Chapter 46
“I once believed people were complete fools. Every fragment of history I uncovered made me wish I could travel back and strangle those who destroyed the magical gift we were given. Yet—” Cami’s eyes glazed briefly, her expression softening, “the Seer arrived on the most wonderful day of our lives—when our sons were delivered. And in that moment… even I was willing to corrupt myself with magic.”
Her gaze lingered with memory as she rounded the table and cupped Rhodes’s cheeks in both palms. “Because fate decided to hook itself into the soul of one of our boys.”
Rhodes pulled her in, wrapping his arms around her shoulders in a fierce, protective hug. Something in my chest tightened at the sight. Tatum and Davis went still beside me, the three of us silent, giving them that moment of peace.
When they finally drew apart, I cleared my throat. “May I hear the rest of the prophecy?”
Cami wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and gave me a small, grateful smile. “Of course you can. But not here.”
My brows knit as I watched her cross to a narrow stretch of blank concrete wall. She dipped her fingers into a small pot of soil on a low shelf and began sketching runes in slow, practiced strokes.
Okay. She definitely wasn’t an earth elemental. I’d seen Fallon channel dirt from thin air to do the same thing.
“Have you come across any dragons here bonded to Camilla Wylder?” I asked Lakota.
“I have not.”
A steel door shimmered into existence—just like the concealed archway Shayde and I had seen when we visited the Grim’s quarters at Mageia.
Cami stepped forward and began unlocking it, her fingers moving with silent precision through four different mechanisms. An old iron key.
A rotating elemental dial. A glowing rune that pulsed under her palm.
And finally, a whisper in a language I didn’t recognize—one that made the hair on my arms stand up.
The final lock clicked. Without hesitation, she pushed open the heavy door, and we followed her inside.
The air changed the second we crossed the threshold. The room was smaller than the cellar behind us, but it felt heavier—like the walls were holding secrets so ancient they could shatter if spoken aloud. Stone shelves lined the room, lower and narrower than the ones outside.
Cami locked the door behind us. A nervous jolt shot down my spine.
“How long has this been here, Ma?”
“Always.” Cami didn’t even look back at us. She hurried straight to one of the narrow shelves, fingers flying across the spines before pulling out a small, thin, leather-bound tome. She cradled it to her chest, then snatched a quill from an inkpot nearby.
She turned, her expression serious, eyes locking on mine. “Scarlet, can you recall from memory the first half of the prophecy?”
I leaned back against the cold door behind me. I closed my eyes for a beat, centering myself before I spoke the words I haven’t been able to forget:
In the veiled echoes of Mareki’s grace,
When the past unfolds anew,
The truth will come face to face,
As scattered elements entwine in the few.
The splintered shards will become whole again,
Once the forgotten realm is due.
The key lies within the Crimson Wraith,
Whose flames will guide what shadows pursue.
We stayed quiet while Cami bent over the little tome, carefully inscribing the words I’d spoken. The scratch of the quill on paper was the only sound in the small, secure room.
Rhodes stepped closer, wrapped his fingers around mine, and tugged me gently against him. I let myself sink into the curve of his neck, breathing him in. His stubble brushed my temple as he nuzzled me.
A quiet laugh slipped out, muffled against his throat at the ridiculous sweetness of it.
Meanwhile, Cami’s eyes darted back and forth over the freshly inked lines. She read them with an almost feverish intensity, her brows knitting tighter with every word. She exhaled deeply before flipping the page.
I held my breath as she recited the second half:
The curse whispers of a tethered heart,
Fated to break when the realm calls.
A life to balance the ancient debt,
Restoring truth from stolen halls.
When the sky splits and the past sings,
And golden fire stands alone,
The corrupted will face their ancient trial,
To burn for what they cannot atone.
Her crystal-blue eyes lifted over the tome in her hands. I could feel Tatum and Davis watching us, but I kept my gaze fixed on the floor, unwilling to meet anyone’s stare. Rhodes pressed a soft kiss to the back of my head. The burning in my lungs reminded me I hadn’t been breathing.
“And then,” Cami said slowly, “she pressed her hand on my baby’s forehead…
and we never saw her again. Elias scoured Arya for the Seer.
He… he was never the same after that. For a while, he let it go—until a soldier returned from Hollow Summit with whispers.
That the Seer had been spotted again. About a year later, when another set of twins were born. ”
“Us,” I rasped.
“Where is your sister now?” Cami asked.
“Tyria,” Tatum answered before I could. “She’s with Shayde. They’re on a mission to recover the last piece of the Mareki’s Key—inside Tyria’s stronghold.”
Cami’s face drained of color. Fear flickered in her eyes.
“He’s okay, Ma. We’ve been communicating through the marekem.”
Cami exhaled slowly. “Really? He finally unblocked it?”
“And I’ve been in contact with Fallon. They’re close to the grounds now.”
Davis chimed in as Cami rifled through more scrolls. “Yeah… Fallon Fitzroy and Shayde are the most lethal fighters I’ve ever seen. No offense, Rhodes.”
“Offense taken,” Rhodes deadpanned.
Davis chuckled, raking a hand through his unruly hair. “I mean it. That duel between them? Left me speechless. And that never happens.”
“He’s right about that,” Lakota muttered.
I bit my cheek to hide the grin tugging at my mouth.
Cami returned with a set of maps and rolled them onto the table. We each moved forward, fingers on curled corners, holding them flat as the drawings stretched before us. I scanned for differences between these and the Mageia map she’d shown earlier.
“This is Tyria’s main castle,” Cami said.
“Once I pieced together enough of Mageia’s layout, I realized they’re sister-builds.
Almost identical. But there’s always been a missing sheet from these plans—I have nothing of the fourth floor.
Thousands of years ago, these two fortresses belonged to royalty.
Kings and queens used enchanted portals to travel between the northern and southern territories in the blink of an eye. ”
Rhodes and I drew apart, our eyes locking.
“Does that mean something to you?” Cami’s brows rose.
We debriefed her on the Mareki’s Key and how we’d stumbled onto the first two pieces.
Cami listened with rapt attention, drinking in every word like water in a desert.
Her mouth fell open in wonder when I described the Mareki itself—how it looked, how it felt just to stand in its presence.
It was as if uncovering these secrets had been her life’s mission, and at last, we were placing a Mareki-shaped puzzle piece into her waiting hands.
“Can I see it?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Only Fallon and I can see the words that appear. And we’ve only unlocked the first tome so far. Rhodes and I have been trying to decipher it, but the language is so old, I’m never sure if I’m translating right.”
“Were you able to enter the tomb, Rhodes?”
He shifted uneasily. I tried to remember that night at the Eternal Tomb, but couldn’t recall him attempting to pass through the barrier.
“No, I—I didn’t try.”
Cami pressed her palms together before her chest, nodding softly as if silently forming a plan. Then she snapped her fingers and turned back to the map.
“Next time. For now, we need to help Shayde and Fallon find the third piece of the Key.”