Page 60 of A Fate Everlasting

“Rumours,” he said lightly, but his voice had lost its usual bounce. “Well. We’d best hope they stay rumours, then, hadn’t we? You understand I cannot let you go without retribution. Youmustreturn the cards to me. The full deck. You must undo the damage you’ve caused. Once they are in my hands, I will let you through the gates and make sure no one comes after you.”

“I can’t. Dante is in Elsewhere, and I can’t go back there without dying.” I felt a pressure in my chest. “Verrine must have told you. I was already resurrected once.”

“I don’t think you need to go back.” Godwin leaned forward, so close I could see my reflection in his moon-rimmed glasses. “Dante has one weakness…” He tilted his head, studying me, his smile sharpening. “You.”

“Me?” A shiver raked down my spine.

Godwin motioned toward me. “Your slate, please, Miss Davenant.”

I hesitated, but handed it over. He fired off a quick message, then slid it back to me.

“You think this will work?” I asked. “A message? He wouldn’t give them to me before.”

Godwin shrugged. “I have no idea. But if we don’t get thosecards back, the power will remain in the hands of the Archdaemons.” A haze of smoke bloomed between us. “And you will never be free.”

Dread flooded my veins. My fingers moved without thought, brushing against the pendant at my collar. Smooth. No,scalding, like something alive and trying to burn its way in. But why now? Why help me now, when he could have before? Was this a punishment, or something else?

“Why do you want the deck, other than my retribution?” I asked.

Pipe smoke twisted into strange, curling shapes in the candlelight. Godwin looked at me, a cold glint in his eye. “Get the cards first. Maybe then I’ll tell you.”

28

Asound shattered the midnight silence, a single ping,as somber as the final note in a requiem. My heart quickened. There were a thousand ways this could all go wrong.

Slate light carved through the dorm’s shadows, stabbing my tired eyes. I clicked it open, the erratic thrum of my heartbeat the only sound I could hear. There was just a single response, unsigned.

Meet me in the chapel. Alone.

My pulse thrummed high in my throat, and yet, I was not surprised. I should have expected this. Godwin had. Why me? Why was Dante interested inme?

A slow exhale steadied my trembling fingers as I slid out of bed. The floor was cold beneath my bare feet, but I barely felt it. My hands worked quickly, fastening buttons, pulling my tights taut, buckling the straps of my boots. Every piece of clothing felt like armor.

This wasn’t just for me. This was for my parents. For Hugo.For Ruby. For every name carved into Evermore’s bones, left to rot under the weight of its secrets. I wasn’t going down without a fight. I should’ve been afraid, but some part of me still wanted answers. It wasn’t just the deck I needed. It was the truth.

For a heartbeat I simply stood in the middle of the room, palms pressed to the cool iron bedframe, letting the hush settle over me. Ruby’s even breathing drifted from the other bed. Beyond the window the rain ticked like a soft metronome.

My muscles still ached from conditioning, my ribs bruised where Hugo’s javelin had landed, yet in the quiet I could feel my own stubborn pulse. If I managed to get the deck from Dante, was it selfish to run like my mother had? Could Godwin really get me out?

Fear was still there, cold and ever-present, but a harder thing rose beneath it. Resolve. When I finally moved, it was with purpose, every step forward a vow to see this through.

The chapel loomed ahead, a relic from a time when Evermore still pretended to be holy. Now, the stone was cracked, ivy curling between the fractures like veins beneath ancient skin.

Wind howled through the stone slats, a hollow sound that sent a shiver through me. My breath came too fast, my footsteps too loud. Everything in me knew I shouldn’t be here. But I was tired of waiting, tired of watching. Tired of feeling like a ghost in my own damn body. Only the flicker of candlelight cut through the dark, casting long shadows over the stone. I almost turned back, until I heard the music.

It didn’t feel like a melody, exactly, more like a memory. Half-broken notes bled from the piano. Dante sat at the keys, back to me, moonlight striping across his coat through thefractured stained glass. His hands moved effortlessly over the keys, like he’d done this a thousand times before. I hated that it moved me.

He let the last note ring out. It lingered in the air like smoke. “You came,” he said, without turning.

I didn’t answer.

“I hoped you wouldn’t.”

The silence blanketing us felt like a spell, though fragile enough to shatter. The last note still rang in my ears, though his hands no longer touched the keys.

I didn’t move. Neither did he. The silence breathed, and the song,his song, lingered between us like fate itself. I forced myself to look at him, to not give him the satisfaction of seeing my fear.

Dante was the first to speak again. “You asked to meet me.” His voice was softer than I expected, almost practiced.

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