“I crumbled in your arms and told you everything about me. I admitted my darkest moments to you. I was vulnerable. I was weak. I let youin.” My voice broke, but I pressed on. “Why can’t you let me all the way in?”
In a heartbeat, his hands were on my face, his forehead against mine.
“You are in, Scarlet.” His voice was raw. “I didn’t know I still had a heart until you made it beat again. You are the only person I’ve ever lived for. I would burn the entire world down for you without a second thought—if it meant I could stay with you.”
My hands found his jaw, tilting his chin so he had no choice but to meet my eyes. “What do you mean… stay with me?”
His entire body seemed to crumble. He stepped back, tension rippling through every muscle. His jaw ticked.
And then, finally—he spoke. “I’m cursed.”
I blinked. “Excuse me—what?”
His expression didn’t change. His voice was devoid of emotion. “There’s more to the prophecy you found in the Eternal Tomb.”
A chill snaked down my spine.
“In order for the Mareki Gem to be forged back into one, the Forgotten Realm must be exchanged as a form of currency.”
I swallowed. “I don’t understand.”
Rhodes took a slow breath. “To counteract Zervos disrupting the Mareki, the magical essence itself created a separate realm within time and space—to balance the scales of power. When the four elements erupted into an elemental storm, burning through what we now call the Barrens, everyone thought the mages burned with it.” He paused. “But they didn’t.
“Their souls were sentenced to another realm, locked away from the malice and misuse of magic in our world. It was the Mareki’s way of preserving its strength—so that one day, when it was ready, it could be forged anew.”
My shaky hand found his. “But what does this have to do with you, Rhodes? And how do you know all of this?”
His gaze bored into mine, something dark and unspoken lurking beneath the surface. “The Seer,” he murmured. “The same Seer who appeared when you and Fallon were born… she came for Shayde and me as well. But unlike you two, she only laid her touch onme—declaring that a curse would tether my soul to the Forgotten Realm.”
I could barely breathe.
“Magic created an entire realm to protect itself from the abuse of power,” he continued, voice heavy with resolve. “But with magic, there is always balance. When the Forgotten Realm was born, it needed a source strong enough to anchor it.”
“A soul,” I whispered.
His jaw clenched. “I channeled fire early. Then, while sparring with Shayde, I channeled air. That’s when Ma and Pa sat me down and told me the truth of my fate. They made me swear secrecy, even from Shayde. That day, I stopped living. I stopped caring. Why would I? I was cursed to die.
“Magic can be restored to its true form,” he said, voice darkening. “The Mareki Essence will be whole again. The key lies within the Crimson Wraith. But the Forgotten Realm must fall… and I must fall with it.”
His words weighed on me like a stone I wasn’t ready to carry.
I took a step back. Denial threatened to drown me. Questions and fear wrapped around my throat like a vise. Rhodes jumped into the pit that day—but was it really to save me?
After the Burn Trials, Rhodes Wylder’s entire demeanor changed toward me. He stopped being closed off. He stopped pushing me away. That was the pivotal moment when he became a constant in my life.
“Was it all a ploy?” I shook my head, refusing to meet the confusion in his eyes. “No more lies. All this time, you hid this from me. Was any of it real? Or were you just getting close to find my weakness? To turn your fate around by using me as the tether?”
“That is not what the Wylder boy said,” Lakota growled.
Tears burned my eyes. I threw up my mental gates to shut Lakota—and possibly an eavesdropping Fallon—out.
“Am I wrong?” I said through gritted teeth.
Rhodes’s expression hardened. He stepped closer but didn’t touch me. His hands clenched into fists at his sides.
“You once asked me if I could choose what color my eyes were—do you remember what I said?” He waited, then continued. “I said I didn’t care, as long as they saw a life with you in it. Scarlet, I wouldneverhurt you.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, feigning a strength I didn’t feel. “Hmm, sounds painfully like what your brother said before he tried offering me up to the Mareki’s enemy.”
