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I straightened 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’re awake.”

“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’ll graduate 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?”

“Like I said. You fix it.”

“How?” My voice rose, panic crawling up my throat. “What, do I adopt an orphan? Rescue a cat? What the hell is going to push my ether up by a hundred points before she notices?”

Dorian stared at me. “You need to get the cards back from Dante. It’s the only way.”

Just his name made my skin prickle. Part of me wanted to slap him the next time I saw him, and another part of me wanted something worse. I let out a dry laugh. “Sure. Let me just pop into hell really quick for you.”

“Elsewhere,” Dorian snapped. “You don’t have a choice. If those cards stay with Dante, you’ll never recover your ether, no matter what you do. Tampering with an artifact that powerful has eternal consequences.”

I rubbed the back of my neck, suddenly cold. This wasn’t fair. I’d been manipulated, and I wouldn’t fall victim to it again. “How do I trust you?” My voice was hoarse. “I know you want those cards for yourself. Why ?”

Dorian’s jaw tensed. “Because it was my job to protect them.” He met my gaze, and for once, there was no arrogance, no cruelty, only honesty.

“My mother is furious. She blames me for losing them and she’s not entirely wrong.

” It disarmed me more than his empty threats ever could.

I didn’t know this version of him, the one who sounded less like a Daemon and almost… vulnerable. Human.

“Good.” I folded my hands together. “Then you can help me.” I didn’t trust him. Not really. But if he was in danger too, that made us allies, didn’t it? Or maybe I was walking straight into a trap with my eyes wide open.

“Getting into Elsewhere requires magic, dark magic. Within the Arcana, there’s one card that operates as a resurrection card.

One. The Hanged Man. If you take it, you can return to Evermore alive without my mother noticing.

” He leaned closer. “I’ll fall on my sword and get her to bring me back.

She asked me to protect them. She won’t be mad as long as I have the deck. ”

“You say it like it’s easy.” I bit back. Dorian’s promise wasn’t adding up. If we didn’t manage to get the cards, Verrine would still resurrect him. He was her only son. But I wasn’t sure what would happen to me. “There has to be another way.”

“There’s not. This is important, Davenant.

Right before you arrived, the deck went missing.

Stolen from right under my nose. Whoever took it returned them the night before we played with them at the Crossed Keys.

After the game I didn’t want the stress of it anymore.

I hid them in the Hall of Artifacts so this wouldn’t happen again.

” He raked a hand through his hair. “If we don’t return them, my involvement in this mess will ruin my score. And I’m about to graduate!”

“That’s not my problem.” I shrugged. “I’ll find another way to raise my score.”

“Have it your way. And when you fail? When she notices?”

I hesitated. Just for a second. His lip twitched, something cold and knowing flickering in his eyes. “I don’t know,” I muttered.

“I don’t think you quite understand.” His voice was lethally quiet.

“Unless you want to drop your score further and become a Fate like me or worse , you are out of options. Even a stratum like mine, Fate, takes a while to build. Slow sins, you know. Built up. Yours nose-dived impressively, just not enough. I dreaded to think what kind of act could land you at my level overnight.” For a moment, a ghost of his usual playfulness crossed his face.

“Of course, if you’d like to Fall, I can help you with that. ”

“No,” I shot back. I didn’t want to become a Daemon. I wanted my life back. I could fix this, I had to. Maybe if I did, she’d be grateful enough that they’d let me go. Mom had escaped. She’d gotten out somehow. That meant it was possible. And if it was possible, I had to try.

Dorian tilted his head, considering me. Then, slowly, he reached for my slate. I braced as he pulled up my ether chart.

Ruby swore. The numbers weren’t just low. They were bleeding. I watched, horror tightening in my chest, as my present ether ticked down another point.

–15 → –16

It wasn’t stuck; the consequences weren’t finished. It was still dropping. Dorian’s gaze lifted to mine, calm, clinical. “Well, look at that. You’re already falling, Davenant.” I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. “There is no fixing this,” he continued smoothly. “Not in time.”

I shook my head. “No. I just have to…help someone. Do something good. That’s how ether works, isn’t it?”

Ruby reached for my hand beneath the table, squeezing once.

“You could save an entire bloody orphanage, and it wouldn’t matter!” Dorian shouted.

Ruby pulled away, her eyes trained on her slate, fingers gripping the sleeve of her jumper so tightly that her knuckles had gone white.

“You see it, don’t you?” Dorian said, turning to Ruby instead. “Even if she tries now, it’s no use. Her fate is sealed. And I need those cards back.”

My hands trembled in my lap. The numbers. The certainty in Dorian’s voice. The way Ruby couldn’t look at me. It all felt like drowning.

I slammed my palms down on the table. “I am NOT dying like this, Dorian.”

Dorian smiled. Not in amusement or cruelty but in something far worse.

Certainty. Like he’d already seen the ending of my story, and I was just too stupid to realize it.

“You will.” He stood, pulling out his own slate as he fired off a one-handed message.

“The only question is if you’ll make it back.

You’ve already interfered with a Vestige.

The Crucible sees everything . Good deeds won’t erase that. ”

I shoved away from the bench, heart pounding. I wouldn’t do this. I wouldn’t let him manipulate me into thinking there was only one way.

I turned to Ruby, desperate. “Tell him he’s wrong.” She didn’t look at me. “I’ll fix it,” I whispered. “I just need time.”

“The thing is—” Dorian’s eyes glinted. He leaned in, lowering his voice to a murmur. “There is no time. Now get to bed, both of you, before you dig yourselves a deeper hole.”

I clenched my fists, glaring at him as I stood.

Ruby still nervously worked her lip, slate pinging as she watched her own score drop.

I said I’d fix it, and I’d meant it. But as we turned down the dark corridor, our footsteps echoing like a countdown, I couldn’t see any way this ended—except in death.