Page 70 of A Fate Everlasting

I scowled, trying my best to mentally block Dante from my mind as I clicked open my slate. Everything he said was a waste of time, a distraction.

“Saints,” Ruby said in a terse whisper, mid-conversation with Lilibeth and Marcus as she leaned over her desk. “It doesn’t work. Not for any of us.”

She was still concerned about our lack of contact with home. I had managed, before. After all, my message had delivered to Dante, wherever he was. I held my breath as I typed another message to him, desperate fingers moving before my brain could catch up.

The message rebounded instantly. I tried again, again, again. Each failure was a fresh knife in my ribs. Verrine had severed every tie to the outside world, except there wasoneshe couldn’t cut. The Thread.

A loud crack split the air, followed by the sound of shattering glass. My head snapped toward the back of the room. Ruby stood. Her slate lay at her feet, shattered into glinting shards of glass. Her shoulders heaved, hands clenched into fists so tight I thought she might draw blood.

“No,” she whispered, voice raw, splintering in the heavy silence. “No.No more of this.”

Verrine tilted her head, her movements serpentine. “Sit down, Miss Kingsley.”

“I need to speak to my parents,” Ruby said, voicerising, cracking. “I won’t let you herd us into damnation like lambs to the slaughter!”

A hush fell over the room. A book slammed shut. I stared at her with unblinking eyes, willing her to sit down. This wasn’t like her. She was going to get herself hurt.Killed.

Ruby’s voice rang out, clearer. “You were supposed to protect us.” Her words sparked more sounds of protest, and several chairs scraped back. “Surely you see that none of this is fair! Why are we earning points if the system glitches, nosediving us at random?”

“Yeah!” Marcus shouted, and a few others echoed him. Students surged to their feet, slates smashing against the ground as they turned to leave the classroom. They felt they were already damned, that nothing mattered anymore. The calculation on Verrine’s face told me otherwise. This could get alotworse.

“Don’t,” I hissed. “Please, Ruby.”

Marcus kicked the projector on the way to the door, and it sputtered. The image of Elsewhere distorted, stretching and twisting into something that flipped my stomach.

A few students remained behind, waiting for something. Maybe it was permission, or maybe they wanted this, maybe they wanted Elsewhere.

Verrine’s smile widened. “How predictable.” She flicked her wrist. Guards stormed in from the corridor, clad in blackened armor as they blocked the flow of students. One grabbed a girl from behind, dragging her backward as she screamed. “Sit down, the rest of you! The Crucible is already shifting, and anyone who resists will face detention.”

I raced toward the door, toward Ruby. It was too late, she was already writhing against their grasp, out of reach.

Verrine’s voice hummed with amusement. “Thank you formaking yourself our example, Miss Kingsley. The rest of you,” she barked. “Sit down.”

I tried to move, but my feet felt nailed to the floor. Ruby looked at me, pleading. For the first time since I’d met her, she looked terrified. With a slam of the heavy wooden door, she was gone, and the remaining students sat gingerly. A sick, twisting feeling coiled in my ribs.

No. No, I wasn’t going to let this happen, I had a bad feeling. Ruby was going to disappear, just like Rosaline.

“Tell us.” I kept my voice measured. “Why is Rosaline Carrington currently missing? Has she already graduated? Because the records say she’sFallen.She was marked as Ascended in Lower Sixth. How can that happen?”

Silence deafened the room.

“Take a seat, Miss Davenant,” was all Verrine said. Something broiled in my chest at her dismissiveness.

I pressed on. “Headmistress, please. Can you tell mewhyRosaline’s score is below zero, when someone marked for Ascension is supposed to be protected from dippingbelowthe level of an Angel after they have been marked, as stated in Evermore’s code of conduct?”

“It’s known that an Angel canalwaysFall,” Verrine said coolly. The murmurs circling the room turned to outright whispers. I saw Verrine’s expression shift, only for a fraction of a second. It was enough. “You suddenly care about the code of conduct now, Miss Davenant?Sit down.Miss Carrington had behavioural issues that resulted in her expulsion. The rest of the Ascended are in training, with Professor Cavendish.”That wasn’t true.

“You can’t do this.” The words came before I could stop them.

The classroom fell silent. A few students turned toward me, their eyes wide, unblinking. Some looked at me in amusement,others in shock, others in the thinly veiled interest of those who enjoyed watching someone else take the fall.

“I didn’t do this.” Verrine barely tilted her head, her gloved fingers resting lightly on the desk. “You did, Arabella.”

Every head in the room snapped toward me. My heartbeat sounded in my ears.Think, Arabella. Think. I knew the rules of this world, even if I was still learning how to play the game. If the Crucible dictated our scores, every choice mattered. If I could get the others to wake up and realize thatIwasn’t the enemy, that I wanted them to survive this too, maybe that would trigger something in the Crucible’s algorithm. At the very least, it would get us on the same page.

“That doesn’t make any sense!” I spat at Verrine. “Godwin taught us in history that our scores are individual. My actionsdon’thave influence over the entire Lower Sixth class.”

“Yes they do.” Verrine spoke in absolutes, her word was law. I could see that many of them hadn’t questioned it, hadn’t questioned who was behind their dropping scores. “The object stolen was aVestige. There is a natural ripple effect when something so powerful is taken. For every rule, there is an exception.” Murmurs sounded.

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