Shayde blinked, his brows furrowing as he pieced his thoughts together. “The Grim shifted her focus from professors and cadets to sending me on wild goose chases for a hidden prophecy?” His tone was incredulous, but there was a sharp edge beneath it. “A prophecy I had never heard before—not even from our father.”
He turned to lock eyes with Rhodes, his gaze intense. “I was on a mission to find the Eternal Tomb.”
My breath hitched, the weight of realization crashing down on me like a tidal wave. The Grim wanted to know where the entranceto the Eternal Tomb was—just like the men who interrogated me, who burned my leg with a fire stoker for answers.
They said they had been ordered by my father.
Captain Thorne.
The thought struck me cold.
I always thought he was behind my capture. The one who sent the orders to have me locked in the shed. But the Grim admitted that those were her men that held me captive. And both of them are after the same thing…
Which means Captain Thorne must be working with the Grim.
Rhodes’s jaw tightened, his usually unreadable expression now tinged with shock.
Shayde lowered his voice. “I was told that delivering you to that stone altar would be the last of my duties. She promised me—swore to me—that my debt would be paid if I fulfilled that one final task.”
His gaze flicked to Rhodes, the anguish in his eyes unmistakable. “And I thought I had found a loophole. I thought that if I used ourmarekem, you would come. You’d never let the Grim harm her... or Delaney, Rhodes. I thought I’d outsmarted her.” His voice broke, his shoulders sagging under the weight of his words. “But I was too late.”
“Wait,” I said. “Debt? What did you owe the Grim? What in the elements could she possibly threaten you with, Shayde?”
Shayde’s grip on the iron bars tightened until his knuckles turned white. His gaze darted to the shadows in the corridor, his voice dropping to a near whisper, as if afraid of unseen ears. “The Grim gifted me the element of air—a year before we were initiated into Mageia.”
Nausea churned in my stomach. My chest tightened as I took a half-step back. “What... are you saying?”
“I’m a mage, Scar. I can channel both the air and fire elements.”
“You—you made a deal with her? For magic?”
His jaw tightened, and he nodded, his shame undeniable. “I was young and reckless. After Rhodes...” He cut his eyes at his brother, whose stony expression remained unreadable. Shayde hesitated, his voice dropping. “I was desperate to prove myself. And terrified that I would be officially declared mundane.”
My stomach twisted further, and I felt the weight of the revelation settle like a stone in my gut. “So you left me to be burned alive in that pit,” I said, my voice trembling with fury. “And when I came out unscathed, you abandoned me.”
I saw the flicker of shame in his eyes before I delivered the final blow. “You were too much of a coward to be seen with me because you were terrified of your secret coming to light.”
Shayde’s grip on the bars faltered for a moment, his knuckles losing their death grip.
“Instead of trusting me... You. Abandoned. Me,” I screamed, my broken voice ricocheting through the dungeon as a warm tear streamed down my cheek.
The three of us stood in a heavy, suffocating silence that felt like it stretched on for hours. My body, heart, and soul felt so numb that I was surprised I was still upright. The weight of it all—the betrayal, the hurt, the unspoken words—pressed down on me, threatening to crush me.
I couldn’t feel my own movements as I turned slightly, my voice dropping into something cold and hollow. “You can share the rest with Rhodes,” I mumbled, barely recognizing the sound ofmy voice. “And if you don’t want to, then you can rot in here for the rest of your miserable existence for all I care. It’s time the world understood what happens to those who abandonme.”
Chapter 12
I had a front-row seat for the drama. Well, maybe not front-row, but close enough.
I’d been tucked away in my usual hiding spot behind the dungeon ever since I felt Scar’s resolve to confront Shayde, finally. Most of the back wall was carved into the stone mountain, but near the center, a narrow gap existed—just big enough if you climbed onto the roof and shimmied down.
This was where I came when I was bored. Hearing the prisoners’ pleas and complaints through the crack in the foundation always gave me a little perspective.
My life sucked, but theirs sucked worse.
Shayde’s confession confirmed what I already suspected about what happened on that mountain. Scarlet hadn’t fully channeled through themarekemto reach me, but her emotions were heightened enough that she didn’t need to.
From the moment she woke, one feeling consumed her. It was tangled with confusion, apprehension, and a whole cocktail of emotions, but at its core, it was unmistakable.
