Page 58 of A Fate Everlasting

LOG ENTRY. OVERRIDE ACTIVE ‹VV CAVENDISH› : ALL SCORES CAPPED at ≤0

My stomach flipped. She’d even signed her name. This was her doing. Verrine was puppeteering students toward the Rift like a marionette show, pulling each and every string until we danced straight into Elsewhere.

“Holy shit,” I breathed with the realization, mind reeling. “The override launched the same night I stole the cards. This was orchestrated. All of this was orchestrated.” The hairs on the back of my neck stood on edge.

“Does that mean Dante is working with Verrine?” Ruby asked.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. I chewed my lip as I scrolled through the slate. The logs ran deep, every fluctuation, every shift in score, every rise and fall that students believed were dictated by their choices. All of it was all logged, all marked with the same authorization less than a week ago. Everyone was given a different baseline, but no one was allowed to raise their scores above zero. “I don’t get it. Verrine was protecting the cards, wasn’t she? Why would she let Dante take them?”

“Evermorewas protecting the cards,” Ruby said darkly. My grip tightened on the slate, knuckles white as a sick wave of fury crashed through me. That’s why Verrine wasn’t mad when we returned from Elsewhere. She didn’t care that Dante had them. I was a pawn.Verrine hadn’t just let the system break, she was breaking it.

“This is proof. Evermore isn’t a real competition this year. It’s rigged. This is our way out. If we can present this to the council,surely?—”

“Wait,” Ruby breathed. “Arabella, look.” She turned her slate toward me, the glow casting eerie shadows across her face. A name was listed.

Rosaline Carrington: Ascended. The word gleamed in gold, flickering, but the score beside it didn’t make sense.

-15

I paused as the word Ascended continued to flicker, until the letters rolled one by one into another word.Fallen.

That wasn’t possible. It wasn’t possible. I stared at the slate, my stomach twisting into knots. Rosaline had already Ascended. She had already been marked. Her fate should have been sealed, her path chosen. I stared at the word like it might flicker back to normal, but it stayed, burned into the screen like a scar.

“How,howcould her score have done this?” I swallowed against the nausea rising in my throat. “She’ll Fall at graduation if this isn’t fixed, right?”

Beside me, Ruby’s fingers trembled around the slate. She shook her head, her voice barely above a whisper. “No. She couldn’t.” The words rang hollow, only saying them aloud to reassure herself. “It’s against Evermore’s policy. The code of conduct says you can change stratums, shift between Fate, Nephilim, Angel or Daemon. But you can’t Fall or Ascend once you’ve been marked.” Her breath hitched. “They said it isn’t possible once your path is decided.”

Thread stirred in the back of my mind, purring. “Those who rise can always Fall.”

I turned to Ruby, my voice coming quiet, uneven. “The rules might say that. But Fallen Angels exist, don’t they? Maybe Evermore’s rules aren’t as rigid as we thought.”

Ruby flinched. “You say that like it’s something so easy, like damning yourself is easy.” She blinked back tears. “An Angel can only fall if they do something horrific. Something against our nature, against the balance of light and dark. You don’t just Fall. You tear your soul apart. Light can’t reach where you go. You become… hollow. Like a star snuffed out, you just become the dark in-between.”

“Or the darkness that always was.” I winced, my necklace singing against the hollow of my throat.

“What?” Ruby frowned.

“Nothing,” I shook my head, unsure what I even meant by that. “Rosaline was one of Evermore’s highest scorers, and still Verrine made her Fall. None of us are safe.”

“Exactly,” Ruby nodded.

If this was all true, everything I believed about my place here was a lie. Was this what my mother had been running from? Had she been afraid that something would make her Fall if she stayed? We both jumped as apingresounded from the slate.

This is a reminder to all students that the Dawning Ball will be held in the Astralis Ballroom at 7 p.m. tomorrow evening.

“You shouldn’t be here,” a voice said.

My entire body locked up. We whirled, heart catching in my throat. Ruby’s grip tightened on the slate, too afraid to move.

A pipe ember glowed in the doorway, and Godwin Cavendish exhaled a curl of smoke. “I need a word, Miss Davenant.”

For a long, awful second, it was silent. Then, Ruby squared her shoulders. “Are we in trouble?”

Godwin passed a look between us and the slate still in Ruby’s hand. It was clear that his disgust wasn’t at us, but at Verrine, when at last he said,“Oh, we all are.”

27

Icleared my throat. “Sir, I promise I didn’t?—”

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