My eyes fluttered as I stared at the man I once believed to be my greatest enemy. The big bad wolf who backed me to the ledge while I crumbled beneath the weight of his rejection. The one I blamed for my misfortunes, my failures. The shame that clings to me like smoke. This is the man who made me believe I wasn’t worthy of happiness. Of joy. Oflove.
And now, there he was—beaten. Bruised. Shackled. Curled against the cold stone wall.
Just like I was in that shed.
A surge of something dark and indescribable rose from deep inside me, crackling down to my fingertips. The flames that once danced hot and steady from my fists now shifted—cool, whispering, alive with something else. I looked down. The flicker was subtle, almost imperceptible. But I could feel it. These flames were mine. I knew them like I knew the rhythm of my own heartbeat. And they had changed.
The Grim noticed too. She stepped back sharply, eyes narrowing on my glowing hands.
Then, with a slow, breathy whisper, she said, “You feel it, don’t you?” She stepped forward again, like a serpent sliding into striking distance. “The darkness within your soul. It’s calling to you.”
Her voice turned almost reverent. “Don’t fight it, Scarlet. Embrace it. You and I—we don’t have to stand on opposite sides of this war. The power we could wield together… we’d be unstoppable.”
My heart rate slowed as the flames in my hands grew colder, their once-heated dance dimming to a slow, whispering flicker. Thesounds of war outside dulled, muffled until they vanished entirely. No more cries. No more explosions. Just a heavy, unnatural silence.
My mind cleared, every name and memory dissolving into the background until there was only one thing anchoring me—Thorne. I couldn’t look away. I forgot Fallon. I forgot Rhodes. I forgot who I was supposed to be. The earth and water elements slipped from my grasp, their presence through themarekemvanishing without resistance. Their loss left my skin cold, a raw chill creeping over me—but I didn’t flinch. I didn’t move. I just stared. The magic inside me shifted. Something dark stirred beneath the surface, quiet and patient, as though it had been waiting for this moment all along.
“Honestly, I knew you were meant for so much more.”
Those words sliced through the haze, snapping me out of my stupor. My head jerked toward the Grim. From within the folds of her cloak, she slowly pulled out the Mareki shard along with Cami’s scripture of the prophecy—both of which she had stolen.
The shard glowed, its luminescence pulsing like a heartbeat.
“Now please tell me why this prophecy, which was guarded so carefully, is blank?”
The Grim flipped open the small leather journal, her fingers moving with impatient curiosity. But instead of emptiness, the pages revealed Cami’s messy script—lines of truth that had hidden themselves from her, cloaked in magic.
I felt my lips curl into a smirk. “Because it isn’t meant foryou.”
The Grim drew back, her eyes narrowing with a flicker of realization that quickly twisted into a snarl. She understood. Her game hadn’t worked—her manipulation, her offer, her attempt to sway me had all failed. With stiff, agitated hands, she tucked the shard and the scripture back into the inner folds of her cloak.
The fire element in my veins heated, burning away the eerie chill that had taken hold. The flames around my fists came alive again, snapping and crackling with renewed vigor. Beneath my skin, I felt the steady stir of the earth and water elements I shared with Fallon, awakening in tandem, anchoring and empowering me as they danced with my air.
I walked past the Grim, approaching Captain Thorne until the toes of our boots nearly touched. I looked down at the man I once believed was the root of all my suffering—the enemy who haunted every shadow of my past. But as I stared at him now, bruised and shackled, I felt… nothing. No anger. No bitterness. The weight that had pressed on my chest for years, heavy like bricks laid one by one, lifted.
I couldbreathe.
And that breath was because of the ones who had chipped away at my armor, only to help forge it anew. Cleo and Tatum. Laney, whose love remained etched in every heartbeat. Lakota. Allie. Nash. Rhodes… even Shayde. Each of them had carved their names into my story, shaping the person I’ve become.
And then, like a whisper from the wind, Rhodes’s words from the rooftop echoed in my mind: “Your biggest enemy is yourself.”
The air element stirred gently around me, whistling through the overgrown foliage and whispering across my skin like a breath of affirmation. The flames that had once blazed around my fists softened—not in surrender, but with the quiet strength of resolve.
It wasn’t weakness. It was peace. A sign that I no longer feared the man before me.
I knelt at his level. Slowly, I drew a dagger from the sheath on my thigh—the sharp ring of steel slicing through the silence, echoing off the stone and withered walls of the courtyard. I held itsteady between us, the firelight from my veins casting flickers across the blade.
Then I looked at him—really looked.
At the bruises mottling his face. At the quiet resolve in his eyes. I searched for something—anything—that might justify finishing what the Grim started. Some final betrayal. Some lingering malice. Some reason to let go of the mercy blooming in my chest.
But I found nothing.
Michael Thorne held my gaze, lifting his chin with slow deliberation, exposing the vulnerable column of his throat. He didn’t tremble. He didn’t strain against the tungsten shackles or plead through the gag. He simply watched me, accepting that I held his fate.
The big bad wolf no longer had power over me. Because he was never truly my enemy.
This was the man I’d known as my father for almost my entire life. He didn’t deserve my forgiveness or resolution. He didn’t deserve to know who I’d become.
