Chapter 19 #2
The fighting had stopped, but my heart hadn’t slowed.
My sword dripped. My knees threatened to buckle.
My body was buzzing like it had just been yanked out of the sky by lightning.
The air was thick with smoke, blood, and the sounds of the dying.
Only two of the enemy remained. They took one look at their leader’s body, dropped their weapons, and bolted into the forest.
My legs gave out. I dropped to the dirt, sword still in my grip, heart beating against my ribs like it wanted out. Rhodes fell to his knees before me, eyeing my injuries. Blood and mud covered his beautiful face. A gash was bleeding on his shoulder. His chest heaving.
Fallon wiped her blade on her thigh and stared at the body. “That’s one dream I hope haunts him in the afterlife.”
Noemi growled—a darker sound than I’d ever heard from her—and started toward Fallon, crushing saplings.
“How can you joke about this?” Rhodes stormed toward my sister, his boots grinding into the blood-soaked dirt before he shoved her hard to the ground.
She let out only a breathy laugh.
“Look around you, Fitzroy. You could have gotten us killed!”
“Like you aren’t used to this, Wylder.” Fallon’s voice was sharp as broken glass as she pushed herself upright, brushing blood from her palms.
“This mission is over,” Rhodes snapped, his glare cutting through her. “I refuse to work with someone who is purposely putting us in danger.”
Nash strode over to me, his hand steady as he pulled me to my feet.
“The mission will be over once it’s completed.”
“The three of us will complete it without you,” Rhodes bit out.
Fallon tilted her head, lips curling into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “I would not piss me off, Wylder.”
Rhodes stepped closer, his six-foot-two frame swallowing her presence whole—but Fallon didn’t budge. Didn’t flinch. Whatever grudge she held against the Wylders ran bone-deep, strong enough she’d risk everything to keep it… or expose it.
Rhodes scoffed. “The only reason I’m putting up with you is because of her.
” He jabbed a finger in my direction. “She has the misfortune of being stuck with you and General Fitzroy.” His tone dropped, sharp as honed steel.
“You want to joke about your father not caring enough to rescue her? Seems to me he can barely stand being in the same room as you.”
Fallon’s fist connected with his jaw before he even saw it coming. The crack of impact split the night, and my gasp came unbidden. Rhodes’s head snapped to the side.
He tensed, rubbing his jawline, then spat blood onto the grass. When his gaze found her again, it was lethal. “Proving my point. Every time you seem like you might not be as terrible as you make it seem, you prove everyone wrong.”
Fallon’s lips curled into something between a sneer and a smirk. “You act like you’re her saving grace, Wylder. But tell me… does she know the truth about you?”
My stomach dropped. My mouth opened, but nothing came out.
Rhodes went very still.
“She doesn’t, does she?” Fallon’s smirk deepened. She tipped her chin toward me; her voice slid into my mind without her lips moving. “Ask him why he didn’t run from you when you channeled into a mage.”
My brows knit. “What?”
“Ask him.”
She nodded toward Rhodes, who hadn’t moved. Hadn’t even breathed.
Her expression shifted—arrogance draining away, replaced with a cold indifference. “Wylders can’t be trusted,” she said aloud, eyes still locked on mine. “Our family learned that the hard way.”
Rhodes snarled. “You are speaking of a rumor.”
Fallon didn’t look at him.
She took a slow step back toward River. She shifted automatically to give her a hand up, and a moment later, they vanished into the trees. Nash clapped Rhodes on the shoulder in passing before following them, leaving us alone. Lakota and Noemi stayed put.
The silence that settled was suffocating. I could barely breathe.
Thoughts clawed their way forward—memories from Mageia I’d shoved aside.
His sudden absences. His sudden appearances.
That dried, rust-colored stain on the back of his neck I’d brushed off as mud.
He was an expertly skilled fighter like his brother, but both of them kept that tidbit hidden about them.
Everything changed the day I ran into the pit during the Burn Trials. That was the moment Shayde branded me the villain—the elemental the Grim had sent him to find. In his eyes, I was hunting the power of a mage to bring ruin to our people.
So, he chose to run. While Rhodes chose to chase after me.
He didn’t hesitate. Not for a beat. When Lakota targeted me, Rhodes threw himself into the pit. He didn’t care who saw him with a mage, didn’t care about consequences or whispers. All that mattered was pulling me out. And when I rose from being burned alive, he wasn’t afraid.
“Which elements do you wield?” My voice shook more than I wanted.
Rhodes exhaled sharply.
I nudged his shoulder with a puff of air.
“Which. Elements. Do. You. Wield?”
His mouth twisted. His gray-blue eyes begged me not to ask.
I threw a gust that knocked him back a few steps.
Rhodes barely regained his balance before I felt the softest breeze push a stray lock of hair behind my ear. My fingers flew to the spot, heart hammering.
“You channel air.”
He dipped his chin once.
“You watched me hate your brother—scorn him for being a mage, the very thing I am—when in reality, you’re a natural-born mage too?”
The only sounds for miles were our labored breaths and my breaking heart.
“You didn’t run from me because you weren’t afraid of me.
Because you are like me.” Anger surged in my veins, boiling within my skin, begging to be let out.
I squeezed my fists and felt drops of hot water in my palms, but I ignored it.
“What haven’t you told me, Rhodes?” I took a step closer, heart pounding.
His eyes pleaded with me not to push.
“I asked you once how you learned to fight when Mageia only enforces elemental battle. You told me you’d answer my questions—but not that one.
And Shayde? He’s also a trained fighter.
Your father is the general of a secret war legion in Arya that nobody knows about.
From the moment I woke in the Hollow, I’ve trusted you blindly.
So tell me, Rhodes—what else am I missing? ”
He swallowed hard. “Scarlet…” His voice was barely above a whisper. “There are things I can’t—”
“I crumbled in your arms and told you everything about me. I admitted my darkest moments to you. I was vulnerable. I was weak. I let you in.” My voice broke, but I pressed on. “Why can’t you let me all the way in?”
In a heartbeat, his hands were on my face, his forehead against mine.
“You are in, Scarlet.” His voice was raw. “I didn’t know I still had a heart until you made it beat again. You are the only person I’ve ever lived for. I would burn the entire world down for you without a second thought—if it meant I could stay with you.”
My hands found his jaw, tilting his chin so he had no choice but to meet my eyes. “What do you mean… stay with me?”
His entire body seemed to crumble. He stepped back, tension rippling through every muscle. His jaw ticked.
And then, finally—he spoke. “I’m cursed.”
I blinked. “Excuse me—what?”
His expression didn’t change. His voice was devoid of emotion. “There’s more to the prophecy you found in the Eternal Tomb.”
A chill snaked down my spine.
“In order for the Mareki Gem to be forged back into one, the Forgotten Realm must be exchanged as a form of currency.”
I swallowed. “I don’t understand.”
Rhodes took a slow breath. “To counteract Zervos disrupting the Mareki, the magical essence itself created a separate realm within time and space—to balance the scales of power. When the four elements erupted into an elemental storm, burning through what we now call the Barrens, everyone thought the mages burned with it.” He paused. “But they didn’t.
“Their souls were sentenced to another realm, locked away from the malice and misuse of magic in our world. It was the Mareki’s way of preserving its strength—so that one day, when it was ready, it could be forged anew.”
My shaky hand found his. “But what does this have to do with you, Rhodes? And how do you know all of this?”
His gaze bored into mine, something dark and unspoken lurking beneath the surface.
“The Seer,” he murmured. “The same Seer who appeared when you and Fallon were born… she came for Shayde and me as well. But unlike you two, she only laid her touch on me—declaring that a curse would tether my soul to the Forgotten Realm.”
I could barely breathe.
“Magic created an entire realm to protect itself from the abuse of power,” he continued, voice heavy with resolve. “But with magic, there is always balance. When the Forgotten Realm was born, it needed a source strong enough to anchor it.”
“A soul,” I whispered.
His jaw clenched. “I channeled fire early. Then, while sparring with Shayde, I channeled air. That’s when Ma and Pa sat me down and told me the truth of my fate. They made me swear secrecy, even from Shayde. That day, I stopped living. I stopped caring. Why would I? I was cursed to die.
“Magic can be restored to its true form,” he said, voice darkening. “The Mareki Essence will be whole again. The key lies within the Crimson Wraith. But the Forgotten Realm must fall… and I must fall with it.”
His words weighed on me like a stone I wasn’t ready to carry.
I took a step back. Denial threatened to drown me. Questions and fear wrapped around my throat like a vise. Rhodes jumped into the pit that day—but was it really to save me?
After the Burn Trials, Rhodes Wylder’s entire demeanor changed toward me. He stopped being closed off. He stopped pushing me away. That was the pivotal moment when he became a constant in my life.
“Was it all a ploy?” I shook my head, refusing to meet the confusion in his eyes. “No more lies. All this time, you hid this from me. Was any of it real? Or were you just getting close to find my weakness? To turn your fate around by using me as the tether?”
“That is not what the Wylder boy said,” Lakota growled.
Tears burned my eyes. I threw up my mental gates to shut Lakota—and possibly an eavesdropping Fallon—out.
“Am I wrong?” I said through gritted teeth.
Rhodes’s expression hardened. He stepped closer but didn’t touch me. His hands clenched into fists at his sides.
“You once asked me if I could choose what color my eyes were—do you remember what I said?” He waited, then continued. “I said I didn’t care, as long as they saw a life with you in it. Scarlet, I would never hurt you.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, feigning a strength I didn’t feel. “Hmm, sounds painfully like what your brother said before he tried offering me up to the Mareki’s enemy.”
The instant the words left my mouth, I regretted them.
Rhodes flinched as if I’d struck him.
I threw my arms out. “My whole life,” I said, voice cracking, “I’ve been used—by every single person I let in.
” I pressed my fingers hard against the left side of my chest, as if I could hold together the pieces of my breaking heart.
“I thought you were different, Rhodes. I trusted you. I let you in.”
I turned away before the tears came.
“I let you walk away once, and I swore I’d never let that happen again.” His voice came low and raw, trembling with something that stopped me cold.
“Fate has proven that you are the other piece of me, Scarlet,” he continued. “I defied my father’s orders for the first time in my life just to stay by your side. He trained me—molded me into a weapon, something he could wield when the time came.
“The Glade has been working with Kalluri to cover up the Barrens’ mistakes for years.
But what he doesn’t know is how we’ve been taking Tyrians hostage, torturing them for information on what Tyria knows of the Mareki that we don’t.
Pa is relentless in his hunt for the Mareki’s Key, trying to forge the Essence back together. ”
A tear ran down my cheek. My breath hitched at the broken love he still held for his father—focused on a path that would cost him everything. Elias Wylder was fighting for power and paying with his own son.
“I’ve blindly followed orders since the day I became a mage,” he said. “I had no reason to live… until the day you walked into the brew station. Your fire, your fight stole my breath—and never gave it back.”
I turned slowly, meeting his gaze—his beautiful eyes carrying the weight of years spent surviving instead of living.
“You inspired me to take my life back,” he said, voice low and steady. “While I still have time.”
My heart stopped.
“My father ordered me to return to the Glade,” he said, “but I refused him for the first time. I finally stood up for myself because you gave me the power to.”
Warm tears slid down my cheeks. He caught them gently with the pads of his thumbs.
“I don’t know how much longer fate will give us,” he whispered. “But I won’t stop fighting for you. Not until my very last day.”
My throat tightened painfully.
“I’ll be your enemy. I’ll be your damnation. Whatever you need me to be, I’ll be. Just let me be something to you while I’m still here.”
A strangled gasp tore from me. “Don’t you dare give up.”
His eyes widened with relief.
“Don’t you dare—” My breath hitched. “Give up. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that fate can fuck right off. You weren’t responsible for what happened to the Mareki. And you will not be taken from this world because of it. We will fix this. We will change fate.”
He took another step closer, but I lifted a hand, pressing it to his chest.
“That doesn’t mean I can forgive you for the lies, Rhodes,” I said, my voice shaking. “I can’t take any more secrets. Any more hidden truths. I’m barely holding on.”
The pain and suffering in his eyes melted into pure yearning.
I stepped back slowly. “I’m barely holding on.” I nodded, hoping that gesture could carry the conflicted weight in my heart.
Rhodes nodded back. For a brief moment, his hand reached out, fingers grazing my wrist—a silent plea, a touch heavy with everything left unsaid. I caught his gaze one last time, then turned away, putting one foot in front of the other.