Page 36 of A Fate Everlasting

The words were heavy between us. I couldn’t take them back, and part of me didn’t want to. I was tired of carrying this alone, of pretending everything was fine when this was all cracking beneath me.

“It is,” I whispered. “Minus fifteen.” For a long time, she just stared at me. Then she pushed the hot chocolate away as if being near me was enough to taint her ether.

“It was like seventy yesterday, wasn’t it?” She frowned, stirring her drink. “What, you’re trying to get marked as a Daemon? That’s not a good plan.”

“I didn’t mean for this to happen.” My voice cracked. Ruby didn’t answer right away. “I messed up.”

“How?” She blinked, once. Then again, shifting back like she could physically put distance between herself and whatever I was about to say. “The incident with Dorian couldn’t have drained you that much.”

The incident.I shuddered. I hadn’t stopped thinking about the look on his face when he pulled back, teeth stained with blood. That flicker of something. My body still remembered the press of his hand at my throat, the way his teeth sank into my neck. I shook my head to clear away the memory. There were more important things to focus on, now.

“It was me,” I confessed, my eyes trained on my mug. I watched the white film dissipate, the bubbles bursting. “The cards. I took them.”

For a second, there was only silence. A dead, suffocating silence. Ruby’s throat bobbed as she swallowed. Then, “You’re joking.”

I shook my head. Her entire body went rigid, a slow horror bleeding into her features. “The Arcana? Are you…Are you clinically insane?”

“I didn’t know what it was,” I rushed, words tangling in my desperation. “Dante said it was just a deck of playing cards.”

“Saints.” She clapped a hand over her mouth. “You! You—” Her voice cut off, uneven, like she couldn’t even say it out loud. “That’s one of the Vestiges, one of the most sacred artifacts Evermore owns.”

“Really?” I snapped. “We were playing with them Sunday night like they were nothing. Dorian had them.”

She ignored me, pushing back from the table so fast the bench scraped loudly against the floor. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

“I’m sorry,” I uttered uselessly.

“Does Dorian know?” she demanded, voice rising. The breath punched out of me. My throat locked up. Ruby shook her head. “He does, doesn’t he? That’s why he was so furious earlier. That’s why your ether is dropping like a dead weight.”

I swallowed thickly. Ruby stared at me like she was seeing a ghost. Then, lowly, “Oh, we are so, so screwed. This is beyond help. Reversing this ether damage is the only thing you can do.” She shrugged, then lowered her voice. “Even being around you is a risk to my score now, Arabella. Your negativity might rub off on me.”

“That’s a myth, surely.”

Ruby didn’t speak. She just stared at me like she was seeing something that hadn’t been there before. I looked down at my hands, trembling faintly around the chipped mug.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. I felt useless,stupid,for placing my trust in the hands of someone like Dante. Ruby had warned me. We sat in silence, steam curling up between us. Evermorewould never have let me go so easily. Overhead, the lights flickered.

Then, the double doors crashed open, the sound like a gunshot in the silent hall. My stomach dropped. Dorian strode in, rain clinging to his white shirt, his jaw locked tight. His attention seared through me, eyes storm-dark and burning. My problems were about to geta lotworse.

16

Istraightened instinctively, the heat draining from my face. I set down my mug with a quiet clink, forcing myself not to flinch beneath Dorian’s stare.

“What are you two doing out of bed?” He leant over the table. “Get back to Seraphim tower. The Crucible is going rogue lately, you don’t know how much something like this could tip your score.” He frowned. “Not that you seem to care, Davenant.”

“It’s a crisis,” Ruby ran her hands through her hair. “Besides,you’reawake.”

“I’m a prefect it’s my job to monitor the halls,” he sneered. “I’m guessing you know what she’s done?” Then he turned to me, my necklace turning cold. “It’s a matter of time before my mother finds out.”

“Does she suspect?” Ruby asked quietly.

“She doesn’t know yet,” Dorian shook his head. “She’s too concerned about Dante. I was just in her office, but she will.” Dorian slid into the seat next to me. “Cards go missing. One student’s ether plummets.Obvious.And guess what, Davenant?” He turned to me, his brows set low. “You’llgraduate just to become a shadow. A whisper. Your score is a losing number, just enough to make you utterly unremarkable. It’ll be like you never existed.”

I thought of my mother’s photo hanging in the corridor, her face scratched out. Is that what happened to her? The thought clawed at my chest. Not death, but insignificance.

He said it so plainly, like my future was already written, carved into a headstone somewhere. My stomach clenched. I tried to picture what that meant, becoming nothing.Forgotten.A soul so frightfully boring time stamped over any memory of it.

I gritted my teeth. “Then what do I do, Dorian?”

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