Page 72 of A Fate Everlasting

I walked with my head buried in my slate. I’d been messaging Godwin about the cards, told him I’d only managed to secure one. He’d been positive, urging me to keep trying.

I took the staircase into the western courtyard. I had to help Ruby, somehow. I imagined Verrine tampering with the Crucible again, dropping her score, forcing her to become a High Daemon like herself, the very thing Ruby always feared. Or settling it close to zero, making her chances of surviving the Rift unlikely. I shuddered.

The morning fog clung to the air, thick and damp, curling between the statues of the Archangels. Their once-pristine stone wings had been defaced, carved with rhunes.

I barely made it three steps before a voice slashed the cold. “Miss Davenant.” The weight of the name nearly buckled my knees. Slowly, I turned. The helmet obscured most of his face, but through the narrow slit, I could see the faint gleam of his sharpened teeth. Not an Archdaemon, a High Daemon guard.

A second guard stepped forward, his presence colder, heavier. He said, “You were seen defacing school property.”

I frowned. “That’s a lie.”

The students near me stopped moving. The courtyard froze. No one had dared talk back to a guard since Ruby’s episode with Verrine.

The second guard exhaled slowly, like he was dealing with a child. “Look at the evidence,” he said, gesturing to the rhunes.

“Whatevidence?” I kept my voice steady, my hands curled into tight fists. “I didn’t do that. I didn’t do anything.”

His lips curled, like he was enjoying this. “We saw you.”

“Then those narrow eyes of yours must make youblind,”I snarled.Whoops.I couldn’t control my tongue. “I don’t even know how to carve a rhune.”

“Two witnesses against one.” The first guard stepped forward, clicking his tongue. “If it were up to me, I’d rip your throat out. But we have orders not to harm you.”

“Great.” I set my jaw, shouldering past. “I have to get to sparring now, so if you don’t mind?—”

The gloved hand of the first guard clamped down on my shoulder. “All classes are canceled. A ceremony is taking place instead. Make your way to the Sanctum of the Seraphim.”

“Sanctum of the what? I’ve never heard of it.” I frowned, looking over the grounds. I clicked open my slate, navigating to the page that held the campus map. I couldn’t see it. “Where is that, exactly?Whatceremony?”

But the Daemons had already turned around, a chisel poking out of the narrow-eyed one’s back pocket.Damn liars.Ifollowed the milling crowd of students, my head bobbing above the crowd.

“Keep calm, Davenant.” Dorian appeared at my side, his hand guiding the small of my back as the sea of pupils wove toward the chapel. “It’s rare we use the Sanctum. Something big is coming.”

“Like what, the Rift?” My heart leapt into my throat. “It’s not Sunday. Surely they can’t do this to us!”

“I don’t know,” Dorian’s voice cracked. He looked pale, deep shadows beneath his eyes. We filed through the chapel doors and then through doors behind the Crucible, the ones I thought led to Verrine’s office. But we carried on beyond them, down a torch-lit stone staircase and into the underbelly of Evermore.

We filed into the room, a vast marble chamber carved into the earth itself, so dark and echoing it felt as if we’d crossed into the college’s infernal heart.

Light from black stained-glass panels above fractured and painted the marble floors. Nausea climbed up my throat. I should have left, should have slipped out and hidden somewhere. Now I was trapped, bodies pressing close as we slid onto the end of a black marble pew, professors not bothering to group us into our houses.

Every whisper stilled as Verrine stepped onto the dais. A tightness bloomed in the hollow of my chest. A throne carved of black stone towered behind her, veined with glints of blue and purple where the light caught it.A throne? Beneath Evermore?

Verrine was dressed differently today, a pin with a crescent moon at her chest, her lips painted dark red. The air turned leaden, and Dorian’s fingers brushed my hand gently.

“What the hell is this?” I hissed.

“Just keep your head down and your mouth shut,” Dorian whispered back, his gaze fixed ahead.

Verrine’s voice rang out. “For the lastone-hundred years, the balance at Evermore has not been respected. This institution always favored the light. It pushed students toward the After, treating Elsewhere as a compromise. No longer.”

The double doors creaked. A ripple ran through the room, anxious murmurs. Dante Darkblood strode into the Sanctum, shadow trailing him like a mantle.His hair was black as spilled ink, as was his suit, a silver thread stitched into the breast pocket. Guards flanked him, Daemons, moving in perfect rhythm.

He paused in the threshold of the dais, gaze raking over the room. The students closest to him craned their necks to watch, compelled. Their faces contorted, a mixture of fear and respect.

But Verrine’s eyes glittered. She raised her hand in welcome. “For too long, you have been told there is only one future worth having. But today—” Her attention moved to Dante, her smile cutting. “Today, Evermore remembers its true history.”

A hush fell, deeper than typical silence. Dante stepped forward, unhurried, his eyes catching mine for a single, burning instant. My lungs screamed for air. I had to look away, but couldn’t. He folded his hands behind his back, and inclined his head.

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