“You will complete this mission alone, soldier.”
The words struck like a blow to the gut. “Alone?” I echoed, stunned. “Sir, with all due respect—it’s a long and perilous journey. We’re short on time before the drop. It would be safer, smarter, with a crew. The four of us worked well—”
He cut me off, voice like stone. “You want to prove yourself? Here’s your chance.” He stepped closer. “Either come back with the third tome, another piece of vital intelligence… or die trying. Scarlet will study the current tome while you’re gone. Understood?”
My hands shook as I clutched the tomes tighter to my chest, trying to ground myself. I was about to respond when the door burst open with a violent crack, tearing off its top hinge.
I flinched and spun around.
Scarlet and Rhodes stormed in. Scarlet’s crimson eyes blazed like embers ready to ignite, fists clenched at her sides. Wylder’s gaze flared like a brewing storm.
“Absolutely not!” she shouted. “She cannot go alone. That would be sending her to her death!”
“Scar!” I snapped through themarekem. “You told me to fight for this!”
Her eyes flicked to mine—but only for a second. “Not like this.”
With a sweep of her arm, wind crackled through the room, shoving the massive oak table aside as if it weighed nothing. Shestepped forward and drove her fist into our father’s chest with elemental force, pushing him back a step.
Father surged forward, ready to shove her back, but Rhodes stepped between them.
“This doesn’t concern you, Wylder,” Arrow snarled.
“I’d love to see you try to rip me away from her,” Rhodes snapped, voice sharp as a drawn blade.
Before either could move, I stepped in. “Scarlet,” I said firmly, “he’s right. You need to examine the tome. You need to go back to the Glade. Find Ailis. Get answers.”
Scarlet turned to me, mouth parting as if to argue—but then her gaze flicked back to Arrow.
“I’m going with her,” she snapped. “You can’t stop me. You don’t command me.”
Arrow didn’t flinch. “No, I don’t. But I do report to War Chief Kalluri.” He stepped closer, voice low and deadly. “How will you live with yourself when I tell him a handful of his cadets are now here in the Hollow, defying his orders?”
Scarlet froze, as if he’d struck her clean across the face.
“You would send heralone?” Her voice cracked. “And you’re fine with that? With the possibility of herdyingout there?!”
Arrow’s tone stayed calm. “She said it herself. She’s more than capable. I did not train her to fail.”
Scarlet barked a humorless laugh. “You didn’t train her at all,” she spat. “You handed that job off to others while you stood back and watched her become a new version of you.”
She slammed her fists into his chest again, but he didn’t flinch.
“But you failed,” she hissed. “She’s better than you’ll ever be.”
She spun away, pacing to the center of the room, fists clenched, fury rippling through her like a storm about to break. When she turned back, her eyes blazed.
“One daughter you abandon to die,” she said with a mocking bow. “The other? You send off alone to do the same. And you call yourself a leader.”
Then she spat at his feet.
Holy fucking elements.
“Scarlet, stop,” I begged through ourmarekem. “You don’t want to feel his wrath.”
She threw her hands up and whirled on me. “I’m not afraid of him!” she screamed. “There’s nothing he could do to me worse than that fucking shed he left me to die in!”
She stalked back toward Arrow. “I figured it out,” she said, laughter bitter and sharp. “I pieced themarekemtogether enough to know—you knew. You knew I was in there. Tortured. Starving. Wasting away, thinking no one gave a damn if I lived or died.”
