Chapter 2
The clay pot shattered against the wall, and the ringing in my ears intensified, setting off another pounding throb in my head.
Rhodes threw his hands up, dodging just in time. “Hey, hey! It’s me!”
I knew it was him. And as much as I wanted to collapse into his arms and pretend that everything was okay, I couldn’t let him see me like this—weak, messy, and undeniably insecure.
I grabbed another clay piece from the end table, lifting it behind my head. Rhodes’s eyes narrowed, and suddenly its weight seemed to triple. With a frustrated grunt, I set it back down. “Get out,” I snarled.
Hurt and confusion flashed across his face, but he raised his hands in surrender, stepping carefully over shards of clay. “Scarlet,” he said steadily, “just breathe. You’ve been through a lot. Lakota already told Noemi who was working as the Grim.”
“Don’t come any closer,” I choked out. I turned my head to hide the tears threatening to spill.
“There’s no way I’m leaving you right now.”
Crunch.
“I want to be alone.”
Crunch.
“Something tells me that’s really the last thing you want.”
Fire seared up the back of my neck, scorching into the base of my skull. I winced, struggling to mask the pain. “You don’t know what I want,” I whispered through gritted teeth.
The soft crinkle of leather told me Rhodes had knelt before me, though he didn’t reach out to touch.
“I beg to differ,” he murmured, his tone edged with a hint of humor, as if he were trying to coax a smile from me, knowing that’s exactly what I needed.
I needed an uninterrupted moment of peace. I needed a full breath of air. I needed light.
I needed Laney.
A sob caught in my throat, and I turned to face him.
His beautiful, stormy eyes, filled with worry, rested on someone who didn’t deserve his energy.
He clenched his jaw tight, and the hair on top of his head had grown long enough to fall over one eye.
He wasn’t in his usual Mageia leathers. These had more…
pockets, sheaths, and a belt built to carry multiple weapons.
His gaze softened as he dipped his chin.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to hear that right now.”
“Hear what?”
“Anything,” I whispered.
He paused, chest rising and falling as he tried to read whether I was joking or serious. Lakota might’ve been the one to talk me off the ledge that day, but it was Rhodes who helped me piece myself back together afterward.
Rhodes was the only one who’s seen me truly let go. He knows the parts of myself I’ve buried away from the world. Piece by piece, he glued my joy back together. He didn’t bother trying to cover up the scars… he left them proudly on display.
But another piece of me shattered, and I’m back where I belong.
Rock Bottom.
Rhodes sees the best in me, but my worst overshadows it. And I know he’ll never believe that. He’ll keep pushing me to fight, to stand tall. He’ll pick me up every time I fall. But he’ll never accept the truth.
I’m a lost cause.
So, I tried to relieve him of the burden of having me in his life, and I forced him out.
“I don’t want to see you, Wylder. I don’t know why you’ve wasted time sitting by my bedside, but I can assure you, it was all for nothing.
I don’t feel the way about you that you probably feel about me.
There’s nothing between us. Now please leave me alone.
” The words felt like acid, burning my tongue.
My heart pounded, knowing that he was the reason I’d awakened at all.
But I didn’t deserve his light.
Rhodes flinched, his breath hitching as he tried to hide the impact of my words.
He stood, fists clenched at his sides, jaw set like stone.
He looked down at me, into my eyes, as if he could see through the lies.
Sunlight cut through the single window, illuminating the faint blue in his right eye.
It took everything in me to hold my ground, praying he’d listen to my words and not the truth in my gaze.
He swallowed hard, breaking our eye contact. Rhodes ran a hand through his messy hair as he turned to leave, but stopped in the doorway.
“I’m calling your bluff.”
The door slammed behind him.
I climbed through the window to find Laney already sweeping the dusty floors. Sunlight streamed through the cracks in the boarded-up windows, painting streaks of gold across the old stone walls.
It was a bright, beautiful day in Lanorcoast. After breakfast with her parents—and more than a few mimosas—we wandered to the abandoned building Laney swore would one day become our bookstore-slash-plant-store-slash-coffee-shop.
“You know we don’t even own this place yet, right? Why are you cleaning it?” I asked, coughing as the dust swirled around me.
Her back was to me, but I could feel her joy in the light skips of her bare feet across the stone floor. Her brown curls bounced as she swept and twirled, a seamless blend of work and dance. Laney turned her head just enough for me to catch her mischievous grin—but not her eyes.
“Isn’t it obvious, Thorny-Pie? Who else is gonna clean it since I’m dead?”
I jolted upright in bed, drenched in sweat.
My chest rose and fell in rapid, shallow bursts as I fought to steady myself.
My eyes roamed the small, shadowed hut I had shut myself away in.
The heavy stone circular walls provided only the faintest trace of warmth.
I hadn’t stepped outside yet, but I’d felt the chill of the air on my skin whenever Rhodes visited.
The hut had as little life in it as I did.
A single bed was pushed against the wall, beside an old chest of drawers and a basket of quilts.
A small washroom connected to the space with a simple toilet, sink, and shallow tub.
The tub didn’t have running water, but at least the toilet did—that was one less reason to leave my hole.
Someone—I assumed Rhodes—had been leaving trays of food on the chest of drawers throughout the day. Each time there was a knock, I feigned sleep, though it was hardly an act. Other than quick trips to the washroom, I hadn’t left the bed.
Restlessness clawed at me after another morbid dream of Laney.
Kicking off the quilt, I swung my legs over the side and glanced out the window.
Frost on the glass kissed my skin with its chill.
Beyond the pane, huts like mine dotted the landscape, their round stone structures blending into the gray expanse of the mountains.
The village was already alive with movement. Smoke curled from chimneys. The rhythmic crack of axes echoed as townsfolk chopped wood. Others shuffled past with crates of supplies, while children darted at their feet, shrieking with laughter.
This was the place I had seen in my visions through Fallon’s eyes.
From what I recalled, Rhodes said this was the Hollow Summit.
He mentioned that he and Shayde were never allowed on trips out here.
To the right, I could just make out rope bridges stretching precariously between the plateaus, swaying in the wind.
But I had seen no sign of the black wolf. Or my sister.
I had too many questions, but no will to solve them.
So I crawled back under the covers and waited for sleep to take me again.