Chapter 9 The Shattered Sky
The city was burning from the inside out.
Flames licked up through the cracks in the pavement, veins of molten orange spiderwebbing beneath the ruined streets. The air shimmered with heat and static. Every breath tasted like metal and smoke.
Mira stumbled beside me, one arm shielding her face. “Kaia where are we even going?”
“Up,” I said, though I wasn’t sure anymore what up meant. The stairway had collapsed behind us, and the tunnels ahead pulsed with the same light that had been crawling beneath my skin since the fragment awoke. Eryndor’s heart had torn itself free, and part of me had gone with it.
His voice burned in my head.
You should not have come here, little thief.
“Too late,” I muttered. “Already did.”
The ground shuddered. A nearby wall split open, releasing a blast of steam and fire that threw Mira backward. I caught her by the wrist, pulling her through the debris as molten shards rained from above. Somewhere beyond the collapsing conduits, alarms wailed Guild signals, automated and cold. They were sealing the perimeter.
I could almost hear the enforcers coming.
We burst out into a service chamber, half-flooded, half-burning. Rusted pipes twisted along the ceiling like veins. The city above us was screaming sirens, glass breaking, people running. I could feel the Guild’s pulse in the air, like a predator scenting blood.
Mira looked at me, trembling. “That thing… it’s not just a fragment, is it?”
“No.” My throat felt raw. “It’s a seed. And I think it’s growing.”
The voice inside me laughed. Low. Ancient.
It was always meant to grow, Kaia. The fire remembers its vessel.
I slammed my hand against the nearest wall, trying to drown him out. “Not now. Not again.”
The light beneath my skin flared bright, blinding and then dimmed. Mira was staring at me like I was about to explode. Maybe I was.
“Come on,” I said. “Before they box us in.”
We found an old maintenance hatch, the kind used before the Guild installed surveillance locks. Mira pried it open while I kept watch. The tunnels beyond yawned upward, a spiral of shadow leading toward the surface. Wind whistled through the cracks cold, almost clean.
I pushed her ahead. “Go.”
She hesitated. “And you?”
“Don’t argue.”
She climbed. I followed, boots slipping on the wet rungs. Every motion sent fire through my muscles. The dragon’s power hadn’t faded; it was building. A pulse, like a countdown. My body was a furnace waiting to crack.
Halfway up, the sound hit a whirring hum, followed by metal grinding against stone. The hatch below us slammed shut. A beam of blue light seared the walls.
“Guild drones,” Mira gasped.
I looked down. Three of them. Spherical, humming, each one carrying a restraint coil and a small pulse rifle. The Guild didn’t send them for arrests. They sent them to contain monsters.
“Keep climbing,” I said.
A burst of plasma screamed past my ear. The metal rung melted under my hand. Mira shrieked, gripping the ladder tighter. I swung one arm out, summoning the flicker that lived in my blood. It burned, coiling around my wrist in a spiral of crimson light.
You cannot hide what you are, Eryndor whispered. You are the flame. Let it consume.
I didn’t have a choice.
I thrust my palm downward. The fire leapt out, molten and wild, tearing through the air. The first drone disintegrated in a flash of heat. The second ricocheted into the wall, shattering in sparks. The third fired again too close and caught my side. Pain ripped through me, white-hot. I fell back against the ladder, barely holding on.
Mira reached for me. “Kaia!”
“I’m fine,” I lied. Blood dripped between my fingers, dark against the glow. “Go.”
We reached the top and burst through the surface hatch into chaos.
The street was unrecognizable. The skyline burned red; the air shimmered with smoke and ash. Firelight painted the clouds. Buildings groaned as energy veins tore through their foundations. And high above, cutting through the smog, was something vast a shadow that blotted out the stars.
The fragment. Or what it had become.
It moved like a storm given flesh. A wing of fire spread across the sky, scales made of molten light. Its roar wasn’t sound—it was vibration, the earth shuddering in response. The glass in nearby towers shattered.
Mira fell to her knees. “What… what is that?”
I stared upward, chest tightening. “Eryndor’s heart. Given form.”
The dragon’s voice purred inside me. Beautiful, isn’t it? The first breath of rebirth.
I could see it, reflected in every pane of broken glass the dragon’s fire stretching across the city like veins of blood. The Guild had unleashed something they couldn’t control. And somehow, I was tied to it. My mark pulsed in sync with its movement.
Mira’s voice trembled. “If that thing keeps feeding, it’ll burn everything.”
“I know.” I grabbed her arm. “We need cover.”
We sprinted through the fractured streets. The sky rained embers. Sirens wailed. Guild airships roared overhead, dropping null-cages and blast nets. The dragon tore through them like paper. Each explosion painted the horizon gold.
We ducked into a collapsed metro entrance. Inside, the air was thick with dust and heat. Mira was coughing, blood on her lips. I pressed her back against the wall.
“Breathe,” I said. “Slow.”
She looked up at me, eyes glassy. “Kaia… you can control it, right? The thing inside you?”
I wanted to lie. I couldn’t. “Not anymore.”
Her expression hardened. “Then find a way.”
I turned away, clenching my fists. My veins glowed faintly in the dark. The dragon’s power was tearing through my restraint like claws through silk.
Eryndor’s voice rumbled softly, almost tender. There is no control without surrender.
“Shut up,” I hissed.
He laughed a low, molten sound that made the walls tremble.
You think you can fight what you are? The Guild made you a vessel, Kaia. I simply filled the void.
Outside, the sky thundered again. The dragon’s roar cut through the air, and for an instant, I could see its eyes blinding gold, locked on me through miles of smoke and distance. Recognition burned there. Hunger, too.
Mira whispered, “It’s looking for you.”
I didn’t answer. I already knew.
We moved deeper into the metro tunnels, past flickering signs and the charred remnants of old trains. The deeper we went, the quieter it got except for the sound of our footsteps and the faint heartbeat echoing through my bones.
Mira stopped suddenly. “Kaia. Look.”
Ahead, in the half-collapsed platform, stood a figure a woman cloaked in ash and gold, holding a staff that hummed with the same energy as the fragment. Her eyes glowed faintly, inhuman.
“I was wondering when you’d come,” she said. Her voice was calm. Measured. “The vessel of flame.”
My pulse quickened. “Who the hell are you?”
“Someone who’s been waiting a very long time.” She lifted the staff, and the air between us shimmered. “The dragon isn’t your curse, Kaia Vale. It’s your inheritance.”
The world tilted. The ground cracked. The mark on my arm burned so bright I couldn’t see. The dragon’s roar filled my head, deafening.
Then everything went white.