Page 20 of A Fate Everlasting

I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to run or listen, and that was the problem. The hesitation, the pull, the fact that some part of mewantedto know. I sickened myself. Silence dragged between us as the prefects herded us across the rain-slick cloister and back to the dorms.

I stared at the stain of blood on my pyjama sleeve.Not mine.

“Oh my saints,” Ruby gushed as she flung the door to our room open with a flourish. She was still grinning, cheeks flushed, curls damp with mist. “I have to say, I doubted you’d make it. Marcus told me about the initiation, but I didn’t know when it would happen.”

I whirled on her. “You do realize someone died?” My voice came out hoarse, raw. “I’m only going to the pub to get signal. We need to call the police.”

Ruby groaned. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic.” She rolled her eyes, peeling off her soaked cardigan like we were discussing a boring lecture. “And the police?” She scoffed. “They don’t come here. The girl will be fine, anyway.”

They don’t come here.Something in my chest cracked. I felteverything at once, burning too hot, too cold. “You actually believe she’ll come back to life? Do you hear yourself?”

Ruby hesitated. Then her expression shifted, pitying. “Oh, right.” A slow smile curled at her lips as she glanced at the watch at her wrist. “You’re still new. I swear, the girl will be fine. She’ll probably be back here soon to collect her stuff.”

“You can’t expect me to believe that.”

Ruby winked, reaching into her messy top drawer and pulling out a halter-neck tank. “I promise. Now, does this make my boobs look flat? Because yesterday Marcus said?—”

A hysterical sound clawed up my throat. Not because it was funny. It wasn’t. It was insane. I dragged a hand down my face, trying to shake off the unreality of it all. “Ruby, I swear to God—” The word stuck in my throat.God. I loosed a shuddering breath.

This wasn’t real.This was some kind of mass hysteria.A cult.

Ruby studied me now, her amusement fading like a receding tide. The halter top she was holding fell to her side. “Do you really not understand what’s going on here, Arabella?” Something in her tone, gentle and almost regretful, made my skin prickle. She studied me carefully, and then, as if the thought had only just occurred to her, “You just survived a ninety-foot fall.”

A deafening silence stretched between us.

“You think that was luck?” She gestured, then perched on the edge of the bed and took my hands in hers. “That wasmagic, Arabella.”

I yanked away. “You’ve lost it.”

9

An hour later I was halfway down the marble staircase, my chest corset-tight. The torchlight flickered, the air cold.Just get to the pub. Just get to a phone.The words looped in my mind like a hymn, a desperate litany. I didn’t give a damn what my parents wanted for me anymore, and my curiosity had gotten me nowhere. I hadn’t stopped shaking since the tower.

Ruby acted like this was normal. A girl died. A girl?—

I shut my eyes. I wasn’t going to think about it. If I let myself remember the sound of her scream, the way the mist swallowed her whole, I’d unravel completely.

Just get to the pub. Get to a phone. Get out.

The staircase bent into shadow, the common room quiet. My boots thudded against the steps. Every sound echoed like a heartbeat, metronomic against my scrambled thoughts. I wasn’t going to be pulled into the madness of this place. I had to get out.

Dante made it seem simple. All I had to do was get expelled. Butnothingseemed simple here. I couldn’t trust him, or anyone. I needed to speak to someone rational.

Then, soft as a dying breath, came a sob. I froze. Thecommon room stretched before me, wreathed in the golden glow of chandelier light. And standing there, at the edge of the room, was a girl.

A girl who should not be here. A girl who should not…be.

Her leather bag hung from one shoulder, her blonde hair smoothed neatly in place, though her eyes were rimmed red, glassy. She looked… untouched. As if she hadn’t just plummeted to her death, as if her body hadn’t crumpled like a marionette cut from its strings.

My throat clenched. The walls shrank in. I had watched her fall. I had heard the crack of impact, the finality of it. But she was standing in front of me.Breathing.

She offered a small, apologetic smile. “Oh. I never got to introduce myself.” She sniveled, tucking a flick of blonde hair behind one ear. “I’m Mabel. It wasn’t meant for me this year, I guess.”

My stomach turned violently. “But I saw you die.” The words lodged thick in my throat. My grip tightened on the banister, nails pressing into the stone.

She let out a quiet, almost amused laugh, like I had just asked for directions. “I wasn’t chosen. I can’t participate this year.” Her smile turned tight, distant. “But it’s not my fault, really. Not after what they did to the odds.”

A fresh wave of nausea rolled through me.

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