Chapter 3 The Fracture Beneath

The tunnel air tasted like rust and regret. My boots slapped water that smelled faintly of ozone like the aftermath of lightning. Mira’s flashlight cut a shaky beam across broken tiles, old graffiti, and streaks of something too dark to be paint.

The hum grew stronger the deeper we went. A low vibration underfoot, like the pulse of a buried heart.

“Tell me again,” Mira said, voice barely above a whisper. “Why are we following the creepy humming instead of running the other way?”

“Because running never works,” I muttered. “And because whatever’s making that sound… it’s calling me.”

Eryndor stirred inside my skull, his voice sliding through my thoughts like smoke. You’re learning to listen.

“Not now,” I hissed under my breath.

Mira gave me a side glance. “You talking to me or the imaginary voice again?”

“Depends. Do you breathe fire?”

She rolled her eyes. “Not yet.”

The tunnel opened into a chamber lined with glass tanks some shattered, some still whole, each filled with shimmering liquid that glowed faint blue. Inside one, a shape floated humanoid, but wrong. Limbs too long. Veins traced with silver light.

I froze. “What the hell…”

Mira stepped closer. “Kaia, these look like”

“Experiments,” I finished. “Human, maybe. Or what’s left of them.”

A faint knock echoed. Not from us from inside one of the intact tanks.

My throat went dry.

Mira swung the flashlight. The beam hit glass, and a pale face stared back eyes open, mouth moving silently beneath the fluid. Then a hand pressed against the glass. A crack spidered across it.

I drew my blade. “Back up.”

Too late. The tank split open with a wet hiss. Liquid poured out, spilling a figure onto the floor a woman, pale as marble, with streaks of silver across her skin. She gasped like someone drowning backward.

Then her eyes snapped open molten gold.

Eryndor hissed inside me. One of mine.

“What does that mean?” I demanded.

He didn’t answer.

The woman blinked, studying me with an intensity that made my stomach twist. “You carry the flame.” Her voice was raw, fractured, like shards of glass. “But it’s breaking you.”

I leveled my weapon. “Start making sense.”

She smiled faintly. “They told me you’d come, Ash-Born.”

Before I could speak, a soft clap echoed from the shadows.

A figure emerged tall, draped in grey silk, silver hair cascading like liquid moonlight. Her presence hit like pressure in my chest. A witch. The kind that didn’t need spells to make the air bend.

“Kaia Vale,” she said, as if tasting the name. “The thief who thought she could steal fire without burning.”

Mira muttered, “And she’s the creepy final boss type. Great.”

The witch’s gaze flicked to her. “You should leave, child. This is not your story.”

Mira lifted her gun. “Screw that.”

I took a step forward. “Who are you?”

She tilted her head. “Names are masks. But once, they called me Selienne of the Ember Veil.”

Eryndor’s voice rippled through my mind, taut and cold. She was the one who bound me.

My pulse spiked. “You what did you do to him?”

Selienne smiled, slow and cruel. “I saved the world from what he would have done. From what he will do again, through you.”

Flames flared behind my eyes. The air trembled, heat curling off my skin. “You think I wanted this?”

She took a step closer, unbothered by the rising heat. “Every host says that at first. But you will crave it soon enough. The power. The hunger. The purity of burning everything that stands in your way.”

The floor beneath us cracked thin fractures spreading like veins. The tanks around us began to rattle.

Mira backed up. “Kaia, I think your temper’s about to cause structural damage.”

Eryndor’s tone darkened. Let it.

“No.” I gritted my teeth. “Not again.”

Selienne raised her hand. Threads of glowing symbols bloomed in the air binding sigils, ancient and sharp. “You can’t cage fire twice,” she murmured, “but I can remind it of its limits.”

The symbols shot forward. I slashed my blade upward, the steel catching flame mid-arc. The sigils shattered, burning into smoke.

She looked almost… pleased. “Good. You’re adapting faster than I expected.”

The pale woman on the floor stirred, crawling toward the witch. “Mother… it hurts.”

Selienne touched her gently, eyes soft for the briefest heartbeat. “You were never meant to wake.”

Then she whispered something, and the woman’s body went still. No breath. No sound. Just silence.

Rage cracked open inside me. “You killed her.”

“She was already dead.” Selienne turned toward the far door. “You should understand, Kaia. Death is only a transition of flame.”

“Stop walking away from me!”

“Then stop pretending you’re still human.”

Her silhouette vanished through the archway, leaving the scent of burnt jasmine and dread.

I stood there shaking, my sword trembling in my grip, smoke curling from my skin. Mira touched my shoulder. “Kaia. We have to go.”

The chamber groaned. Cracks widened. Water began to gush from somewhere behind the tanks.

Eryndor’s voice surged in my mind. She’s not wrong, you know. You’re changing.

“Shut up.”

You can’t silence fire.

The ground split. Mira grabbed my arm, dragging me toward a side tunnel as the chamber collapsed behind us. Metal shrieked. The blue liquid from the tanks mixed with dark water, swirling like phosphorescent blood.

We ran. The tunnel tilted, debris crashing around us. I barely noticed the pain anymore. Just the sound of my pulse and the dragon’s low growl beneath it.

When we finally burst into the open night, rain hit like needles. The city lights shimmered off the wet pavement. Steam rose from me in thin wisps.

Mira bent double, gasping. “Remind me… never to follow you anywhere again.”

“Duly noted.”

She glanced up. “Who was that witch?”

“Someone who thinks she knows what I am.” I looked toward the skyline, where lightning stitched across the clouds. “And maybe she’s right.”

Eryndor whispered, She bound me once. She will try again.

“Not if I burn her first.”

He almost laughed. Spoken like flame.

I pressed a hand to my chest, feeling the pulse beneath my ribs a beat that didn’t belong to me anymore. “You said she bound you. Why?”

Because I refused to give her what she wanted.

“And what was that?”

Immortality.

Thunder rolled over the city. Somewhere far off, a siren wailed. The storm was just beginning, and I could feel it whatever Selienne started years ago was unraveling again, thread by burning thread.

Mira straightened, brushing rain from her jacket. “So what now?”

“Now?” I looked back at the collapsing district, smoke rising in the distance. “We find out why she brought me here… and what the hell she’s planning to do with the rest of the dragons.”

Eryndor’s voice hummed, dark and alive. Welcome to the war, Kaia Vale.