Page 77 of A Fate Everlasting

Godwin didn’t flinch. But something in his posture shifted, collapsing. “I suspected. Yes. But I had no way to confirm.”

“Dorian said the cards went missing a few weeks ago, just before I arrived. Dante must have taken them. He must have bound them.”

“Dante?” Godwin hesitated, throat bobbing. “Dante might have stolen the cards, but he could not have done this. Arcanemagic like a binding curse is far too advanced. No.” He stroked his chin. “This was the work of the High King.

“The High King? I thought you said his return was a rumour.”

“When you mentioned him before, I still hoped it was nothing more than whispers. The evidence now is incontrovertible. He is back.”

“And Dorian.” I swallowed the growing lump in my throat, formed by the question I didn’t want to ask. “He was meant to be watching the cards. He’s not involved, is he?”

“Dorian is not involved.” Godwin shook his head. “He is not working with them.”

My shoulders sagged, tension easing.Good.

“How could you let this happen?” I brushed my thumb over the card, over the fraying edges. “Right under your nose?”

“I knew Verrine was planning something,” Godwin admitted. He looked away. “I just thought I had more time.”

A brittle laugh scraped my throat. “More time? For what, Professor? To sit here while the entire student body is dragged to Elsewhere? Or killed?”

His fingers twitched over the papers, but he didn’t look at me. “It wasn’t that simple,” he said quietly. “I never thought she was capable of something like this.”

The silence was suffocating. “And Ruby?” I asked, throat thick. “Where is she? What happened to her?”

“Kingsley’s in the lower cells of the Sanctum. High Council wants a live demonstration of forced Falling,” he said bitterly. “I’m pushing back. I think they’ll agree to wait until the Rift.”

“You let them all believe they had a choice this year, Godwin.”

“I know.” Godwin exhaled, slow. “I did not realize the danger until the Archangels vanished. Now my time is running short, too. This is bigger than Evermore.”

Something painful lodged itself in my chest. “What are you saying?” I demanded.

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he inhaled deeply, reaching for one of the maps. The ink bled beyond the academy’s borders, sprawling outward.

“What is this?”

Godwin hesitated, just for a second. Then, in a steady voice he said, “Evermore isn’t just creating Daemons, Arabella. It’s funneling power into Elsewhere, tilting the scales of the afterlife itself.”

I barely heard the rest. My brain was still snagged on the words.Funneling power to Elsewhere.I gripped the edge of the table, steadying myself against my shaking. “So you’re saying it’s shifting the balance, it’s shiftingpower?”

“Yes. Without mediation from the High Council, the equilibrium between light and dark is unraveling. And with every shift toward darkness, he draws more power. The High King of Elsewhere. Without the Archangels, there’s nothing holding him, or the darkness, back”

This was a war. Not just within Evermore, but beyond it. The very fabric of the afterlife itself was being rewoven, and we were losing.

“But we know where the Archangels are, now.” I held upThe Fool.“We can fix this. We just need to get the rest of the deck. ”

The candlelight stretched Godwin’s shadow long across the stone floor, twisting it into something gaunt. For a fleeting moment, he didn’t look like himself. Something about the set of his jaw, the cut of his silhouette, sent a prickle of unease down my spine. At last he said, “Getting the deck is one thing, freeing them is another. I have no idea how they were bound.”

I paused, trying to remember what Dante had said. “Dante spoke to an alchemist. They said the cards were bound with theblood of a Fallen Angel, but the seal was breaking. I think the deck is weakening, that’s why one of them was able to break free and speak to me.”

“You’re right.” When Godwin met my eyes, his face softened into something close to sympathy. He reached forThe Fool Card,tracing the edges before moving to his desk to inspect it beneath a magnifying glass. After a moment he said, “The blood of a Fallen Angel is powerful. It could be used to imprison the Archangels. But it sounds like there wasn’t enough, or the binding spell went wrong. See here, the edges are fraying.”

“What does that mean? The deck will break itself, in time?”

“In time,” Godwin nodded, adjusting his glasses. “Years, decades maybe. We don’t have the luxury of waiting.”

“Then what do we do?” I pressed. “The Archangel said this was arcane magic. How do you undo a binding spell?”

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