Page 88 of A Fate Everlasting

“Oh. I didn’t—I don’t intend to.Ever.” I flushed despite myself.

“Like now,” Dante whispered. Heat flooded my cheeks. My head snapped up, his hand reaching for my cheek, the Thread tugging gently in the back of my mind. “I can feel you. I just can’t always figure out what youwant.”

“What I want?”

“Yes.” Dante studied me, close in more ways than one. “You come in feelings. In bursts or flourishes more than coherent thoughts. In this moment, I can’t quite figure it out.”

I swallowed. “Can’t you?”

“It’s so…soloudI can’t decipher it.” Dante shook his head, stepping closer. He moved gently, slowly, pressing the palm of his hand to my chest. The Thread between us went taut, vibrating like it couldn’t decide whether to pull us together or tear us apart. “Is it anger, maybe?”

“Anger?” I shook my head, willing myself to focus on him.Not the cards.“No, it’s not anger. Not really.”

“Then what?”

“Fear,” I admitted. “Maybe a little excitement behind it. I can’t tell.” The first part, at least, I wasn’t lying about. Lies work best when they’re half-dressed in honesty.

“Don’t be afraid to Fall.” Dante said. “My father has asked me to make sure you’re ready. He doesn’t want toriskanything. A lot of people are banking on you making it.”

“Iamready.” I nodded, trying to keep my voice steady. People werebankingon me Falling? I didn’t like the sound of that.

“You always touch your necklace when you lie.” Dante’s voice softened. “You have tofight.You have to want to live more than you want the pain and suffering to cease. Those who die are those who are lulled by the comfort of death. That’s why only the strong survive.”

I didn’t know if I wanted to live if it meant Falling. I only knew that no matter how my journey ended, I needed the cards. I needed the Archangels back. That was the one truth I could still hold onto, the only way to stop all of this.

“I’m ready,” I repeated sweetly. “But maybe non-existence wouldn’t be so bad, either.”

“You don’t mean that.”

My heart tumbled into chaos, my breath caught as I searched his face, trying to keep a grip on reality. “I don’t know.” I wasn’t even sure the thought was mine anymore.

“I said it before and I’ll say it again. You’re too good to die,little thief. I think the world would notice if you vanished.” The arrogant curve of his lips made something inside me ache, something I’d tried hard to swallow down. His fingers drifted lower, grazing the hollow of my throat, trailing downward until mypulse raced uncontrollably beneath his touch. “I see you’re wearing the Lumen again.”

“It was returned to me.” I nodded. I was all too aware of how close he was, my back pressing against the mantle, the heat of the fire flushing me. “Mysterious, actually.”

“Very,” Dante purred. “Maybe whoever returned it thought you were safer keeping iton.For now, anyway.”

The realization clicked. “You?” I let out a quiet laugh. “Why would you give it back? I thought a deal was a deal.”

“It tethers you to this world, Arabella. To the Common World. Neither injury nor death can pull you from here while you wear it.” Shadows dipped in the crease forming between Dante’s brows. “But I thought if you gave it away, maybe you’d be free of this place. You’d be allowed to return home without them tracking you. I was wrong.” He looked away. “And you didn’t leave.”

Something clenched low in my chest. I hated that he’d done something kind. Hated that part of me wanted to believe he wasn’t hollow and inhuman andawful.But I knew him in the strangest of ways. I knew that he was protective. He always had been. And again, when my life was in danger, when my wounds would not heal—Dante had returned the necklace.

I shoved down the swirl of confusion stirring in my chest. “Don’t tell me the guilt got to you, now. You’ve been using me this entire time.”And now I’m about to use you,I nearly said. The thought stabbed low in my gut.

“That wasn’t the intention. Not with you,” Dante said, shaking his head. Something unguarded shifted behind his eyes. I didn’t know what to make of the way he was looking at me. It was like he was trying to memorize something, or maybe solve something. “Through that mess of a mind,” he muttered, “you must know that.”

His fingers brushed my arm, lingering, driftingdown until they caught at my wrist. He turned my hand over between his own, gently, like he was searching for something in the lines of my palm. “You say you want to disappear,” he said. “But I don’t think that’s true. I think you’re just tired of not understanding who you are.”

“And who is that, if you know me so well?” I didn’t move.

“I think,” he said slowly. “That you are one of the rare few who gets todecide.”

He let my hand drop, reaching upward. The backs of his fingers skimmed my throat, reverent. I didn’t stop him. I couldn’t—for more reasons than one.

I hated how much I wanted to believe him. And then, maybe, I moved first. I brushed my lips against his, softly. My heart was the only sound in my ears as I leaned in. He stilled like he was weighing the cost of this, the costof me.

He took a breath, and I counted the seconds that passed.One. Two.He dipped his head, closer, but hovered there, his mouth brushing mine. I shouldn’t. I knew that. But maybe if I kissed him first, it would give me control.

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