All Chapters of Claimed by the Fallen Five: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The silence left behind felt heavier than when Ashar and Riven were standing in the room. It wasn’t tense in the way it had been before—the snapping, teeth-bared tension of distrust and dominance. It was... quieter. Denser. Heavy with the weight of something none of them could explain. Kaine sat on the edge of a half-broken pillar, elbows on his knees, hands clasped. His scowl was still there—but duller now, softened at the edges. Not anger. Worry. Lucien paced slower than usual. Steps measured, hands behind his back, brow furrowed deep in thought. He looked less like a predator now and more like someone desperately solving a puzzle that refused to give up the last piece. Sethis sat cross-legged on the floor, head tilted, running a ring between his fingers, watching the energy fractures on the wall fade in and out like breathing. For once, his usual lazy smirk was gone. Mae stayed seated where she'd been left—at the edge of the raised dais. Wrists no longer cuffed. Hands clasped

The doors groaned open like they had not been touched in centuries. Outside was not the dead wasteland Mae expected.It was worse. The ground twisted in ways the eye rejected. Horizon lines bent wrong. Stone spires floated—some sideways, some inverted. Clouds spun in spirals, not across the sky but around something unseen. The sky itself was cracked—thin veins of pale light slicing through black clouds like shattered glass half-mended. It was... wrong. Not broken like ruins. Not destroyed like wastelands.Warped. Bent. Twisted. Reality itself undone. Mae shivered. Skin prickling. Every nerve screaming: You shouldn’t be here. Nothing should.This is the fracture. Riven stepped out first, boots crunching against ground that looked like crystal shards pretending to be grass. Mae followed, careful. Every step deliberate, like the ground might collapse if she trusted it too much. Riven glanced back. No grin. No swagger. Serious. Sharp. Watching her. “Alright... chaos bomb...” His

“She’s not light, somebody grab her already,” Kaine snapped, stepping forward. His hands slid under Mae’s arms, ready to haul her up like cargo. “We don’t have all day for her to wake up out here.” “No—!” Riven’s shout cracked across the air like a whip. His boots scuffed as he lunged forward, hands half-raised like Kaine might actually be holding a bomb instead of a passed-out girl. “No. It’s got to be Ashar.” His voice was sharp—panicked in a way Riven never sounded. “Put her down. Now.” Kaine’s eyes snapped wide. “The hell it does.” His grip tightened. “She’s unconscious, not royalty.” “Kaine.” Riven’s tone shifted—lower, dangerous. His silver eyes weren’t joking, not even close. “Trust me. If anyone’s carrying her... it’s him.” He jerked his chin toward Ashar, who stood still—silent, watching, unreadable as always. Lucien crossed his arms, tension knotting his jaw. “...I hate it when Riven’s serious. Means something’s actually wrong.” Sethis muttered under his breath, “Yeah

The first thing Mae felt was... softness. Not stone. Not cold metal. Not a dirt floor, not the sting of chains. Warm. Soft. Quiet. Her lashes fluttered. Her body felt like lead. Her breath dragged in slow, ragged. Chest heavy. Limbs heavier.Where... am I? The ceiling wasn’t warped. No twisting lines. No broken sky bleeding through the walls. Smooth. Clean.Whole. Her heart stuttered. Panic surged. Her hands jerked—cuffed—? No. Her wrists were free. Her fingers trembled against soft bedding.No, no... what happened... where— The memories surged fast—too fast. The fracture. The world bending. Riven’s voice pushing her, daring her. The pull. The change. The snap— Mae jolted upright with a sharp gasp, hands clawing at the blanket like it might hold her in place. Her breath ragged, eyes wide.No. I broke it. I did something wrong. I always— “Mae!” Riven’s voice hit the air like a shot—sharp but relieved, half panic, half joy. She flinched back as his boots skidded across the f

Mae’s eyes swept the glowing script. Her lips moved without sound, tracing the symbols, letting the meaning sink in. It didn’t read like a story. It didn’t explain like a history book. It... spoke.Not in words. In knowing. Her breath trembled as the lines shifted, symbols unfolding into shapes, memories not her own flickering at the edges of her mind. Names of species she recognized—some she didn’t—flowed through the glowing text. Her pulse quickened.It knows... everything. Every species. Every origin. Every fall. Every rise. Every extinction. Every fracture. Every repair attempt. And her name... written nowhere. Written everywhere. She blinked hard, whispering to herself, "What... what does this mean?" The thought barely settled when a voice cut through her spinning mind—sharp, but curious. “What’s it say?” Sethis. His tone wasn’t rough—just edged in something between caution and intrigue. The others leaned in slightly, tension climbing. Even Riven shifted forward from h