Chapter 31
My fingers tapped a restless rhythm against my thigh. A grin threatened to break across my face, but I held it back, keeping my features schooled in a stoic mask—a soldier, poised to deliver a report. Inside, though, I was humming with something far less composed.
I finally had the news Father had been waiting for.
He rose from his chair the moment we stepped into his station.
His hazel eyes locked onto mine—not with relief, but with expectancy.
The mission to Mageia hadn’t shaken him.
It never would. Over the years, he had sent me to every edge of Kalymdor—from the salt-cracked cliffs of the southern coast to the towering wall of the northern Barrens.
Most of those missions I had completed alone. Each one a test.
Each one another silent plea for him to see me as more than a soldier—as a true blade of Hollow Summit.
Scarlet and Rhodes stepped into the station. She bore the softer cast of our shared face—gentler eyes, lips made for smiling—but the moment she entered our father’s orbit, that softness vanished. It always did. In his presence, she became a mirror of me, expressionless and unreachable.
Every flicker of humanity drained from her the second Arrow Fitzroy drew near. Even the sound of his name seemed to snuff out her light, like a flame trapped beneath glass.
Now was no different. Her shoulders squared, chin lifted in quiet defiance. Hands at her sides, perfectly still—no tremor, no breath out of place. She wore her numbness like armor, and it fit too well.
If not for the difference in our eyes, anyone watching might have thought we’d switched places.
Nash’s voice broke the silence, drawing my gaze forward. “General Fitzroy.” He bowed at the waist, rising with practiced precision. “We successfully infiltrated Mageia War College undetected after a stay in the Shadow Glade. General Wylder asked that a message be delivered to you—privately.”
Arrow’s nod was the barest flick of his chin.
Nash continued, “The four of us scaled the castle walls and entered through a neglected terrace, which also served as our exit. Cadet Fitzroy erased her trace of the earth element before we escaped—”
“Escaped?” Father’s voice was icy.
I stepped in. “We were spotted on our way out. Chased by guards.”
Arrow’s eyes pinned mine. Then, without a word, he turned his attention back to Nash.
Nash cleared his throat, recovering quickly. “We avoided confrontation. There was no violence. The guards didn’t catch us.”
Arrow finally spoke. “Captain Thorne was the only one to recognize your group. He reported to General Wylder that you were a rogue band—concealing your identities at great risk to himself. He is now under Kalluri’s supervision.”
Why hadn’t he mentioned that before our report?
The bastard had been waiting—testing us.
Watching to see if we’d lie or leave something out.
I gritted my teeth and shook it off, but a jolt spiked through the marekem.
Scarlet’s shock snapped straight through the bond.
I glanced over my shoulder, catching her wide-eyed before she schooled her expression.
The marekem blazed between us, heat roiling like fire across still water—turning calm into boiling fury.
“Nothing about Captain Thorne is trustworthy,” Scarlet’s voice was sharp with conviction. “He shouldn’t be held to high standards for this mission. He’s probably confessing everything to Kalluri as we speak.”
Arrow’s gaze settled on her, cold and unwavering. “Michael Thorne has proven himself in every way throughout his career. He is on our side—”
“The only side he’s on is his own!” Scarlet exploded.
Oh, fuck.
Arrow straightened, his frame growing even larger with the swell of his temper. His silence carved through the room like a blade. But Scarlet didn’t retreat. She didn’t just step forward—she stormed around the table and jabbed a finger into his chest.
“Just like you,” she growled. “But I digress.” She threw her hands up, a mockery of calm. “We found what you were looking for, General.” She spat the title like venom.
“Easy,” I warned her silently through the marekem. “You don’t want to know what his punishment for insubordination is.”
She shoved me back through the bond with an element of air so hard I staggered. Doryan held me upright.
“There’s nothing he could do to me I haven’t survived before,” she snarled privately. She didn’t take her eyes off our father, and he didn’t take his off hers. The air between them was thick—pressurized with everything unsaid, everything buried.
Without breaking their stares, she slid her pack from her shoulder. Her movements were controlled. Like drawing a blade she’d waited years to wield. From inside, she retrieved the tomes and laid them on the table.
Their presence was heavier than their weight—ancient, humming with dormant magic. She hadn’t opened them since Mageia. Hadn’t spoken of them. Hadn’t even let them leave her side. Like a secret she was keeping not just from the world, but from herself.
No one questioned her. Not even me. I felt her distrust—her wariness. It echoed through the marekem each night, a low, constant thrum. Maybe that’s why I stayed quiet. Maybe I knew that whatever those tomes held… it could unravel every ounce of stability she’d built lately.
I overheard her and Rhodes that night. Maybe I was the one who sparked their argument—Evil Fallon creeping to the surface, itching for chaos. I nudged her just enough to make her question Wylder. I thought the fallout would taste like victory.
And it did. For a moment.
But the high faded fast, replaced by something sharp and unfamiliar. Not satisfaction. Not triumph.
Guilt.
I had crouched behind a thick pine, hidden in the hush of the forest. Just close enough to catch their words. Just far enough that they’d never know I was there.
While Scarlet was meant to weave one piece of the prophecy, Rhodes was a thread of another.
On that mountain months ago, I could see in Rhodes’s face how deeply he cared for my sister.
And while I’d witnessed her holding herself back from fully giving her heart and soul to him, I knew she cared for him just as much—if not more.
Before I meddled, she probably saw Rhodes as her match, brought to her by fate. But fate is a sick and twisted game, one even I didn’t like playing. Because fate hadn’t brought him into her life to heal her, but to break her once and for all.
He was her beginning, and she was his end.
Our father broke the staring match first, finally dragging his gaze away from Scarlet. He turned with a clipped motion and opened one tome, running a cautious finger along the ancient cover before flipping it open.
“What are these?” he asked, voice low.
“This is the Mareki’s Key,” Scarlet replied.
The rest of us—all but Scarlet and our father—stepped in closer, drawn to the gravity of the books as he flipped through them. His eyes skimmed the pages with growing frustration. Then he picked up the second tome, repeating the process, this time slower. His brow creased in confusion.
“Is this some kind of joke?” he rasped, the sharp edge of rising anger unmistakable.
“No,” I said calmly. “Scarlet and I can see the lines of text. They’re hidden from everyone else. The tomes reveal themselves only to us.”
Arrow shook his head slowly, bitterly. “There has never been a single record or clue that suggested the Key was a tome, let alone a set of them. How are you sure?”
“Because one illuminated with light the moment the Mareki Gem showed itself to us in the Eternal Tomb,” Scarlet declared. “Like keys unlocking a piece of magic.”
The room fell silent. Arrow’s hands stilled.
His eyes closed as he whispered, “You saw the Mareki?”
“We did,” Scarlet and I answered simultaneously.
“And nothing else happened?” His voice was barely audible.
Scarlet and I exchanged a glance.
“No…” I said slowly. “Just the tome we had in possession at that moment. Why? What else could’ve happened?”
He laid the book gently back on the table, though his fingers trembled. He took a step back, rubbing his jaw as his composure unraveled. Something was wrong—I could feel it. I had never seen him like this. Disheveled, uncertain… vulnerable.
“The last person known to stand in the Mareki’s presence was your mother,” he said, voice shaking.
“She found the Tomb and altered magic to allow her in. She was searching for a way to break the prophecy. To save you both. I begged her to stop. I couldn’t lose all three of you. But she wouldn’t listen.”
At the mention of her, my heart stilled. My throat tightened, breath shallow. I could feel Scarlet’s reaction through the bond—her fury iced over, replaced with dread.
“There were no letters,” Arrow continued.
“Too dangerous while she was away with Scarlet. We communicated through her dragon and one of my most trusted captain’s bonded.
When Lakota relayed Harlow had revealed the Mareki…
he said a mark burned into her skin the moment she saw it.
She fled to the Glade with you,” he said, eyes flicking to Scarlet before falling again to the floor.
“That’s when we realized—it was a tracking rune.
Anyone with a shard of the Mareki could follow her. ”
My voice came before I could stop it. “How could you possibly know that?”
Rhodes stepped around the table and pulled Scarlet to his side. Nash laid a steadying hand on my shoulder.
“Because General Wylder has a shard of the Gem,” Father said. “It powers the wards around the Shadow Glade. It alerted him to Harlow’s connection. When he channeled through it, he saw where she was. That’s when she rushed to deliver Scarlet to Cora Reyes and fled, thinking it would be safe, but—”
“The Grim had a shard too,” Scarlet interrupted, her voice razor-sharp. “So it was her—the writing etched around the pedestal. That was Harlow. She was trying to solve the prophecy’s riddle.”
Arrow said nothing. That silence was his answer.
Nash’s hand squeezed my shoulder, but I barely felt it.
Numbness was already spreading, inch by inch, swallowing me whole.
All this time, I had blamed Elias Wylder for our mother’s death.
The rumor must have grown from the idea that General Wylder shared Mother’s location with the wrong person, since he had a shard of the Mareki in his possession.
But Reyes had a shard too. So after she left Scarlet behind, Reyes had the power to track Mother down.
The fight created a gruesome elemental storm.
Once Mother died, her connection to Lakota was severed.
He disappeared, never to be seen again until the day he chose Scarlet in the Burn Trials.
I had always blamed Lakota for abandoning her legacy too easily…
until I learned recently his memories were taken from him before Harlow Fitzroy was struck down.
“What do the tomes say?” Father asked, breaking the silence.
“We haven’t read them yet,” Scarlet replied, her voice cracking slightly. “Didn’t want to risk an ambush and have them stolen. Only one activated with magic. The second one… we found it after the Mareki appeared. We didn’t have time to go back.”
“They weren’t found together?” His tone sharpened.
She shook her head. “No. One was given to me by Ailis in the Glade. The other was hidden in Professor Hogboom’s office.”
“Ailis?” Nash echoed.
Scarlet nodded. “She also repeated part of the prophecy.”
Nash’s hand dropped from my shoulder. His voice rose, incredulous. “That can’t be right.”
Scarlet’s eyes narrowed, her posture stiffening. “Are you calling me a liar, Salvitto?”
“No—no,” Nash said quickly, palms lifted in surrender. “I’m just saying… it doesn’t make sense. I’ve known Ailis since my first day in the Glade. She doesn’t speak.”
“She’s never said a word,” Rhodes added, frowning. “Everyone’s always assumed she’s mute.”
Scarlet waved her hand dismissively, her voice tight with frustration. “But she spoke to me. She said, ‘You will understand in due time. And the truth will come face to face.’”
“How do we know there are only two parts of the Key?” Father asked.
The room held its breath. Even the marekem felt still.
“We must be certain we have the full Key before making another move into the Tomb,” Father said. “There won’t be a second chance.”
He paced behind the table, each word deliberate.
“The War Chief has begun preparations. Cadets are to be evacuated within weeks. Tyria will advance faster than expected—Mageia will soon be under siege. The cadets will be dispersed into safe houses, instructed to fight only as a last resort.”
He turned to face us, his gaze sharp. “All three legions will be stationed on Mageia’s grounds, giving us access to the castle under the cover of chaos. That will be your moment. When the lines blur and attention is elsewhere, you two will return to the Tomb.”
His eyes locked on Scarlet’s, then mine.
“And this time, you’ll activate the Key. Completely.”
“Why does it sound like Kalluri won’t just let us back into the Tomb without a fight?” Scarlet asked, suspicion lining her voice. “Doesn’t he want the same thing we do?”
Father scoffed, the sound brittle and hollow. “Kalluri may command me under the title of War Chief, but don’t mistake duty for loyalty. He’s never liked me—and I don’t trust that his intentions with the Mareki are pure.”
Scarlet’s eyes narrowed. “He’s the War Chief. What could you possibly mean by that?”
Father’s jaw tensed. “Your mother always said it was like a part of his soul was corrupted. That’s why Harlow left Mageia… why she found refuge here, in Hollow Summit. She saw what he was becoming.”
Scarlet’s expression faltered.
“But the animosity between us didn’t start there,” he continued, his voice quieter now, more bitter. “He hated me long before Harlow left him.”
“Why?” I asked, though unease had already curled in my gut.
Arrow Fitzroy met my eyes, then Scarlet’s. His next words cracked the air in two.
“Because Eduart Kalluri… is your grandfather.”