Page 21 of A Fate Everlasting

The…odds?What odds? She should be a body cooling on the grass. A name spoken in hushed tones, in past tense. I saw her fall. I heard the impact, the awful, gut-wrenching certainty of it.

“They’ve changed things,” she mused, as if to herself. “It wasn’t always like this. Be careful, won’t you?”

Icy dread spiked through my veins. “Careful of what?”

Mabel shrugged, blinking slowly. “Few survive Evermore. Anyway, the competition isn’t fair this year.” Her fingerstraced absently along the strap of her bag. “Andyou!Well, I hear you weren’t supposed to be here at all.”

For the first time, I felt the comments about surviving this place were not hyperbole. A hollow ringing started in my ears. Mabel stepped toward the door, pausing at the threshold. Then, with a crooked smile she said, “Better luck next time, I guess.”

The room spun like gravity had stopped working. Maybe it had, nothing made sense here. This wasn’t a school. This was a waking nightmare. It didn’t matter that she came back.

I saw her die. I couldneverunsee it. The common room was empty again. But I couldn’t make myself move. The air still held her perfume. My fingers still gripped the banister, and from somewhere down the hall, I swear I heard her laugh.

A whistle split the air, echoing against the vaulted ceilings as we neared the circle of prefects near the gate. I repeated my goals like a mantra. Get away from Evermore. Get to a phone. Get out.

I kept my head raised, masking the fact that my hands were shaking as Dorian’s violet eyes found mine. I moved mine away to his white shirt, loosely buttoned. To his crisp navy trousers. To the inscribed cufflinks that glinted beneath the moonlight.Ante Post.

I needed out. I needed a phone. I needed someone to tell me I hadn’t lost my mind. But then I saw him.

A tall, blonde guy dressed in a leather jacket approached the prefects from the far end of the corridor. He greeted Dorian with a clap on the back. I blinked like the world had lagged, my mind stuttering to keep up.No. It couldn’t be.

“Thanks for joining us, mate. How are you settling in?” Dorian grinned.

“Not bad,” Hugo Fox smiled. “I’m over in Ophanim House. I’ve got my own suite.” I never thought I’d see him again. Not after that night. Not after what we saw.This didn’t make any sense, and yet almost nothinghadmade sense since the accident.

Hollywood's golden boy, the rising star that vanished. He wasalive.I’d almost forgotten the other night in Astoria Manor, with everything that had happened. But now it was front of mind, the shadows swarming in front of my vision like dark clouds. I felt the Thread whisper something, but my ears were ringing too loud to hear it.

Ruby said there was another recruit from the West Coast. She didn’t mention he happened to come from the same city.

Hugo flashed his perfect, commercial-worthy teeth, turning to me. “Arabella, right?” I felt my knees weaken. It seemed that we had both met the same fate that night, both been called to this place.Why?“Something told me we might cross paths again.”

“Right.” I nodded, willing myself to pick my jaw back up. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be real.

“You’ve earned your freedom. Ready, Davenant?” Dorian asked.

I narrowed my eyes, something cold trickling down my spine. Without a word, Dorian turned and pressed a palm to the stone beside the gate. A moment later, something clicked, the wards shuddering before the door to a secret passageway swung open. Evermore operated like a fortress, and it was clear Dorian had the keys.

Ruby waited for Hugo and Dorian to get a distance ahead before she said, “Youknowhim?” Two other prefects shouldered past us, a girl and a guy I didn’t recognize. Ruby’s focus lingered on one of them. “That’s the other recruit from the West Coast I mentioned. Small world.”

“Truly.” I nodded, something in my chest sinking lower. “We went to this party a few nights ago, he was there. You’ve never heard of him?Hugo Fox? The Kissing Beat, Flecker’s Library?”I rattled through a few more films he’d starred in, but Ruby’s face stayed blank. “Never mind.”

“Most of us come from something, here.” Ruby shrugged. “You get used to it. Real fame, real power has nothing to do with screens. It’s older than that.” There it was again, a vague reference to something I was supposed to understand.

I glanced at her. “Older how?”

“The Common World doesn’t matter here, Arabella.” Ruby paused, looking at me with curiosity, as though trying to understand how I could be so stupid. Her breath curled into the night air.

“The Common World?” I repeated.

Ruby gestured beyond the gates. “They don’t matter, none of what goes on out there matters.”

I didn’t know how to respond. We followed the prefects down the moonlit drive as gravel crunched underfoot.

Ruby sidled closer. “I still don’t know how they tossed you in blind. I think everyone else here knows what they’ve signed up for.”

I quickened my pace. “Meaning?”

She shrugged. “Courtyard’s haunted, for starters.”

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