Chapter 44
The sunlight filtered through the forest canopy as Rhodes and I made our way from the treehouse toward the main village.
I sipped slowly from the cup of coffee he’d brought to my bedside—holding it under my nose until the scent dragged me awake.
Normally, my perfect brew would’ve been gone in minutes, but today.
.. today my stomach was tangled in knots.
I offered a polite smile to every villager we passed—each one nodding or greeting Rhodes with familiarity. I, on the other hand, kept my mug half-shielded in front of my face like it could hide the fact that I was unraveling inside.
We stopped at a small bakery on the way down—a place Rhodes claimed had the best croissants in the Glade. I had to admit he wasn’t wrong: flaky, buttery perfection. But even with food in my system, the unease only settled deeper the closer we got.
Eventually, we veered off the path I’d grown used to.
We crossed a small stone bridge arcing over a glowing stream, the water glittering with soft blue light.
On the other side stood a white-brick cottage with lilac shutters and overflowing flower boxes.
Ivy wound along the walls, dotted with tiny wild blooms—like something pulled from a fairytale.
“Are you ready?” Rhodes asked, pausing at the cottage steps.
I froze. I lifted the mug to my lips, pretending to sip, and realized—I was trembling.
Rhodes noticed.
Without a word, he reached out, his warm hand settling over mine on the mug. His thumb brushed softly across my knuckles.
“She’s going to love you,” he murmured.
I lowered the mug and blinked at the sudden emptiness. “How do you know?” I whispered.
“Because—” Rhodes began, but his words caught. He cleared his throat, gaze shifting over my shoulder.
I didn’t need to turn to know who it was. I heard their voices first.
“Good morning, my lovely elemental friends!” Davis’s voice rang out, full of cheer. He and Tatum appeared, dressed in their new Shadow Glade–issued leathers. His stride had a bounce to it, the way it always did when he was excited.
Rhodes raised a brow. “You’re chipper.”
“It’s a good day to have a good day. Isn’t that right, Tatum?” Davis threw a wink over his shoulder as he bounded ahead.
She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling as she leaned into me, looping her arms around my shoulders in a warm hug.
Davis was already chattering as he swung the heavy wooden door to the library open. “Or all night. Multiple times, all night. And this morning.”
I felt Rhodes stiffen beside me. Slowly, deliberately, he turned to Tatum with the flat, unimpressed look only a big brother could manage, one brow arched high in silent judgment.
Tatum snorted and pointed a finger at him. “Don’t even start. You two weren’t exactly quiet last night either.”
Rhodes’s face darkened further, his jaw flexing.
Tatum only grinned wider. She started up the steps, then paused and turned back dramatically, fixing him with a mock-sultry look.
“Yeah, Mr. Broody. Let me worship you—” She puckered her lips in an exaggerated pout, making loud, sloppy kissing noises before kicking the door open the rest of the way and sauntering inside.
I bit my lip to keep from laughing, glancing sideways at Rhodes. His glare softened as he let out a long-suffering groan and shook his head.
Rhodes lifted my chin with a gentle finger, eyes locked on mine, and pressed a soft kiss to my lips.
“How can you be so sure she’s going to like me?” I whispered against his mouth.
He pulled back just enough to meet my gaze, voice low and certain. “Because I like you. And I don’t like anyone.”
“That’s not true.”
He only shrugged, that infuriating, irresistible smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “No. But I like you a whole lot more than anyone else.”
My breath caught, and before I could think of something clever to say back, he stepped aside and opened the door for me.
“Go on,” he murmured.
I hesitated for a heartbeat on the threshold, watching shadows and warm lamplight spill out of the library.
“My father might be the reason I leave the Glade,” Rhodes said quietly behind me, as if confessing something fragile. “But my mother... she’s the reason I always come back.”
The words lingered between us, warm and vulnerable. I swallowed hard, then finally stepped inside—and was immediately wrapped in the library’s sultry, inviting ambiance.
It was two stories, like I’d seen from outside, but the center was open all the way to the ceiling.
Bookshelves climbed nearly two stories on three walls, packed with spines of every color and size.
My gaze caught on a ceiling-high ladder at one end, perched on a sleek metal track with wheels ready to glide.
The fourth wall wasn’t lined with shelves at all; a white-post balcony railing ran above, with a graceful, twirling staircase leading up to it.
Everywhere, lush green plants spilled from pots and hanging baskets, their leaves glistening in shafts of sunlight filtering through narrow windows tucked between the shelves. The golden light cast dappled patterns on the floors and walls, making the entire space feel alive.
In the main area, shorter shelves were scattered thoughtfully, breaking the room into cozy nooks.
One nearby shelf was half empty, with a cart of books stacked high beside it like a promise of work still to be done.
Davis and Tatum were already browsing in wide-eyed awe.
I caught their hushed murmurs of excitement, but all I could do was stand there, heart thudding, and marvel.
I turned slowly, trying to take it all in—the colors, the smell of old paper and living plants, and…
Coffee.
“There you all are! I just brewed a fresh pot.”
I spun at the voice—smooth, calm, distinctly feminine. She leaned over the balcony railing above us, smiling down like we were old friends.
Her long black hair was a glorious, half-wild tumble of curls, pinned haphazardly up with a quill whose feather stuck out jauntily at the back of her head. The soft light caught in the dark waves, making her look both scholarly and a little untamed.
My shoulders eased at that smile, my fingers tightening around the empty mug in my hand.
She hurried down the spiral staircase, lifting the hem of her flowy skirts to keep from tripping, bare feet flashing on the steps. Her grin widened when her eyes landed on the mug.
“Ah! And you came prepared,” she said with an approving nod, warm and teasing. She rushed straight to Rhodes, rose on her tiptoes, and wrapped her arms around his neck. He leaned into her without hesitation, arms circling her waist in a tight hug.
She beamed over his shoulder at me, pointing playfully in my direction. “You get the first pour.”
His mother led us toward a corner tucked behind a freestanding shelf, waving us on like children on an adventure. We trailed after her in a line, and I rounded the shelf last—straight into a beautifully decorated coffee station.
Two machines, likely powered by elementals here in the Glade, hummed quietly on the counter.
Floating shelves held mugs of every shape and size, their colorful glazes catching the slant of light.
The space was cozy and dim, save for a single blade of sunlight from a high window, casting a warm glow over it all.
The rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee enveloped me. I almost sighed out loud. She grabbed the carafe and turned to me, brow lifted.
“How do you like your brew?”
Before I could answer, Rhodes cut in smoothly. “Just sweet cream, Ma. And a little vanilla. She’ll like your roast.”
She shot him an amused glance and reached for my mug. I squinted at him, mouthing, “Vanilla?”
He leaned in, lips brushing my ear. “Just trust me.”
A shiver chased down my spine at the husk in his voice. I turned back to watch his mother work. Tatum and Davis, already at home, inspected mugs on the shelf before drifting toward the counter.
His mother handed me the steaming mug with a warm, knowing smile. Up close, I saw the exact shade of baby blue in her eyes—the same bright color that rests in Rhodes’s right eye.
“I’m Camilla,” she said. “But you can call me Cami.”
“Thank you,” I said softly, fingers curling around the warmth. “I’m Scarlet.”
She turned to ask Tatum how she liked her coffee, but as she poured, she glanced back at me with a sly, conspiratorial smirk. “I know who you are,” she said lightly. “You’re the one who’s going to help me save my boys.”
We spent the next few hours going over everything we’d discovered these past months. Cami led us down into the cellar, and I was shocked to find even more shelves lined with ancient tomes and worn scrolls. Unlike the history section in Mageia’s library, there wasn’t a speck of dust down here.
Cami kept the entire place immaculate. You could see her love for knowledge in the way she treated every book like a treasure, no matter the genre, the author, or the age of the story it told.
While we sat surrounded by old maps and records, I learned that Elias Wylder had built this entire library with his own two hands—just for her.
The same Shadow Glade General I’d only ever seen cloaked in malevolence and disdain.
The man who twisted Rhodes’s place in an ancient prophecy into something cold and brutal—not to shield him, but to forge him into the weapon he believed he needed.
It baffled me—how someone could change so drastically. Rhodes had said Elias used to be their idol, the man he and Shayde looked up to as children. The way he spoke about his father made it clear the change hadn’t been sudden, but slow. Insidious. A gradual loss of the man he’d once been.
“And here it is,” Cami’s calm voice cut through my thoughts.
She unrolled a large cylinder of parchment, revealing detailed sketches of a castle.
“The only known map of Mageia War College. I’ve spent decades piecing this together, collecting any scrap of intel from Elias—or his warriors—that I could get.
Owning a map like this is considered treason by War Chief Kalluri, so it stays here.
Or else,” she added, narrowing her eyes at each of us in turn, “I’ll haunt you from my grave. ”
“Why is that?” I asked, curiosity sharpening my voice. “Why is it treason just to have a map of the castle? It never made sense to me.”
Cami leaned over the table, pressing her palm to one corner of the parchment to hold it flat. Her mouth curved into a sly, almost sinister smile, and she flicked her gaze to Rhodes with a knowing glint. “I like her,” she said, voice low and satisfied. “She asks the right questions.”
Heat rushed to my face at the compliment, and I cleared my throat.
She lifted the top parchment and set it aside, rifling through the stack beneath.
“Because War Chief Kalluri isn’t truly interested in saving our people.
Not anymore. Not since the day his daughter was killed—your mother, isn’t that right?
Ever since, he’s been obsessed with digging up the continent’s oldest secrets, chasing after something he has no right to find. ”
“Like what?” Rhodes asked.
“The Mareki,” Cami replied. “To this day, no one has laid eyes on it and lived. It’s the power source of our world’s magic…
but it’s more than that. Or it was. I believe what we call the Mareki now is only a fragment of what it once was.
A shattered piece of history. And only those truly destined to find and wield it the right way will ever get close.
For centuries, our continent has fought over this arcane source.
Humankind has always hungered for the power—to control life, to bend the world to their will—”
“But magic isn’t an object to be owned,” I said. “It’s a gift.”
Cami’s eyes found mine. “Exactly. And if my theories are right, it was humankind’s selfishness that splintered the Mareki in the first place. Bit by bit over time. Now it’s diminished, reduced to the four elemental essences we know today. But what happens when humankind abuses even that?”
Silence fell, heavy.
Cami exhaled, running her fingers through her wild black curls.
“If I’m right… this is our last chance. The First Four weren’t the first humans to walk this continent—just the first to return after the humankind here faced a reckoning.
This prophecy? It’s been triggered before.
And it’s failed. Over and over. Until now.
“Either we fulfill the Mareki’s prophecy—save humankind and magic—or we fail as a species. For the final time.”
Davis’s voice broke the quiet, softer than I’d ever heard it. “And if we do fail again?”
Tatum curled into his side. He pulled her close, protective and still.
“That…” Cami hesitated, pressing her lips together. “That I don’t know. Maybe we’ll be decimated once and for all. Or maybe we’ll be banished to live in a world of mundane energy.”
I stepped forward, breath catching. “You mean… either we all die, or magic dies.”
Cami nodded solemnly. “Or we break the curse.”