Chapter 25
I faked right, spun on my heels, and lunged at Fallon with a dagger. Before I could land the strike, she drove her elbow into my stomach, knocking the breath from my lungs. A second later, her boot sent me sprawling.
“Looks like you still enjoy being knocked down,” she smirked.
She’d been relentless all evening. For a moment earlier today, I thought I’d glimpsed a different side of Fallon Fitzroy. But then the war room happened—anger, disappointment, and a haunting sense of worthlessness rolled off her like a storm.
Now, she was back to being my evil twin.
“Looks like you still aren’t interested in helping me stay on my feet,” I muttered, pushing myself up.
She walked away, only to circle back, flipping a dagger into the air as she surveyed the training arena. The Glade’s sparring field stretched wide and flat, bordered by forest in every direction. Clusters of warriors fought around us, combining weapons and elemental attacks in choreographed chaos.
Lakota and Noemi soared above the Dragon Keep, consulting with the Glade’s dragons on how best to slip into the Valley unnoticed. I hadn’t seen Rhodes or Nash since the war room—Fallon had dragged me here the moment it ended. But my thoughts kept circling back to one thing: Elias.
I recognized him the moment we entered. He’d been the quiet bystander in Kalluri’s office when Captain Thorne dragged me in. The similarities were impossible to ignore—Elias had Shayde’s wavy brown hair, Rhodes’s gray eyes, the same sharp jaw they both shared.
He hadn’t even seemed to notice me or Fallon.
And as a General, I doubted that was carelessness.
Rhodes had defied orders to return to the Glade—he’d stayed with me, choosing me over his General’s command.
My heart tugged when Rhodes remained behind after the meeting.
Why had Elias wanted to speak with him alone?
There was so much I wanted to uncover. And yet… part of me feared the truth.
He’d known about Rhodes’s fate since the day he was born. And what had he done about it? Nothing. No desperate plan to save him. Just… acceptance. As if he’d already laid his son on the altar.
That same altar flashed in my mind—cold stone beneath me, the Grim staring down—
A sting split my chin.
I gasped as warm blood trickled down my neck.
“What in the elements was that!?” I shouted.
Fallon’s expression hardened. “Is whatever’s in your head more important than your life? Distractions—no matter how small—can kill you.”
The irony sparked at my fingertips.
“And what do you care?” I yelled, hurling fire at her. She deflected with a splash of water, eyes narrowing. “I’m just part of the fucking mission to you!”
We clashed—fire and water, emotion and fury colliding. Her strikes grew sharper, heavier, as if she were fighting an enemy for her life.
“What happened in that war room, Fallon?” I wiped blood from my busted lip. “Why do you hate Elias Wylder so much?”
Vines snaked around my boots, trying to pin me. I burned them to ash. She countered with a wave of water, and instinct took over—I channeled it back at her.
Fallon staggered, drenched. I stared at my hands, bewildered by the foreign instinct that had driven me to wield her element. When I looked back up at my twin sister, her eyes blazed into mine, her chest rising and falling with rapid breaths.
Her knuckles whitened around the pommel of her daggers as she stood before me—a natural disaster waiting to destroy everything in its path.
But instead of causing chaos, she turned and walked away.
I threw up my hands in frustration as she strode off. Since the day I met my twin sister, she’d been the most impenetrable brick wall. She carried so much anger in her heart, and now that I knew how to access our marekem, I could feel it radiating off her.
Kind of like… me.
When I first enrolled in Mageia, I told myself not to get attached to anyone.
I was there for one sole purpose: survival.
But as time passed, and I came into my magic, I found myself wanting to burn everything around me down.
Every time fate dealt me a card, the game damned me further.
I didn’t see the point in confiding in anyone.
Spilling my heart and soul to someone in hopes of what?
A companion? What good would that have done?
Until Laney approached me on that rooftop and proved me wrong in every way.
“It’s okay to not be okay,” I spoke through the marekem for the first time.
Fallon froze, her back still to me.
“Whatever you’re holding in, whatever the reason—it’s okay to not be okay.”
A rush of emotion washed through our bond.
“Why do you hate Elias so much? Maybe we can share the burden,” I pushed.
She turned to face me then, her hazel eyes glossy. For the first time, vulnerability was written across her face. “He’s the reason our mother is dead.”
I wandered the merchant streets of the Glade for hours. The sun had long since retired, allowing its sister to shine down in full glory. Even the moon here glowed with a purple hue, just like the ethereal forest surrounding this place. I’d never seen anything like it.
The Shadow Glade was the most beautiful place I’d ever seen.
But it was also home to a true villain.
Fallon gave me no further details after she dropped the bomb—that Elias was the reason our mother, my birth mother, was dead. She walked off without another word, and I was too stunned to stop her. I took out my frustration on a wooden practice dummy until my lungs couldn’t take it anymore.
Part of me clung to what Rhodes had said when they were in a heated argument: You are speaking of a rumor. If this was the rumor he meant, it would make sense why there was so much contempt between them.
Now, I wandered, hoping to exhaust my mind enough that I’d collapse into sleep the moment my head hit a pillow. If I even had a pillow to collapse onto.
That thought stopped me cold in the middle of the cobblestone street. I had no elemental idea where I was supposed to sleep that night. I stood there, unsure of what to do next, when a warm hand tapped my elbow.
I turned to see Ailis looking up at me with a soft smile.
“Hi,” I said, surprised. “Thank you again for the dough ring earlier. It was delicious.”
She nodded, then turned and gestured for me to follow.
I trailed behind her through a narrow building tucked beside a floral shop.
Inside, it looked like an office—two desks lined the walls, and shelves were stacked with materials.
Ailis pulled back a curtain and led me down a set of stairs into what must have been her quarters.
It was small but cozy. A single bed sat in the corner, a tiny kitchen stretched along one wall. While I took in the space, Ailis rummaged through a shelf of old books.
“I have something to give you,” she said softly.
I blinked. “Me?”
Her fingers skimmed along the spines until she lit up. “Aha!” She pulled a slim volume, blowing dust from its off-white cover. Gold trim glinted in the dim light, but there was no title, no author, no markings at all.
She handed it to me. I flipped through. Every page was blank.
I tilted my head, trying to sound sincere despite my confusion. “It’s a… journal?”
Ailis shook her head and laid her hand on a page. “This story has already been written.”
I closed the book slowly. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”
“In due time, my dear,” she said with a knowing smile. “The truth will come face to face.”
I walked these streets in even more of a haze than before. When Ailis repeated the exact words from the prophecy I’d found in the Eternal Tomb, I froze. She gently tapped my hand, looked me in the eyes, and then walked back up the stairs while I remained standing by her bookshelf.
She was already gone by the time I gathered my wits enough to move, so I wandered aimlessly, holding an empty tome that apparently had a story written in it my eyes couldn’t see.
I needed sleep.
For some reason, I couldn’t leave the book behind. How was it possible she knew those words? Not only had I found them in the hidden corridor, but the Grim had spoken the same prophecy when I lay on her altar for slaughter.
My grip on the tome tightened.
“Scarlet? I’ve been looking for you.”
Rhodes, on horseback. He swung down in front of me. Without breaking his gaze, I stuffed the book into my pack.
“There’s guest lodging available if you want it. Or I was going to offer the treehouse.”
I couldn’t help the grin that tugged my lips. “Treehouse?”
He paused, expression easy. “Shayde and I built it around our favorite tree here. I was going to take his bunker if you wanted mine—it would have more privacy than the public lodging house.” He blinked. “And away from your sister.”
I exhaled. “Perfect.”