“I don’t understand,” I murmured, panic beginning to claw at the edges of my voice. “Fallon? Where are you all?”
Silence. My voice echoed in my mind. I hurried down the hall again, peering around the corner.
“Rhodes!” I shouted. The echo swallowed my voice.
Just as I looped back toward the entrance of the Tomb, I spotted Shayde sprinting down the opposite end of the corridor.
“Scarlet? What is it?” he called out.
We met in front of the bookshelf, both breathless.
“Where are they?” I demanded. “Why aren’t they with you?”
Shayde’s brows drew together. “They were supposed to meet you in the Tomb. I stayed back to watch the halls.”
My heart plummeted.
“No,” I breathed, shaking my head in disbelief before spinning around and rushing back into the Eternal Tomb.
“Rhodes! Fallon!” I yelled, my voice echoing off the stone as I sprinted toward the Mareki’s pedestal.
The Tomb was empty.
My throat clenched like a vise, each breath scraping against the panic rising in my chest. My heart raced so hard the world tilted, sharp pain sparking down my left arm and tingling my fingertips. I wheezed, lungs clawing for air.
And then—I looked back. The place where the Mareki Gem had shone was now only darkness. Lifeless.
Denial surged hot through me. We had done everything—everything—magic demanded since the prophecy wasrevealed. We bent to its every lash, shouldered every burden, all because humanity had failed it thousands of years ago.
I slammed my palms against the pedestal. “Bring them back!”
The runes etched into the obsidian pulsed with a faint light.
I squeezed my eyes shut and inhaled sharply. “I know you have them,” I hissed. “I said, bring. Them. Back!”
I reached for the four elements. Air and fire answered in a fiery cyclone around me—but earth and water remained silent. The absence of Fallon through themarekemwas a hollow echo, and it hit me like a blade.
I crumpled to my knees, the emptiness in my chest unbearable. A sharp pain pierced the left side of my chest, slicing straight through my heart. I pressed the heel of my hand against it, trying to dull the sting. My left arm—the one bracing me—went numb, and I barely caught myself before collapsing face-first onto the stone floor.
Breathless, I rocked back onto my heels and tilted my head toward the obsidian crystals embedded in the ceiling. And then, just like that, the fear, the worry, the ache in my chest… vanished.
A strange stillness settled over me. Not peace. Not relief. Just a hollow, haunting calm. A numbness that didn’t feel human. I could feel the heat of my fire cooling like it had before, and for a moment, I let it wash over me.
I could feel my humanity slipping, unraveling thread by thread. A quiet part of me wondered if it would be easier to just let go—to follow in the footsteps of the prophesied elementals who came before me and failed.
Maybe I didn’t have to fight myself anymore. This war in my heart was too much. Maybe I couldbecomethe enemy,becomethewar. Maybe I could live out whatever time I had left, walking the edges of borrowed days, until the Mareki decided I was finished.
“Hm,” I scoffed. “I think not.”
I rose from the ground, my veins thawing as fire stirred within me again. Stepping toward the pedestal, I pressed a fingertip to its edge and slowly circled it, leaving behind a glowing trail of flame. The ring of fire hissed to life in my wake, searing against the cold stone.
Once the circle was complete, I leaned over and pressed both palms to the center rune.
“You want to test me. You want to see if I’ll break like the others. But that’s where you fucked up, Mareki—because I’m not like anyone else. I took back my life. Now I’m taking back my fate. And if you think I’ll cower, if you think I’ll surrender to the darkness inside me… you’re wrong.”
The pedestal shuddered. My flames raced into the etched runes, fusing with the glowing symbols until all four blazed with light. As they converged at the center, I withdrew my hands and stepped back.
The light swirled upward, rising into the obsidian ceiling above—and then the Mareki Gem emerged, suspended in radiant energy.
