Chapter 26
I lifted my chin up, and up, and up until my neck almost broke.
“So, you meant an… actual treehouse,” I said.
The smirk on Rhodes’s face revealed a dimple and made my core heat.
I forced my eyes away, focusing on the extravagant treehouse before me.
In the largest oak I’d ever seen, two cottage-sized cabins rested on opposite sides of the tree.
While one sat on a series of branches higher than the other, a rope bridge that fit around the oak’s trunk and spidery limbs connected both cabins.
It was truly the imagination of a young, teenage set of twins.
Rhodes jogged to the oak and began climbing a rope ladder that he propelled downward with his secret air element. I followed suit, climbing up into the majestic scenery as I admired the deep purple and blue leaves of the surrounding forest.
Rhodes exited the ladder and landed on a small platform to the left before holding out his hand to me. Once my feet were planted on the secure platform, he opened the door to the lower cabin, revealing darkness within.
“Here’s my bunker,” he said, lighting the sconces with a flicker of fire and opening the door wider. “Make yourself at home. You should have everything you need for the night, but I’ll be up above if you need me.”
I mindlessly stepped into the space, browsing the small but cozy feel of Rhodes’s home. A tall bookshelf overflowed with novels to the left, and an extra-large bed with a dark cover took up most of the room. Rhodes stepped out of the doorway and began climbing up to Shayde’s bunker.
I left the door open as I slowly sat on his bed—his comfortable, oversized bed—and tossed my pack onto the floor.
Tomorrow night, we would venture to Mageia hoping to find the missing artifact needed to win this war.
We knew the Grim was hunting for something, and that Tyria would most likely have conquered Arya if they already had it.
So that left us on a wild-goose chase, searching for something, but nobody knew what.
And instead of the three leaders of the Aryan war legion working together, they were sending cadets in to do the dirty work for them.
I huffed in aggravation and jumped from Rhodes’s bed to browse his bookshelf. There were titles of war history, battle strategy, and weaponry on top. But I knew his guilty pleasure…
My finger landed on the series he’d been reading while we were still at Mageia.
I wondered how far he’d gotten before we left.
I pulled the first book in the series from the shelf and flipped through the pages, savoring the scent of ink on paper.
A sharp pain jolted in my chest as I thought about my first trip to Mageia’s library.
The four of us poring over dusty tomes, chasing discrepancies in Kalymdor’s history.
Tomorrow night, I’ll see my friends again.
I slammed the book shut. What if Cleo and Tatum blamed me for what happened to Laney?
What if the second they saw my face, they alerted our break-in and gave us away to War Chief Kalluri?
I had no idea what had happened since Shayde had knocked Laney and me out and driven us away from Mageia.
I didn’t know the stories told within the castle walls or how I’d been portrayed.
It was so easy for Kalluri to point a finger at me for the murder of Professor Hogboom and Reynoski, and accuse me of being the wraith in a hidden prophecy about the end of everything.
They may have already moved on from me.
“Don’t let yourself think like that,” Lakota encouraged.
I wiped a tear before it slid down my cheek. “I thought you were busy.”
“Never too busy to remind you of who you are, Scarlet Thorne.”
I laughed. “You’re a real pain in the ass sometimes, you know that?”
“You are most welcome.”
Exhaustion dragged at my body, but sleep was far away.
Instead, I had another idea. I slipped out of Rhodes’s cabin and climbed higher, branch by branch, until I reached Shayde’s level.
I didn’t jump onto the platform. Instead, I channeled a breeze, nudging a small branch against his window in steady taps.
The glass slid up. Rhodes leaned out, stormy eyes landing on me.
He shook his head slowly. “Always such a thorn in my side.”
I bit my lip. “Where’s the view?”
His smirk was devious as he climbed out of the window and leapt to the rope ladder above me.
I held on tight as his weight swayed me back and forth.
We climbed up the oak, switching rope ladders each time we came to the end of one.
The boys had planned this treehouse artistically, using the oak’s natural beauty and strength to create the most whimsical escape.
Light drops of rain began to dot my face, and I welcomed the cool breeze. My muscles were past exhausted from sparring with Fallon earlier, but I kept climbing, chasing what I knew must be one of Rhodes’s favorite views.
At the top, he swung onto a thick branch off to the right. I followed, wrapping my arms tightly around the oak and silently coaching myself not to look down.
A few feet higher, he settled into a natural nook in the tree that looked like it was made for sitting. He reached down, offering his hand. I took it, letting him help me find my footing and guide me onto a nearby branch.
I hugged the sturdy limb and looked out.
“I—” I paused, words caught in my throat. “I think this is the most beautiful view on the entire continent.”
His voice was soft, almost a caress. “You’re right.”
When I glanced over, he wasn’t looking at the view. He was watching me. Rain speckled his hair, clinging to the thick lashes that framed those stormy gray-blue eyes. Up here, his usual stiffness was gone—no guarded posture, no edge. Just stillness.
It hit me then.
“This is your happy place,” I whispered.
He shrugged casually. “Something like that.”
A smile pulled at my lips as I closed my eyes, the warmth in my chest building. Laney once told me everyone needed a happy place—a space that was theirs, whether it was a memory, a mindset, or somewhere they could escape when the world felt too heavy.
“I miss her too.”
My eyes snapped open. They stung, but I didn’t meet his gaze. “Who?”
“Delaney.”
A lump rose in my throat. I swallowed hard, fighting the tears pressing forward.
“I could see it written all over you,” he said gently. “I didn’t know her that well, but from what I did… she was one of a kind. Could make anyone laugh. Even me.”
I let out a breathy laugh. “You?”
From the corner of my eye, I saw him run a hand through his damp hair.
“Yeah. The night she told me I better show up to the All Hallows’ Eve Ball—she threatened me. Had her finger in my chest, calling me Row like we were old friends.” His chuckle softened. “No one had ever given me a nickname before. But Salvitto… she had a way of making you feel like you mattered.”
I forced a grin and nodded. “She did.”
Rhodes and I sat in the oak tree in a comfortable silence, each of us quietly taking in the sweeping view of the Shadow Glade and the cool bite of the rain. The wind started to pick up, rustling the treetops in a slow, rhythmic dance that mirrored the thoughts spinning in my head.
Part of me wanted to ask him if he knew what my sister meant—that Elias was the reason our mother was dead. If that was the rumor he mentioned. But the other part? It was afraid. Afraid to ask questions I might not want the answers to.
I’d seen it in him—that flicker of pain when he admitted he was a mage, the quiet fear that I might turn on him for it. I could almost feel the weight of his acceptance of the Mareki’s curse.
So I kept the question locked behind my teeth.
“The curse is going to have to pry me away from you.”
His stern voice cut through my thoughts.
I blinked up at him. He straightened, presence suddenly heavier. One hand gripped the branch above me, the other brushed against my cheek.
“Scarlet Thorne,” he said, voice low and steady.
“You are fated to be my end. I am cursed to drown, and you are destined to fill my lungs with water. I am cursed to burn alive, and you are destined to set me aflame. But I think—” his eyes darkened, a smirk tugging at his lips—“I think fate made a mistake when it chose you as my damnation. Because you, Scarlet Thorne… you are my savior.”
My breath caught.
“I will only breathe as long as you allow it,” he went on, jaw tight.
“I’ve already fallen to my knees before you with no belief in a future.
But you don’t kneel to fate. You don’t back down.
You don’t cower. You are everything I’m not—and I’m not ready to let you go.
So I’m standing my ground against fate itself. ”
My voice was barely a whisper. “What are you saying, Rhodes?”
He leaned closer. “I’m saying I don’t accept this curse. And I won’t stop until we find a way to break it. Fate might’ve written my ending… but it also gave me you. And that feels like a beginning.”