119. Scarlett
Scarlett
T he world didn’t fall apart all at once.
It started with a sound.
The creak of ancient hinges as the manor doors split open.
I didn’t move. None of us did.
Not until I saw her.
Brielle stepped through first, black-clad, smug in that chilling way she wore like perfume. Her gaze slid to mine like she’d been waiting for this moment.
But it wasn’t her that made my lungs seize.
It was the girl beside her.
Lena.
My best friend.
My anchor.
My fucking sister in everything but blood.
Zeke barreled into the room just seconds behind them, breath ragged. “Scarlett—get back—”
I couldn’t move. I was too busy rewiring reality.
“Scarlett,” Brielle purred. “Did you miss us?”.
Lena didn’t look scared. Or confused. Or even sorry.
She looked calm.
Like this was exactly where she meant to be.
Like this was always the plan.
The betrayal bloomed slow and acidic. A thousand memories cracked in half all at once. Her laugh at the lake. Her hand on my shoulder during panic attacks. The inside jokes. The secrets.
All of it—poison now.
Rhett’s voice sliced through the stillness. “What the actual fuck.”
Trace didn’t take his eyes off Lena. “Tell me this isn’t happening.”
I stepped forward. “Lena? How are you here?”
She tilted her head. “I wanted to tell you.”
Trace’s snarl cracked across the room. “Tell her what?”
Brielle’s grin widened. “That she’s been feeding me everything since the beginning.”
Zeke’s breath caught sharp. His eyes narrowed, gears turning behind them—dangerous, exact. Then his whole body went still.
“The island,” he said, voice low and lethal. “That’s how she found us. You gave her Scarlett’s location.”
Lena didn’t deny it.
“You fucking let her track the phone,” Zeke growled. “That’s how Brielle got there. That’s how they breached the perimeter. You sold us out before we even left for the villas.”
Kane stepped back like he’d been punched, mouth open.
“Jesus, you’re the rat,” he said, staring at Lena like he didn’t recognize her anymore. “You were with us the whole time. Pretending.”
“No,” I whispered. “You’re lying.”
“I didn’t want it to go this far.”
“Then why?” My voice was steady. Shaky—but still standing.
She looked right at me. “Because it was supposed to be me.”
I stared at her. “What was?”
“The heir,” she said flatly. “It was supposed to be me.”
Zeke’s breath hitched behind me.
“I’m his daughter too,” Lena said. “The one no one ever talked about. The one raised on scraps of legacy and locked doors. While you got the life. The house. The boys. While you thought he was dead, I was training with the Red Veil.”
“You’re my sister?” I breathed.
“Half-sister,” she said quietly. “But I want what Is mine.”
Trace was trembling. Alden had gone stone-cold. Kane muttered something too low to hear. Rhett’s fists clenched at his sides.
Brielle smiled like she was watching a stage play. “Told you she’d take it well.”
“You let me fall apart,” I said. “You let me come undone in your arms—and all the while, you knew.”
Rhett moved first. Kane caught his arm.
Zeke looked at Lena like she was a stranger. “You knew about the Codex. The bond. Everything.”
“She volunteered,” Brielle confirmed. “The Red Veil didn’t send her. She offered.”
I stepped back, feeling the betrayal root itself deep in my bones.
“You didn’t just betray me,” I said. “You watched me love you. And you used it.”
Lena’s lip trembled. But she didn’t deny it.
“I never wanted to be your enemy,” she said.
And just like that—the bond pulsed through my spine.
Lena was shaking now. Red-faced. Frantic.
“It was supposed to be me,” she said again. “I trained. I studied the Codex before you even knew what it was. I knew the bond’s signs before you knew how to spell it.”
“And you still weren’t chosen.” The words sliced straight through.
Lena’s gaze flicked past me, rage flashing. “Because he chose you.”
I followed her line of sight—to the man standing behind me.
My father. Her father.
My stomach turned. A memory surfaced—something buried. A moment maybe ten years ago when Lena’s mother showed up at school pickup, and the tension in the air made no sense until now.
“You had an affair.”
I didn’t raise my voice.
The truth just hung there like smoke after a fire.
My father stared at me. The same stare he’d given me since arriving at Thirelin—tired, unreadable, like he was already mourning something he knew he couldn’t save.
“You knew she was my sister.”
No denial. Just silence. The worst kind.
Kane let out a low whistle beside me. “This is a whole damn soap opera.”
Zeke's arms folded, expression unreadable. “You’re just now catching up?”
Alden moved closer. Quiet. Lethal. His gaze locked on my father, Brielle, then on Lena. “You knew. All of you.”
Lena stepped forward. She was trembling, but it wasn’t weakness. It was the raw edge of a girl who’d held the lie too long.
“I always knew. He raised me to serve the Veil, to earn a place in the bloodline he kept hidden from the world. While you”—she looked at me like the wound was fresh—“got to live free. Protected. Loved.”
“I was six when he left.”.
“I was five when they swore me in,” she snapped. “I’ve been waiting my whole life for the title you didn’t even know existed.”
“And now you want it back?” My voice cracked, low and cold.
“I want what I was promised.”
Trace’s tattoo lit faintly beneath his collar. The air between us tensed—energy rising, heat stirring. I could feel his focus on me. Not Lena. Me.
She noticed.
“You were born second,” she said. “That’s what makes this so cruel. I came first. Months before you. I was the obvious choice.”
My heart stilled.
“I’m the Leo,” she added, a bitter smirk curling at the corner of her mouth. “Born to rule. You always laughed at that, remember?”
My breath caught. We had joked about star signs growing up. Leo and Scorpio. Fire and water. Rule and ruin.
“You used to say I was dramatic,” she whispered. “And you? You were born to burn.”
She wanted it to hurt.
It did.
But not in the way she expected.
Because something had changed.
Inside me. Around me.
Thirelin stirred—not like a house, but like a god waking up. The floor moved beneath my feet. The air thickened, heavy with judgment. Old judgment. The kind that remembered bloodlines and promises and names not spoken in centuries.
The manor was no longer silent.
It was listening.
It was choosing.
And I could feel it… choosing me.
I stepped forward. No hesitation. No fear.
“You weren’t chosen.” My voice stayed steady. “Because fate doesn’t play favorites. It picks who it needs.”
Magic buzzed behind my ribs.
“I didn’t take this from you, Lena. You were never meant to hold it.”
She shook her head once—too fast. “You’re wrong. You always were.”
Brielle’s voice cut in from behind her, smooth and venomous. “She’s not wrong. She’s bonded, and you’re not. That’s the end of it.”
Lena turned sharply. “Don’t speak like you’re not the one who promised me this crown.”
Brielle smirked, stepping forward slowly. “I promised you a shot. But the manor’s already chosen its heir. The Codex doesn’t bend to jealousy.”
I stared at them both, my pulse roaring.
“You used me,” I said. “The bond. The Veil. Our childhood. You sold me for a throne that was never yours.”
Zeke shifted first—his stance widening, weapons still holstered but his eyes burning.
Kane’s laugh broke the silence like a spark to dry brush. Low, disbelieving. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” he muttered, stepping forward, hands braced on his hips like he was trying not to tear the whole place apart.
“You used all of us,” Rhett said, voice sharp. “Fed them the coordinates from Scarlett’s phone. Watched us train her, protect her—”
“I was always watching her,” Lena snapped. “Because I knew.”
Rhett backed against the wall, fingers dragging through his hair, eyes flicking between Lena and me. “She watched us every day,” he said, voice hollow. “Watched them fall for her. And still fed them everything.”
Trace took a step—then another. His fists were clenched, forearms flexed, the pulse in his neck visible. His tattoo glowed, stark against the heat building in the room.
And then Alden’s lit too.
A slow burn beneath his skin, the ink warming with quiet fury. Not because he willed it—but because the manor did.
Thirelin had awakened.
And it was calling the bond forward. Both of them.
“Say one more word,” he warned Brielle, low and lethal. “And I swear I won’t care who your father is.”
Alden wasn’t moving at all. His knuckles pressed into the pommel of a knife strapped to his belt, breathing shallow and sharp. But his eyes were glassed over with rage. A held storm. The kind that only breaks when blood hits the floor.
He stood there like a man unraveling beneath the surface—because the girl he would’ve died for had been used as a weapon. And he hadn’t seen it coming.
His eyes flicked to me, to Lena, then to the bloodline that built this mess.
And I knew—he wasn’t going to let this go.
And I stood at the center of it all, the fire beneath my skin turning into something dangerous. The truth had stripped away every last illusion. There was no going back. Not for me. Not for them. Not for Lena.
Because this wasn’t just betrayal.
It was war.
And I was finally ready to choose my side.