Page 78 of A Fate Everlasting

“With blood,” Godwin grimaced. “Blood of an opposite kind.”

“An Angel?” I found myself mirroring his disgust. Something heavy thudded overhead.

“I don’t believe the blood of an Angel is its opposite.” Godwin shook his head. “No.”

“Then what is?” My voice felt hoarse, scraped raw.

Godwin paused. “That’s what we need to figure out. Esmerelda is a gifted alchemist. I will seek her out and discover the decoagulant that will undo the binding spell.”

“Right.” I nodded, moving toward the door. Esmerelda, the alchemy professor. She had been concerned about the Archangels the night I arrived. She’d want to stop this. “I’ll try Dante again, try and get the deck back.” I paused, questions burning in the back of my mind. “Was it always this way? Was it always a rigged game?”Even when my mother attended Evermore?

Godwin didn’t answer at first. Then, finally, he said, “Always.” He gave a clipped nod, his features set stark against his face. “Evermore’s game has never been fair. My own score is proof of that.” Air caught in my throat.

My fingers curled at my sides. That must have been why my mother fled. She’d tried to leave when she realized that no one was playing fair.

Godwin had admitted to tampering with the system, too. Could I trust him? Could I trust that he knew what he was doing? I wasn’t sure. He was either the last true ally I had left, or the final hand pushing me over the edge.

The room seemed to exhale, the only sound the rustle of ancient parchment like Godwin’s books were breathing.A sound cracked through the stillness, echoing from the staircase. Stone groaned overhead, boots slamming.

Godwin’s face blanched. “This isn’t just our Headmistress you’re up against,” he whispered. “She’s working with the High King of Elsewhere.” The air was suddenly too thin. “This is Elsewhere you are fighting, young Arabella.” The shadows beneath the door stretched, curling at the edges like prying hands. “And you are out of time.”

The door flew open, crashing against the stone with enough force to send dust spilling from the rafters. The room seemed to shudder, recoiling from the presence that had stepped through the threshold.

Dante stood framed in the doorway, wreathed in shadow like a dying star, two guards flanking him. His coat hung loosely around his broad frame, his eyes deeply ringed, as though he had just roused from a dream—or a nightmare. His eyes shifted between me and Godwin, something knowing settling in his features.

“I see you’ve been busy,” he murmured.

I took a slow, measured step back. “Stay away from me.”

Dante tilted his head, considering. His attention fell to mynecklace. “Oh, but I can’t do that,little thief.” The words slid down my spine like a rod of cold steel.

Godwin moved first. I barely saw it happen. His hand shot out, fingers curling around a shard of light as an incantation spilled from his lips. The room surged with power.

His coat singed at the edges, but the flames died instantly. Then he barely lifted a hand, like the act bored him. Godwin was flung back like a doll, his body colliding with the table, wood splintering beneath his weight. A strangled gasp left him, blood blooming at the corner of his lips.

He was powerful, more powerful than I realized.

I lunged, instinct overriding reason, but Dante was already there. His hand caught my wrist mid-motion. We were inches apart, his presence overwhelming, suffocating. Behind his ear, a crescent moon. I hadn’t noticed it in his room the other day. He’d been marked. He’d Fallen. Of course he had. There was never any doubt which side he’d choose.

“Don’t,” he warned, voice low, quiet.

Rage clawed up my throat, hot and all-consuming. “Another betrayal,” I spat.

“Orders from the High King,” a guard bellowed, reaching for me. “The girl must be secured until she has Fallen.”

My blood curdled, mind scrambling to make sense of the words. The High King of Elsewhere had issued the order himself.Why?

“Yes. Take her below,” Dante commanded. His expression a mask of indifference. “She knows too much, now. The Sanctum wards will keep both courts from sensing her. Until the Rift, she stays where no Archdaemon—or Archangel for that matter—can reach her.”

“No!” I cast a frantic look to Godwin as the guards hauled me forward, but he was unconscious, slumped against the farwall. Why? What did the High King of Elsewhere want with me?

“They were always going to find you.” Dante’s gaze dragged over me, slowly, dark with something I didn’t want to recognize. “I’d rather it be me than them.”

I could have screamed. I could have run. But what would be the point? The walls of Evermore had already closed in. Every move I made, Dante would already see coming. Maybe he always had.

“You don’t get to act like you care about what happens to me,” I seethed. “Not now.”

There was a long silence. And then, so softly, so carefully, as if it were the only thing that mattered he said, “You have no idea what I care about.”

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