Nash looked at her with an expression I couldn’t quite place. His features softened; his throat bobbed as he swallowed. “We will do our best to collect your friends—”
“No. There is nodo our best.And they are not items to collect.” Her voice sharpened, though not with offense. “This was part of the deal. I told him”—her breath caught—“the General. That was the only way I’d helpwith this.”
“And we will, Scarlet,” Rhodes said, his tone threaded with a gentleness I’d never heard from him before. The complete opposite of how he spoke to me. “We will find them, and offer to rescue them from Mageia.”
Scarlet’s brows pinched together. “Offer?” she repeated incredulously.
I drummed my fingers against the table as a barmaid emerged from the kitchen. “They may not want to be saved, sis.”
Her crimson eyes burned holes through me. She angled her body toward me like a predator ready to pounce. Honestly, it made me proud to see her like this. But I kept my gaze fixed on the table, feigning boredom.
“Don’t call me that,” she snapped.
My brows knit as I finally met her gaze. “Why not?”
“Because I’m not your sis,” she hissed, shoulders squaring, chin tilting like she was preparing to face down an enemy.
“Have you looked in a mirror lately?”
The words caught her off guard. Her nostrils flared. She broke eye contact, and under the table her knee bounced fast enough to rattle the legs.
She swallowed and faced forward. “Once they learn the truth, they won’t want to stay. If they haven’t left already, it’s because theycan’t.”
“We’ll slip into the castle under the cover of the darkest hour. Noemi and Lakota will have to stay off campus to avoid alerting patrols. They’ll find their way to the Valley and track down Echo.”
Scarlet’s bouncing knee stilled at the mention of Tatum Sinclair’s bonded blue dragon. Since Scarlet enrolled at Mageia, I’d done my own digging on her roommates. Delaney Salvitto had been my prime suspect when I first sensed unrest through themarekem. There’s something about those endlessly cheerful people that sets me on edge. Nobody’s that happy all the time.
Tatum reminded me too much of myself—so I knew right away I’d hate her. Cleo, on the other hand, was so quiet and reserved she was unreadable, which only made me more suspicious.
But I was wrong. General Fitzroy made sure I knew his disappointment about that.
He wasn’t a twin, and he’s never had amarekemconnection. He didn’t understand how brutally hard it was—especially with the miles and magical wards between us—to channel through a bond with someone who didn’t even know it existed.
I’d let my guard down around Shayde Wylder, thinking the other half of me would be sharp enough to spot his red flags. And while I should have been digging deeper into him, he was the enemy hiding in plain sight.
“We should’ve asked Shady about secret entrances,” I said, watching Nash and Rhodes fall silent. “He worked with Cora for how long? He must know the ins and outs of sneaking around the castle.”
Rhodes tapped his knuckles on the table, about to respond—until Scarlet cut him off.
“The Sanctuary.”
“That’s a well-known entrance to Mageia. Its exit is guarded at all times,” Nash said.
“Well, notallthe time. There are brief periods when the guards switch shifts. Shayde mentioned it to me when he invited me to a Sanctuary party.”
Rhodes’s brows rose, jaw tightening.
“But we need to do this in the dead of night—that timeline doesn’t add up,” I said, turning to Wylder. “Can you use yourmarekem? Try to sense any past times Shayde slipped into the castle unnoticed.”
His jaw clenched. “Shayde blocked ourmarekemfor years before—” His gaze flicked to Scarlet. “I haven’t been able to access anything since he opened his mental gates to me. I’ve tried. But… there’s a small terrace off an unused hallway. I followed him there once. The place was overgrown. He could’ve been using it to slip in and out of Mageia.”
“Well, that’s another option,” Nash said, clapping his hands.
“It’s four levels up, Salvitto,” Rhodes snapped. “Shayde had Drithan for transport. We can’t risk Lakota or Noemi being seen.”
“Then we climb,” I said, a plan already forming.
Scarlet’s eyes went wide—round as dragon eggs.
