Page 61 of The Scars Within (Twisted Thorn #1)

The crack of my jaw was drowned out by his maniacal laugh.

My face slammed into the dirt floor, the impact rattling my skull.

Pain seared through my head as my teeth clamped down hard, slicing a chunk of flesh from the inside of my cheek.

The metallic tang of blood flooded my mouth.

I spat the loose bit of flesh onto his boots.

I call him Rotten Teeth. These guys are careful not to share names, so I’ve assigned my own.

Rotten Teeth scowled, “You little wretch!”

Then he nailed my ribs with his steel-toe boots.

The world tilted and blurred, but my beacon shined brightly like a thousand mini beacons covered in my dried blood. I’ve been in this lethargic state since Greasy Hair strangled me with his bare hands. But at least he was kind enough to let me catch my breath before he strangled me again.

Over and over and over. Until it wasn’t fun for him anymore.

And that was after they forced me to swallow the medicinal liquid. My plan to take myself out of the fight was working, but they threw me back into the ring. The rest of my day was so full of sunshine and rainbows that I couldn’t pinpoint what pain was connected to what area of my body .

My lungs took over on autopilot, each breath shallow and strained. My swollen eyelids refused to budge, leaving me staring through narrow slits. Body Odor pushed the wooden door open, dragging something heavy behind him.

“Cut her ropes. Boss says these are her new accessories.”

Whatever he handed to Rotten Teeth and Greasy Hair clinked with a sharp metallic rattle, the sound reverberating in my head like distant, broken bells. The sound grew louder as the three men approached.

“ Wake up .”

Part of my new accessory fell on the ground in front of my face, and my vision slowly focused enough to see what they were.

Iron chains and shackles.

No, no, no, no, no, no .

The new outside sound thundered in the air.

Swoosh . Swoosh .

Other than the stampede, it’s the only sound from the outside that has happened consistently. I first heard it while slumped against the wall, the sticky warmth of my drying blood crusting through the hairs on my arms.

After I gave up.

After I surrendered.

Swoosh . Swoosh .

“She won’t be able to leave her fucking corner with these. Seal them tight,” Body Oder demanded.

“ I’m here , Scarlet .”

Swoosh . Swoosh .

My legs were jerked into the air, and the blade slid between my ankles, sawing through the rope. The only feeling I could register was the relentless pounding of my heart, a drumbeat in the hollow shell of my body.

Then came the bite of cold metal against my skin. The cuffs snapped shut around my ankles with a sharp, final click, sealing my fate.

“ Get up .”

Next, my arms were yanked upward, forcing my head to loll back. From this angle, through the narrow slits of my swollen eyes, I could make out which villain had me in their grasp as a face came into focus.

Scarlet eyes stared back at me.

I snapped the shackles around my wrist.

“ Get up! ”

I jolted upright in bed, drenched in sweat, my chest heaving as I fought for air.

“ Bad dream? Your fear called to me. I could feel it, but you wouldn’t wake. It was just a dream, Scarlet. ” Lakota’s deep voice resonated in my mind.

But it wasn’t just a dream.

“A re you okay ?”

“Yeah—yeah. Sorry,” I muttered.

I scanned the room—empty. My gaze fell on a folded note resting on the nightstand. Reaching over with trembling fingers, I picked it up and began to read:

Decided to let you sleep in. Meet us in the Bolthole later, XOXO. Laney

“The Wylder boy is waiting for you in the valley,” Lakota said.

I rubbed my eyes. “Which one?”

“Should I be worried that you have to ask that question?” he deadpanned.

I rolled out of bed and got dressed, ignoring his question.

The cool air felt soothing against my face. My skin still burned, recalling the memory-dream. I haven’t been able to shake it from my mind.

As I made my way toward the valley, I caught myself—my nails pressing half-moons into my palm without thought. I quickly rubbed my hand against my cloak, trying to stop the reflex before it could spiral further.

The wind blew at my cloak, and it swayed and snapped in the wind.

I passed cadets practicing at the wooden targets and tending to their dragons, walking deeper into the valley to where I could sense Lakota.

His back was to me as I approached, and he was stretching his wings high in the air. I held my arm over my eyes to block the harsh sunlight beaming down. Lakota pivoted, revealing which Wylder brother was waiting on me.

Rhodes stepped out from the shadows of Lakota like he was carved from them.

Noemi towered behind him, her golden eyes narrowed at Lakota.

Rhodes’s gaze snapped to mine as he fastened his winter gloves.

His presence was pure lethality—tall, broad-shouldered, with a jawline sculpted to ruthless perfection.

Dark waves of hair fell carelessly over his forehead, and his gray-blue eyes held a deeper intensity than usual.

My heart fluttered at the regal sight of him.

I didn’t realize that I had stopped in my tracks until Lakota nudged me with his snout.

“ You’re staring, ” he drawled.

I cleared my throat and closed the distance between Rhodes and me.

“Why did you want me to meet you here? Classes start soon.”

Rhodes’s lips curved on one side, “We’re going for a ride. Forget classes today.”

I furrowed my brow. “Skip classes? Are you mad?”

“We have more important matters to attend to,” he spoke in his deep, calm, but warm voice that I always want to melt into.

“Like what?”

Rhodes tossed me a set of winter gloves that were lined with fleece and had an unfamiliar layer of leather on the palm.

“You. Now hop on.”

I let out a frustrated puff, “Excuse me? ”

Rhodes grinned, revealing both dimples. He flicked his eyes at Lakota and then back to mine. “Your dragon. What a dirty little mind you have.”

Heat rushed to my cheeks. I scurried away and mounted Lakota.

“ I wonder what he would think if he was actually in it ,” Lakota scoffed.

Rhodes was leading us to bone-fucking-nowhere. For over an hour, we’d been soaring through the mountains, twisting and turning so much that I couldn’t tell up from down or east from west. He offered no hints, no explanations—just mounted Noemi, and we were off.

She flew like a goddess of the skies, every movement precise and impossibly graceful. She’s slightly smaller than Lakota, and her onyx scales shimmer with an iridescent glow.

“ Your favorite color is red, ” Lakota huffed.

“ You don’t know what my favorite color is, ” I shot back.

“ I do. And it’s red. ”

“ Is my big, scary dragon jealous of me admiring another? ” I teased, a sly grin tugging at my lips.

He answered my question by snapping his wings shut and sending us plunging toward the mountains below. The air rushed past us in a deafening roar, and my stomach seemed to stay suspended far above.

Once he opened his wings and had us gliding in the air again, I noticed that Rhodes and Noemi sat stationary in the air, waiting for us to continue following.

We soared over the final mountain crest and began our descent.

Waves crashed violently against the unyielding stone walls below.

Rhodes brought us to a secluded spot carved from the mountains and shielded from the rest of the world.

The continent stretched endlessly on both sides, framing this sunken haven with stone.

We dipped lower until we landed on a plateau that jutted out like an inverted peninsula .

“Where are we?” I asked Rhodes as I dismounted and approached him.

“Nowhere,” he said flatly.

“Well, I can see that...” I muttered, glancing around the desolate space.

“Then why’d you ask?”

My narrowed eyes snapped to his. He smirked and winked.

He was carrying a large backpack over his shoulder, which must’ve been strapped to Noemi’s saddle before I arrived in Dragon Valley. With practiced ease, he flipped open the flap and rummaged through it.

Without warning, he tossed a bundle of leathers at me. I caught them—barely—then dropped them because I had been too busy staring at him.

“Work on your reflexes first—check,” he said with a cocky tilt of his head, pulling two rolls of leather from the bag as he stood.

He eyed the bundle of leathers in my arms. “Put those on.”

“What’s wrong with the ones I’m wearing?” I asked curiously.

“Everything.”

He has already surpassed the number of vague non-answers that I usually tolerate today. I groaned before twisting my finger in the air, motioning for him to turn around.

He raised a brow, “I’ve already seen you naked.”

My jaw dropped. “So you were looking in the showers!”

Rhodes unzipped his leather jacket. “The Burn Trials.”

Oh .

I snapped my jaw shut.

He chuckled softly and turned back toward Noemi, his broad shoulders shifting as he walked away. I stripped out of my old leathers and shot a silent command to Lakota to close his eyes. He responded with a puff of smoke but begrudgingly obeyed.

The new leathers were the same deep black as my others, but I immediately noticed the extra pockets lining the torso and legs.

They weren’t a perfect fit—slightly loose in some spots—but close enough.

The material felt broken in, soft and comfortable, as though it had already been molded to someone else’s body.

I picked my cloak back up and began fastening it around my neck when Rhodes stopped me, “No cloak. That’s a more advanced lesson. You need to learn without one first.”

Lesson ? What in the elements has he brought me out here to do?

Rhodes stood before me, dressed in a set of leathers nearly identical to the ones he’d given me. The pockets were subtle, barely visible, but in the same spots as the ones on mine. The only change he’d made was swapping out his Mageia jacket. He was holding the rolls of leather in his hands.