Page 71 of A Fate Everlasting

“Are you sure?” Lilibeth piped up, running a hand down the length of her braid. “Arabella isn’t speaking about rules. The fourth law of ether is absolute. It says that we areindividuallyprotected. Ether cannot be gifted, pushed, or taken away from an individual.”

We were right. The rules weren’t broken, and definitely not by me. They were rewritten, mid-competition, by someone powerful enough to get away with it.

“Is that true, Headmistress?” I met Verrine’s gaze, and for the first time, something flickered behind her eyes. “The laws of this world cannot be broken?”

“It’s nuanced,” she said simply. “You are all too young tounderstand how intricately the balance of light and dark works. Now sitdown, Miss Davenant, before I deduct a further fifty points.” She wore a mask of calm, but I saw the subtle twitch in her brow. She was losing control.

I sat, but the students weren’t whispering anymore, they were listening. Verrine knew it.

The rain struck the arched window in relentless sheets. Every drop echoed inside me, hollow. I shoved the window open, gasping. I needed something to claw me back into my body, something real,solid, cold enough to cut through the suffocating spiral I was drowning in.

Ruby was gone. Hugo was dead. And the Rift was fast approaching.

The mirror caught my eye. I barely recognized the girl staring back. She was pale, exhausted, a ghost in her own skin. I looked like a corpse that hadn’t yet realized it was supposed to stop breathing. My fingers traced over my collarbone, the spot my necklace was supposed to rest.

Ruby wanted nothing more than to become an Angel. Hugo had wanted the same. I didn’t know what I wanted, and yet I was the one still here. The grief of it all lodged deep in my ribs. But the guilt swallowed it whole, coiling tight like a viper around my throat.

The Thread slithered through the darkness.“Arabella.”

My focus snagged in the mirror just at the foot of my bed. I shook my head, letting soft curls tumble in front of my face. I was seeing things.No, I wasn’t.Hugo.

He was there, standing at the foot of my bed like I had willed him into existence. He was perfect, untouched, as ifdeath had never emptied his veins, had never left his body broken and breathless on the sparring ring floor.

His lips curved at the corners, that familiar smirk. But his eyes—his eyes were different.

“I knew you’d find me,” he murmured, words threaded with softness.

A tremor ripped through me. My fingers curled into my palms. Speaking to a ghost felt like madness, but so did thisentireplace.

“I’m so sorry,” I rasped, the words tasting like iron. “For what happened to you.” It felt wrong to want comfort from someone who no longer existed, but I wanted it anyway.

Hugo smiled, the cold biting as he drew closer. His thumb skimmed my cheek, the barest whisper of a touch. His tone softened. “No, I’m sorry, Arabella.” His hands tightened. “I’m so sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye.”

“It was my fault.” I sobbed. The tears pressed against my eyes, aching. I knew he wasn’t real, that none of this had been real, but I so desperately wanted comfort. So desperately wanted to beheld.“All my fault. I wish I could make it up to you.”

“Oh, but you can, darling.”Darling?The air in the room dropped a few degrees, and suddenly, my skin felt very bare. “Just Fall, Arabella.Fall, and we can be together again. As we should be.”

My blood ran cold as his grip tightened. The mirror behind shattered, and darkness rushed in.

Fall, and we can be together again.

I gasped, thrashing, but Hugo’s hands, too strong for a ghost, pulled me under. The room plunged into nothingness, the Thread turned into a roar.

I awoke in tangled sheets, damp with sweat. For a second, I wasn’t sure I’d woken up at all. The darkness still throbbed atthe corners of my vision. The sheets felt like grasping hands. The stained-glass window had been cracked open, a cool night breeze filtering through. My damned back wouldn’t stop aching, and the wounds were so tender I felt feverish. I shifted onto my side, kicking one leg out of the duvet.

The nightmare clung to me like cold, damp hands. They had been worse the past few days. Without my mother’s necklace it felt like sleep was a trap, a door left wide open to the dark. Or maybe it was the fever that was setting in. My wounds still hadn’t healed.

Dorian said the Lumen would keep me safe.Dorian.The thought of him made my stomach twist. I had no way of knowing if what he said was true, but itfelttrue. I needed to get the necklace back. Ineededthe cards.

I fired off a quick message to Dante, asking to meet. I expected my slate to buzz again, letting me know it had rebounded, but in my mind, the reply from the Thread was instant.

Soon.

34

The halls of Evermore had changed. Gone were the murmurs of gossip and ether scores. Instead, an oppressive silence swallowed the corridors, punctuated only by the rhythmic footsteps of the guards.

They stood at every archway, clad in blackened steel, their faces obscured beneath polished helmets. No one spoke above a whisper. After what happened to Ruby, I knew silence wasn’t safety, but an unspoken warning.

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