Chapter 40
Note to self—teach my friends how to actually whisper.
I’d been pacing the open field of the Glade for hours since we landed, driving myself mad with every worst-case scenario I could conjure. Fallon might’ve sworn they were fine, but I knew that lie like the back of my hand.
I lived that lie.
But my pacing now had nothing on the frenzy from earlier. The Glade’s grass still lay flattened in restless trails where my boots carved their path after we returned from our mission to question Ailis.
Ailis. Who had somehow vanished into thin air.
We knocked on the door of the building she’d once led me into—the same place where she’d given me Kiye’s journal. No one answered. The others waited in uneasy silence—everyone except Tatum, who tried the knob and found it unlocked.
When the hinges groaned and the door opened, my stomach dropped like a stone.
The space was stripped bare. Dust clung to the air, stirring with the faintest movement, and cobwebs ruled the corners as if no one had walked inside for years.
The sheet Ailis once pulled back to reveal her quarters below now hung crooked, half torn from its mount, sagging onto the floor.
I bolted down the stairs, desperate to find proof that what I’d seen upstairs wasn’t real. But the room below—the one I’d once thought of as her living quarters—was also bare. No shelves. No desk. No bed. Nothing.
In that moment, I couldn’t breathe. The room didn’t just feel abandoned—it felt erased.
“Has she eaten?” Tatum asked in a whisper loud enough to wake the dead.
“Rhodes went to bring her back dinner. I hope he took my suggestion about extras seriously,” Davis muttered.
Silence.
“What? Don’t look at me like that!” Davis hissed, his whisper somehow even louder. “Training’s made my appetite downright unruly.”
A wave of hot, sulfuric breath washed over me.
Lakota lay sprawled in the grass beside me, his massive head tracking my pacing steps with lazy precision.
He’d already cleared the training field of other warriors of the Glade by cracking open his jaws and letting fire coil at the back of his throat—just enough to promise he’d turn the Shadow Glade to ash if they didn’t scatter.
I scolded him for that.
“I told you we could fly up there and check on them,” his deep voice rumbled in my mind.
I threw my hands out in a dramatic flourish and stopped pacing. “And how do you think everyone would react to that? Especially Fallon.”
Lakota’s voice was as smug as ever. “You seem to be forgetting who and what I am. I do not answer to your flimsy, breakable kind.”
I rolled my eyes and huffed, abandoning the impossible task of convincing a centuries-old dragon about the practical flaws in his threats.
“She’s still pacing?”
I knew that voice. Instantly.
Spinning on my heel, I planted my hands on my hips and narrowed my eyes—though it was impossible to hide the smile tugging at my lips. Rhodes stood there like the storm he was born from: tall, dark, and dangerously handsome.
He smirked, one dimple flashing, and I melted like a fool under his gaze.
Behind me, Tatum and Davis scrambled to their feet, brushing grass and dirt from their pants.
When Davis caught sight of Rhodes carrying only two portions of food, he groaned loud enough to shake the field and stomped off in protest. Tatum clapped Rhodes on the shoulder in passing as she trailed after him.
Rhodes led me through the thicket. Even in the darkness of night, the Shadow Glade’s ethereal foliage glowed with life. Summer bugs lit our path, their soft light making me wonder if they all migrated here for the winter, drawn to the Glade’s lush, sheltered ecosystem.
We reached a wall of flowering vines so thick it looked impassable, but Rhodes handed me the two plates he’d carried balanced in one arm and parted the curtain of leaves with the other, glancing back with that mischievous half-grin.
“After you.”
I slipped through and stopped short, breath catching.
Beyond the vines was a small, hidden hollow where a clear pond glowed with an otherworldly blue light.
It rippled beneath the canopy, casting shimmering reflections onto the mossy stones around its edges.
Tiny blossoms floated on its surface, bobbing gently in the cool breeze.
Rhodes retrieved the plates and ducked in behind me, nudging the vines back into place to seal us off from the world.
“Figured you could use somewhere quiet,” he said, voice low, handing me a plate. Steam curled from the food—warm pot roast with potatoes and carrots.
He sat on a flat stone near the water’s edge, patting the space beside him. “Eat. You’ve been pacing for hours.”
I hesitated, taking in the serene pond, the rustling leaves overhead, the soft glow painting Rhodes’s face in silver and blue.
“Thank you,” I whispered, sitting beside him and letting the hush of the hidden pond settle over us like balm. “The Shadow Glade never ceases to amaze me.”
“Is that right?”
I studied his expression, the pond’s glow shifting across his features. “Yeah. It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen a place like it. And you seem to know all the best spots. Why don’t you spend much time here anymore? Seems like somewhere I’d never want to leave.”
The words slipped out before I could stop them. Regret hit instantly. Rhodes’s face fell, the brightness in his eyes dimming as he dropped his chin. He tore absently at his roast, pulling it apart piece by piece.
I softened, lowering my voice. “Your father’s hard on you.”
Rhodes swallowed, then looked at me again.
“He wasn’t always this way. As kids, Shayde and I thought he was our hero.
But after he learned about the curse… everything changed.
It got so bad my mother left him.” He paused, then added more quietly, “She’s still here. I’m taking you to meet her tomorrow.”
He let out a small, self-conscious chuckle at my surprise. “If that’s okay with you.”
I chewed slowly, thinking it over. Neither of the Wylder boys had ever mentioned their mother.
And having grown up most of my life without one—plus a poor excuse for a father—I’d never developed the habit of asking about anyone’s family.
Mostly because the last thing I wanted was to talk about my own.
“I’d like that,” I said, grinning a little too sheepishly.
Rhodes actually blushed. “Good. You’ll be the first girl either of us has brought to meet her.”
“You’re telling me”—I flicked my fork for emphasis—“that the charismatic Prince Charming Shayde Wylder has never brought a girl home? Not even Pehper?”
I noticed the subtle hitch in Rhodes’s breathing when I said his brother’s name. I opened my mouth to backpedal—meaning before we all knew about Shayde working for the Grim—but Rhodes cut me off with a shake of his head.
“Even Pehper,” he said quietly. “And she was raised here in the Glade too, if that tells you anything.”
“Pehper is from here?”
“Yep,” he replied curtly, focusing on his food.
I ran through everything I knew about Pehper.
After I started getting closer to Shayde last year, the things she said to me—trying to get under my skin—made it sound like they had some long-term, deep relationship.
And the way Shayde talked about her that day he lent me his spare clothes after she dumped coffee all over me only seemed to confirm it.
“They weren’t as close as you’re thinking,” Rhodes said, voice low. “Shayde broke it off for good before we left for Mageia. He probably knew she wouldn’t have been easy with long distance.”
I nodded slowly. “So, is she a trained fighter too? Like you two?”
Rhodes tilted his head, weighing his answer. “Pehper’s sworn to secrecy about Glade operations, but she’s never been one for the front lines. Her family focuses more on battle strategy. Shayde tried to train her, but she never would.”
I scoffed. “Probably never wanted to get her hands dirty. Now that she has an element, she’ll never have to.”
My heart rate spiked as a memory slammed into me—Pehper wielding her water element during our first Arcane Battle Simulation.
She sent me sprawling without lifting a finger, trying to drown me on dry land in front of everyone.
She’d hated me the moment Shayde first spoke to me.
Maybe he meant more to her than he realized.
Or maybe she was just that toxic and insecure.
“Everyone is going to have to get their hands dirty if we’re going to win this war,” he muttered. “Our lands will fall if we rely only on magic to save us.”
“Then why is War Chief Kalluri so obsessed with only strengthening cadets’ elements? It makes little sense.”
Rhodes’s jaw worked. “Since the day he lost his daughter to Tyria, nothing’s made sense with him. Just like my father… one day he just—” He exhaled roughly. “Lost sight of what’s important.”
A sickening shiver ran down my spine, turning the warm food in my stomach to lead. I set my plate aside. Rhodes noticed and pushed his away too. I jumped to my feet and began unfastening my belt.
“Let’s jump in.”
Rhodes’s gaze shamelessly followed my movements as I shimmied out of my leather pants. “You don’t want to jump into that pond.”
I slipped off my jacket and shivered in the cool air. “Says who? You’re telling me this is one of your favorite hideaways, and you’ve never gone swimming in that beautiful pond?”
His cheeks flushed as I pulled my tunic over my head, leaving only the undergarment around my chest. “I’m telling you—” His voice rasped. “You don’t want to do that.”
I rolled my eyes and sprinted to the water’s edge, leaping as high as I could and channeling my air element for an extra boost. For one perfect moment, I felt like I was flying—
Then kaplunk—straight into the shallow water. I curled into a ball and rolled, arms over my head.
Rhodes’s amused laughter rang out as I sat up on my knees, pushing wet hair from my eyes. He stood at the pond’s edge, hands on hips. He rubbed the back of his neck and closed his eyes, shaking his head slowly.
“I told you, my thorn. You don’t want to jump into this pond,” he wheezed.
But I couldn’t even find the will to be embarrassed. Not with him smiling like that—both dimples on full display, practically begging me to trace them with my fingers.
“Happy looks good on you,” I teased.
His laughter softened, but the smile stayed.
“Then you must look really good on me, because I’m only happy when I’m with you.”
Heat flushed my cheeks, and I splashed him.
“Take off your clothes, Wylder,” I demanded.
His brows shot up. “Here? Now? Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer my warm, cozy bed?”
I bit my lip and sent a small gust of air to nudge him. “Get. In. Now.”
He began unfastening his belt and let his pants drop. “I’ll never turn down the chance to get in between your—”
I hit him with another gust, knocking him off balance.
“Oh, you’re asking for it,” he warned, teasing edge in his voice.
Rhodes shed the rest of his clothes until he was down to his undergarment shorts. His chiseled chest and abdomen were on full display, the deep red dragon mark trailing from his neck to his knuckles as an extra touch. I shamelessly caressed his physique with my eyes.
He put one foot into the water and recoiled. “Holy elements! How are you even sitting in this freezing water?”
I shrugged and splashed him again. “When you’ve bathed with a bucket of cold water and a washcloth your entire life, you get used to it.”
Suddenly, warm flames rippled around the pond’s edge. His fire traced an imperfect circle, and within moments the chill faded, replaced by soothing heat. The water shifted as Rhodes waded in and knelt beside me.
“If I can have it my way,” he said, low and sure, “you’ll never live an uncomfortable life again.”
I shuffled closer on my knees, rising just enough to wrap my arms around his neck. His hands settled firmly on my waist. “I think I can manage,” I breathed, searching his eyes.
“That’s just it—you shouldn’t have to manage. Once we break this curse, I’ll make sure you never have to want for anything. If you’ll have me, that is.”
I cupped his face, thumbs brushing his cheeks. “Have I not made it clear? I’m a thorn. I’ve already pricked you.”
Rhodes laughed, drawing one from me too. “That was so cheesy.”
“But you love it.”
A sharp jolt went through my chest at my own words. I held my breath, waiting. His laugh softened into a crooked, undeniably handsome smirk.
“I do.”
Relief didn’t have time to settle. In the next heartbeat, he lifted me by the waist. My arms wound tight around his neck, my legs wrapped around his torso. He stood with me straddling him, water sluicing off our bodies.
I giggled, breathless. “What are you doing?”
He grinned up at me. “Making sure you don’t drown, of course.”
“Oh my, my. He has rescued me once again.” My voice turned light and teasing as I traced his dimples with my fingertips.
He closed his eyes, letting me explore his face. “I’m no Prince Charming,” he murmured. “But I’ll set anything that stands in my way ablaze to protect you.”
My fingers drifted over his full lips. “I don’t need a Prince Charming.”
His stormy gray-blue eyes opened slowly, pinning me in place. “Are you sure?”
I nodded, then tugged his lips to mine in a slow, deliberate kiss. Our mouths melded, moving in perfect sync as we explored each other with growing heat and certainty.
When I finally pulled back, breath mingling with his, I whispered against his mouth, “I only need my perfect match. Ready to strike—and burn the world down with me.”