Rhodes ducked just in time, the mug shattering against the wall where his head had been. The sound echoed through the room, silencing any murmurs. Elias didn’t stop. He stormed towardRhodes, grabbing the front of his leathers in a tight fist and yanking him close.
“All of this bullshit happened under your watch!” he snarled, his face inches from Rhodes’s.
My body moved without thought. I stepped forward instinctively, ready to intervene. I inched closer to the confrontation, my fingers brushing against the edge of the table. The scene unfolding in front of me felt all too familiar.
But Rhodes didn’t utter a word. He stood still, his jaw clenched and expression stonelike as Elias shoved him back with a forceful push.
“Tell Fitzroy the Glade is here with news. Another Mageian professor is dead. I demand a meeting—immediately.” Elias turned on his heel, boots echoing against the stone floor as he made for the exit. He paused in the doorway, lifting a single finger.
“Oh, and one more thing,” he added, his voice edged with command. He didn’t turn—he just spoke over his shoulder. “One of ours will remain here for the foreseeable future. I trust you’ll provide him with appropriate lodging… and the respect he’s owed.”
With that, he walked out—just as a familiar face from the Glade stepped into the war room. But the weight of another dead professor left me too stunned to register who it was.
Our team began filing out of the room as Barrett called the meeting to a close. I stayed back, letting them leave first. Rhodes remained behind too, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, silent and unmoving.
When the door shut, leaving just the two of us, an uncomfortable stillness settled in.
I’d always thought of the Wylder twins as exact replicas of their father—cold, commanding, malevolent. But what I’d just witnessed shattered that illusion. The dynamic between them wasn’t what I had imagined. It was far too familiar.
Too much like my own.
An unsettling feeling bubbled in my chest, words hovering on the tip of my tongue but refusing to come out. Everything I thought I knew about Elias and the Shadow Glade swirled chaotically in my mind, clouding my thoughts.
Before I could settle on the one question I wanted to ask, Rhodes pushed off the wall and walked out, leaving me alone with my spiraling thoughts.
River and I fled through the shadowed back ways of the Hollow. She’d been waiting outside the war room for me, and the moment I stepped through the door, her agitation hit me like a tidal wave.
While fire elementals can telepathically communicate with their bonded dragons, earth elementals like me share a unique connection. We can bond with multiple animals if the link is strong enough. Words aren’t part of our language, but emotions and intentions? Those flow seamlessly between us.
Which is why River’s anger was radiating through me, causing Mean Fallon to kick and scream.
I leapt from River’s back mid-stride, hitting the ground running as we reached the station hut steps. The guards moved toblock my path, but my vines burst through the cracks in the stone, pinning them in place.
“He isn’t here,” one guard growled.
“River saw him. Try again,” I snapped.
“He doesn’t want company right now!”
I flipped him off without missing a beat and kicked the door open. The hinges shrieked in protest as it slammed against the wall, echoing through the space.
The guards inside didn’t so much as blink. They stood in each corner, statuesque and unimpressed. They were all too familiar with my theatrics by now. Orion, Father’s silver wolf, lounged in his usual spot along the far wall. His ears twitched as we entered, a lazy growl rumbling before he curled back up to sleep.
But he didn’t move.
Leaning over the table, studying a map with unwavering focus, he remained still as stone.
Hollow Summit’s General.
Myfather.
Ourfather.
His broad shoulders were tense, his pointer finger tapping rapidly on the table. Father’s gray-dusted brown hair had grown almost an inch since the last time I saw him, curling over his ears.
The day I brought Scarlet into town was the last I’d heard from him. He stood in this hut for hours, watching through the window at the medical hut below. After our lifeweaver reported Scar would live, he departed the Hollow for a mission without giving me clearance to join.
He left me with my own mission here in the Hollow: wait around like a nursemaid and notify a dragon within the Golden Crest once Scarlet was awake.
