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A n hour later I was halfway down the marble staircase, my chest corset-tight.

The torchlight flickered, the air cold. Just get to the pub.

Just get to a phone. The words looped in my mind like a hymn, a desperate litany.

I didn’t give a damn what my parents wanted for me anymore, and my curiosity had gotten me nowhere.

I hadn’t stopped shaking since the tower.

Ruby acted like this was normal. A girl died. A girl?—

I shut my eyes. I wasn’t going to think about it. If I let myself remember the sound of her scream, the way the mist swallowed her whole, I’d unravel completely.

Just get to the pub. Get to a phone. Get out.

The staircase bent into shadow, the common room quiet. My boots thudded against the steps. Every sound echoed like a heartbeat, metronomic against my scrambled thoughts. I wasn’t going to be pulled into the madness of this place. I had to get out.

Dante made it seem simple. All I had to do was get expelled. But nothing seemed simple here. I couldn’t trust him, or anyone. I needed to speak to someone rational.

Then, soft as a dying breath, came a sob. I froze. The common room stretched before me, wreathed in the golden glow of chandelier light. And standing there, at the edge of the room, was a girl.

A girl who should not be here. A girl who should not… be.

Her leather bag hung from one shoulder, her blonde hair smoothed neatly in place, though her eyes were rimmed red, glassy. She looked… untouched. As if she hadn’t just plummeted to her death, as if her body hadn’t crumpled like a marionette cut from its strings.

My throat clenched. The walls shrank in. I had watched her fall. I had heard the crack of impact, the finality of it. But she was standing in front of me. Breathing.

She offered a small, apologetic smile. “Oh. I never got to introduce myself.” She sniveled, tucking a flick of blonde hair behind one ear. “I’m Mabel. It wasn’t meant for me this year, I guess.”

My stomach turned violently. “But I saw you die.” The words lodged thick in my throat. My grip tightened on the banister, nails pressing into the stone.

She let out a quiet, almost amused laugh, like I had just asked for directions. “I wasn’t chosen. I can’t participate this year.” Her smile turned tight, distant. “But it’s not my fault, really. Not after what they did to the odds.”

A fresh wave of nausea rolled through me.

The… odds? What odds? She should be a body cooling on the grass. A name spoken in hushed tones, in past tense. I saw her fall. I heard the impact, the awful, gut-wrenching certainty of it.

“They’ve changed things,” she mused, as if to herself. “It wasn’t always like this. Be careful, won’t you?”

Icy dread spiked through my veins. “Careful of what?”

Mabel shrugged, blinking slowly. “Few survive Evermore. Anyway, the competition isn’t fair this year.” Her fingers traced absently along the strap of her bag. “And you! Well, I hear you weren’t supposed to be here at all.”

For the first time, I felt the comments about surviving this place were not hyperbole. A hollow ringing started in my ears. Mabel stepped toward the door, pausing at the threshold. Then, with a crooked smile she said, “Better luck next time, I guess.”

The room spun like gravity had stopped working. Maybe it had, nothing made sense here. This wasn’t a school. This was a waking nightmare. It didn’t matter that she came back.

I saw her die. I could never unsee it. The common room was empty again. But I couldn’t make myself move. The air still held her perfume. My fingers still gripped the banister, and from somewhere down the hall, I swear I heard her laugh.

A whistle split the air, echoing against the vaulted ceilings as we neared the circle of prefects near the gate. I repeated my goals like a mantra. Get away from Evermore. Get to a phone. Get out.

I kept my head raised, masking the fact that my hands were shaking as Dorian’s violet eyes found mine. I moved mine away to his white shirt, loosely buttoned. To his crisp navy trousers. To the inscribed cufflinks that glinted beneath the moonlight. Ante Post.

I needed out. I needed a phone. I needed someone to tell me I hadn’t lost my mind. But then I saw him.

A tall, blonde guy dressed in a leather jacket approached the prefects from the far end of the corridor. He greeted Dorian with a clap on the back. I blinked like the world had lagged, my mind stuttering to keep up. No . It couldn’t be.

“Thanks for joining us, mate. How are you settling in?” Dorian grinned .

“Not bad,” Hugo Fox smiled. “I’m over in Ophanim House. I’ve got my own suite.” I never thought I’d see him again. Not after that night. Not after what we saw. This didn’t make any sense, and yet almost nothing had made sense since the accident.

Hollywood's golden boy, the rising star that vanished. He was alive. I’d almost forgotten the other night in Astoria Manor, with everything that had happened.

But now it was front of mind, the shadows swarming in front of my vision like dark clouds.

I felt the Thread whisper something, but my ears were ringing too loud to hear it.

Ruby said there was another recruit from the West Coast. She didn’t mention he happened to come from the same city.

Hugo flashed his perfect, commercial-worthy teeth, turning to me. “Arabella, right?” I felt my knees weaken. It seemed that we had both met the same fate that night, both been called to this place. Why? “Something told me we might cross paths again.”

“Right.” I nodded, willing myself to pick my jaw back up. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be real.

“You’ve earned your freedom. Ready, Davenant?” Dorian asked.

I narrowed my eyes, something cold trickling down my spine.

Without a word, Dorian turned and pressed a palm to the stone beside the gate.

A moment later, something clicked, the wards shuddering before the door to a secret passageway swung open.

Evermore operated like a fortress, and it was clear Dorian had the keys.

Ruby waited for Hugo and Dorian to get a distance ahead before she said, “You know him?” Two other prefects shouldered past us, a girl and a guy I didn’t recognize. Ruby’s focus lingered on one of them. “That’s the other recruit from the West Coast I mentioned. Small world. ”

“Truly.” I nodded, something in my chest sinking lower. “We went to this party a few nights ago, he was there. You’ve never heard of him? Hugo Fox? The Kissing Beat, Flecker’s Library?” I rattled through a few more films he’d starred in, but Ruby’s face stayed blank. “Never mind.”

“Most of us come from something, here.” Ruby shrugged. “You get used to it. Real fame, real power has nothing to do with screens. It’s older than that.” There it was again, a vague reference to something I was supposed to understand.

I glanced at her. “Older how?”

“The Common World doesn’t matter here, Arabella.” Ruby paused, looking at me with curiosity, as though trying to understand how I could be so stupid. Her breath curled into the night air.

“The Common World?” I repeated.

Ruby gestured beyond the gates. “They don’t matter, none of what goes on out there matters.”

I didn’t know how to respond. We followed the prefects down the moonlit drive as gravel crunched underfoot.

Ruby sidled closer. “I still don’t know how they tossed you in blind. I think everyone else here knows what they’ve signed up for.”

I quickened my pace. “Meaning?”

She shrugged. “Courtyard’s haunted, for starters.”

“I gathered that much.” My laugh came out thin.

Ruby faced ahead, eyes on the prefects. “It’s full of the ones who didn’t make it. Verrine’s talent is rare. Legendary. Before her, people actually died. Those are the souls that save students.”

“Ghosts saving students. Resurrection.” I shook my head. “I’ve had enough for one night.”

“Yeah, but—” Her smile flickered. “They don’t save just anyone.”

I bit down on the question that wanted out, but it slipped anyway. “Why me, then?”

She glanced at my necklace, eyes bright beneath the moonlight. “Maybe ask yourself what’s in your blood.”

I rolled the tension off my shoulders, rain spitting lightly from the sky. My hands were trembling. The gravel path blurred. I didn’t want to believe her, but my heart skipped like it did . “My blood?”

“Normal girls don’t walk away from a ninety-foot fall. If you survived, that means you’re meant to be here. That means you’re Luminari.”

“Luminari?” Ahead, the prefects turned onto the main road. Ruby’s words lingered like frost against my skin.

“A Luminari is a daughter or son of the Heavens,” she continued. “Born with celestial blood that gives them the power to Ascend into Angels or Fall into Daemons under the right conditions. With the right guidance.”

I shook my head. “You’re insane.” My voice came out rough, broken. “Utterly, completely insane.” But I knew she wasn’t. Because I had heard that word before, though I pretended it wasn’t true.

My Mom had called me it every night before bed.

It had always sounded like nonsense. It was just a pet name.

My pulse surged in my ears. I was walking through fog, through memory, through things I hadn’t thought about in years.

Had she known all along she wanted to send me here? Had she always meant for me to?

My Luminari girl. I thought it was maybe Latin, something from her research. Now, I wasn’t so sure. One thing was certain in all of this. I needed to get the hell out of here.