clenched my fists. “I don’t want to do this.” My voice was quiet, but it still cut like a knife. “I don’t want to take this risk. I don’t want to leave you.”

The bond pulsed, grief and rage coiling around me.

Kian’s expression twisted. “Then don’t.”

I let out a shaky breath. “I made a promise.”

Xavier let out a sharp, ragged exhale, pacing like he needed to move, or he’d explode. “To your parents before they died.”

“And to all of you.” My throat burned, but I kept going. “I swore I would stop Zamarra. I swore we would win. And I can’t do that like this. She’s too powerful.”

Xavier’s tail snapped, his eyes wild. “Then we’ll find another way ? —”

“We don’t have time.” My voice cracked. “Nyrah doesn’t have time.”

My words hit like a blow, and they all felt it.

Idris closed his eyes for the briefest second. Then his golden gaze locked onto mine, fierce and steady. “My brave one,” he murmured. “Are you sure?”

No, I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure of anything. But I knew exactly what would happen if I did nothing.

I inhaled slowly, my voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t want to die.”

Kian let out a guttural snarl, his body shimmering with the telltale heat of magic. In a flash of golden fire, his dragon form melted away, leaving him standing there, bare-chested, fury burning in his molten gaze. He took a sharp step toward me, fists clenched. “Then don’t .”

“I don’t plan to.” I forced my shoulders back, trying to steady the tremor in my breath. “But I have to try. I have to keep my promise.”

Kian swore, turning away like he couldn’t look at me.

Xavier exhaled hard, his massive wings flaring wide before snapping tight to his sides. His head tilted back, a deep, rumbling growl vibrating through his chest—like he was pleading to the gods without words.

Idris was watching me with something unreadable in his molten gaze, his magic curling against mine like an unspoken plea.

They all hated this.

So did I.

But I still stepped forward.

Kian made a low, guttural sound of frustration—his fury, his fear—before he stormed closer and caught my chin in his fingers, forcing me to meet his gaze.

“If this starts killing you,” he rasped, “we stop it. I don’t give a fuck what happens after that. Do you understand me?”

I nodded, my throat too tight to speak.

He let out a slow, shaking breath and pressed his forehead against mine. “I hate this.”

“I know.”

Xavier’s jaw clenched, his massive body vibrating with barely contained emotion. “Vale ? —”

I turned to him, moving closer, pressing a hand to the thick scales over his chest, feeling the deep, powerful thrum of his heart beneath my palm.

“I choose you,” I whispered. “I choose all of you.”

Xavier let out a ragged breath, his dragon form dissolving into shadows and light. When he stood before me again, his bare chest heaved as his hand covered mine, fingers tightening. “Then stay.”

I let out a breath, something breaking inside me. “That’s the plan.”

It was a promise—one I intended to keep.

The woman lifted her hand, her fingers glowing with soft, burning light.

“This is not a burden,” she whispered. “It is a gift.”

My hands were trembling, but I reached out, anyway.

The moment my fingers brushed hers, light erupted—not a simple glow, not a shimmer, but an explosion that split the air like a crack of lightning. The Dreaming surged, the very fabric of it folding over my senses like an unstoppable tide.

I gasped, but there was no pain—only fire. Not the kind that burned, but the kind that remade. It sank into my skin, my veins, my bones, forging me into something else, something more. The air vibrated with the power—a pulse of energy so intense it felt like a second heartbeat slamming into my chest.

The Luxas’ forms wavered, their outlines breaking apart—not gently, not peacefully, but like glass fracturing under pressure. The woman’s lips curved into the faintest smile, but her body was already scattering, the pieces lifting into the air, like threads being unwoven from existence.

The Dreaming itself shuddered.

A ripple spread outward, warping the space around us, sending a deep, resonant hum through the ground, through my body, through my soul. My mates felt it, too—Kian snarled, his hands reaching for me, Xavier staggered as he clutched his chest, and Idris let out a ragged breath, golden eyes burning as if he could see what was happening inside me.

One by one, the Luxa faded, their remnants streaking through the air like falling stars. Their power wasn’t just filling me. It was changing me.

The Dreaming itself exhaled—a final, breathless sigh.

Their voices, their magic, their very essence settled into my bones, into the very fabric of my existence. The last echoes of laughter, of sorrow, of love, filled my heart before the Dreaming took them home.

And then, the light collapsed inward.

For one breathless moment, everything compressed, squeezing so tight I thought I might shatter. My pulse skipped—once, twice—before it detonated outward, a final burst of raw, blinding force that shook the ground beneath me.

The power settled.

The Luxa were gone.

And for the first time, the Dreaming was quiet.