Chapter 11
My chest tightened with every step, the crunch of my boots on the gravel seeming louder than it should. Rhodes and I were on our way to the Hollow’s dungeons to face Shayde.
The lesser of the demons on my to-do list.
The only thing steadying my nerves enough to step outside was the lingering scent of Rhodes’s bathing oils on my skin—sensual cashmere sandalwood and vanilla.
Beside me, Rhodes’s boots crunched in sync with mine. The casual, playful demeanor from earlier had vanished, replaced by the firm, unreadable soldier I first met—a man carved from stone.
Rhodes stepped ahead and opened the heavy wooden door for me. I took a deep breath, steadying myself before walking inside. Complete silence enveloped us, broken only by the steady echo of our heels against the stone floor. Rhodes led the way.
We passed several empty cells until he came to an abrupt stop. My chest tightened, and unease crept over me, twisting my stomach into knots.
I turned to face Shayde Wylder. He sat slumped against the cold stone wall, his eyes closed, his head tilted slightly back.
The same leathers he wore during our last encounter clung to him, now dirtied and worn.
It was clear he hadn’t been given a chance to clean up; the grime clung to him like a reminder of the choices that had brought him here.
And yet, his face looked... at peace.
It made my chest ache in a way I didn’t expect.
Rhodes cleared his throat loudly, the sound echoing off the stone walls like a crack of thunder in the suffocating silence. Shayde stirred, his body shifting as he slowly opened his eyes. For a brief moment, his expression was blank and distant—until his gaze locked on mine.
His brown eyes widened at the sight of my crimson ones.
Without a word, Shayde stood and approached the bars. His gaze never left mine as he closed the distance, stopping just short of the iron barrier between us.
Shayde’s fingers slowly curled around the iron bars as if they were as fragile as my broken heart.
“Scar...” His voice came out hoarse, raw, like he hadn’t used it in days.
His brown eyes shifted briefly to Rhodes and then back to me, softening in a way that made my chest tighten even more.
My eyelids fluttered at the sound of his voice, memories and emotions crashing over me in waves I couldn’t control. My breathing grew shallow, each inhale harder than the last.
The silence between the three of us stretched thick and suffocating, words left unsaid weighing heavier with each passing second.
“You wanted to see me? I’m here.”
Shayde’s hands tightened around the bars, his knuckles turning white. He flinched at the sharpness in my tone but didn’t look away.
“I—I’m sorry about everything,” he said, his voice trembling.
I held up a hand, cutting him off. “I’m not here for an apology. I’m here for the truth.”
His chest deflated as if I had struck him, and for a fleeting moment, he looked like a man barely holding himself together.
“We need to know more about the Grim’s plans,” I continued, my voice firm. “If we’re going to build a battle strategy, you need to start talking.”
Rhodes stepped closer, his presence looming beside me as Shayde spoke.
“He didn’t let me in on his plans,” Shayde said, his voice strained. “He only used me as a tool to get what he needed done—”
“He?” I cut him off. “Who else was she working with?”
My question seemed to catch him off guard. His eyes darted between Rhodes and me, and for a moment, he stuttered. “I don’t... I never... The Grim never revealed his identity to me.”
The knot in my stomach tightened.
“I tried to catch him—her—in the act. But the Grim always magically placed the notes under my pillow. Always one step ahead.” His gaze dropped, a flicker of shame passing over his features. “I was knocked unconscious before I ever saw their face.”
The weight of his words hung heavily in the air. I clenched my fists at my sides. My gaze fell to the ground.
“It was Cora. Aunt Cora is the Grim.”
Shayde’s eyes narrowed, disbelief etched into every line of his face as he shook his head frantically. “No, there’s no way.”
I said nothing, letting the weight of silence be my answer, never breaking his gaze.
He raked a hand through his hair and turned away, pacing back and forth like a caged animal. I could see the gears turning in his mind, trying desperately to piece together an equation that would never add up.
Finally, his warm brown eyes locked onto mine again, filled with a mixture of dread and hope. “What about Delaney? Is she here?”
I felt Rhodes stiffen beside me as a sharp, unbearable pain sliced through my chest. My heart splintered into a thousand pieces, and the lump in my throat grew, threatening to suffocate me.
How could they not have told Shayde? They’d kept him locked away here for weeks, maybe a month, completely in the dark, and with no idea of what happened.
I forced myself to swallow, to push the words out past the burning in my throat. “Laney’s dead.”
The color washed from Shayde’s face. His body went rigid as the words hit him like a physical blow.
His warm brown eyes, now filled with a growing panic, searched mine as if hoping I’d take it back.
“No,” he whispered, his voice trembling.
“No... she can’t be. She was... you were both supposed to be safe. ”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t.
Shayde staggered back, gripping the bars as if they were the only thing keeping him upright. His breathing grew shallow, and his gaze darted between me and Rhodes, desperate for some kind of denial. But there was none.
“It’s... it’s all my fault,” Shayde’s voice cracked, breaking under the weight of his guilt.
Rhodes stepped forward, his tone steady but softer than I expected. “We need to know what the Grim was planning to do with Scarlet.”
The words struck me like lightning. I realized in that moment that I had told no one what the Grim said to me on that mountain. I knew exactly what she planned to do with me—and why.
The memory surged through me, sharp and suffocating, like a blow to the chest that left me reeling. I staggered back a step, my breath catching.
Rhodes’s hand shot out, steadying me by the elbow.
His eyes flicked toward mine briefly before he continued, his voice unwavering.
“I’ve already started discussions about your release, Shayde, but it’s going to take time.
We need you to cooperate with us—to prove to them you’re not working with our enemy in this war. ”
Shayde’s knees buckled slightly, and he leaned heavily against the bars, his head hanging low. A strangled sound escaped his lips—a mix between a sob and a guttural cry. “I’m sorry, Scar. I pinky promised.”
The sight of Shayde crumbling wasn’t what I had prepared myself for. The pain in my chest was suffocating, and I was two seconds away from going blue in the face from the lack of oxygen I could manage to inhale.
I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms as I growled through gritted teeth, “Stop. Apologizing.”
Taking a step closer to the iron bars that separated Rhodes and me from his brother, I could feel the guilt radiating off Shayde in waves, thick enough to suffocate me further.
“And help us get our fucking revenge,” I hissed.
The broken, guilt-ridden version of Shayde evaporated in an instant. His entire demeanor shifted as he stood tall, squaring his shoulders with deliberate precision. Slowly, he closed his eyes, drawing in a deep, steadying breath.
And when he opened them…
The man standing before us wasn’t the shattered soul I had seen moments ago. No, this was someone else entirely—a man I’d never seen before. His warm brown eyes had turned ice cold.
“It started with simple errands,” Shayde began. “I was ordered to collect things or deliver items to secret locations. At first, I thought that was the worst of it—just a courier, nothing more.”
He paused, his jaw tightening as the weight of his words settled in the air. “But after a year of believing that was the worst of my troubles... the errands became more... inconspicuous.”
Rhodes stepped closer, his arms crossed, his gray-blue eyes sharp. “What kind of errands, Shayde?”
Shayde’s gaze flicked between us, then dropped to the floor as if the memory was too heavy for him to hold.
“The Grim would give me names. My job was to track them, observe their movements, and report back. At first, I didn’t ask questions.
I didn’t want to know why. But I grew curious, and it was getting harder to sneak around the halls of Mageia once people became more familiar with me.
So I started asking questions, but that was when the requests turned into threats. ”
Shayde blinked, his brows furrowing as he pieced his thoughts together.
“The Grim shifted her focus from professors and cadets to sending me on wild goose chases for a hidden prophecy?” His tone was incredulous, but there was a sharp edge beneath it.
“A prophecy I had never heard before—not even from our father.”
He turned to lock eyes with Rhodes, his gaze intense. “I was on a mission to find the Eternal Tomb.”
My breath hitched, the weight of realization crashing down on me like a tidal wave. The Grim wanted to know where the entrance to the Eternal Tomb was—just like the men who interrogated me, who burned my leg with a fire stoker for answers.
They said they had been ordered by my father.
Captain Thorne.
The thought struck me cold.
I always thought he was behind my capture. The one who sent the orders to have me locked in the shed. But the Grim admitted that those were her men that held me captive. And both of them are after the same thing…
Which means Captain Thorne must be working with the Grim.
Rhodes’s jaw tightened, his usually unreadable expression now tinged with shock.
Shayde lowered his voice. “I was told that delivering you to that stone altar would be the last of my duties. She promised me—swore to me—that my debt would be paid if I fulfilled that one final task.”
His gaze flicked to Rhodes, the anguish in his eyes unmistakable.
“And I thought I had found a loophole. I thought that if I used our marekem, you would come. You’d never let the Grim harm her.
.. or Delaney, Rhodes. I thought I’d outsmarted her.
” His voice broke, his shoulders sagging under the weight of his words. “But I was too late.”
“Wait,” I said. “Debt? What did you owe the Grim? What in the elements could she possibly threaten you with, Shayde?”
Shayde’s grip on the iron bars tightened until his knuckles turned white. His gaze darted to the shadows in the corridor, his voice dropping to a near whisper, as if afraid of unseen ears. “The Grim gifted me the element of air—a year before we were initiated into Mageia.”
Nausea churned in my stomach. My chest tightened as I took a half-step back. “What... are you saying?”
“I’m a mage, Scar. I can channel both the air and fire elements.”
“You—you made a deal with her? For magic?”
His jaw tightened, and he nodded, his shame undeniable.
“I was young and reckless. After Rhodes...” He cut his eyes at his brother, whose stony expression remained unreadable.
Shayde hesitated, his voice dropping. “I was desperate to prove myself. And terrified that I would be officially declared mundane.”
My stomach twisted further, and I felt the weight of the revelation settle like a stone in my gut. “So you left me to be burned alive in that pit,” I said, my voice trembling with fury. “And when I came out unscathed, you abandoned me.”
I saw the flicker of shame in his eyes before I delivered the final blow. “You were too much of a coward to be seen with me because you were terrified of your secret coming to light.”
Shayde’s grip on the bars faltered for a moment, his knuckles losing their death grip.
“Instead of trusting me... You. Abandoned. Me,” I screamed, my broken voice ricocheting through the dungeon as a warm tear streamed down my cheek.
The three of us stood in a heavy, suffocating silence that felt like it stretched on for hours. My body, heart, and soul felt so numb that I was surprised I was still upright. The weight of it all—the betrayal, the hurt, the unspoken words—pressed down on me, threatening to crush me.
I couldn’t feel my own movements as I turned slightly, my voice dropping into something cold and hollow.
“You can share the rest with Rhodes,” I mumbled, barely recognizing the sound of my voice.
“And if you don’t want to, then you can rot in here for the rest of your miserable existence for all I care.
It’s time the world understood what happens to those who abandon me. ”