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D istantly, I heard voices. Something warm touched my skin, a liquid sliding down my throat. “Stop,” I heard a voice say. “She doesn’t need it. She’s alive.”

Alive. My body convulsed at the sound, every nerve igniting at once. I gasped, lurching forward as a choke escaped my lips. Air flooded my lungs, searing like fire. My body ached all over, limbs heavy, like I’d been stitched back together by hands that didn’t quite know how I fit.

I heard movement beside me, another sound of breath being dragged back into reluctant lungs. Hugo. He gasped like he had been underwater for too long. His chest heaved, golden curls clinging with sweat. His blue eyes were unfocused, alive but dazed. We were alive.

He didn’t know me, but I reached for him anyway. My fingers hovered above his, desperate to find the same warmth we’d once shared. But there was nothing. The tether was gone. He didn’t even flinch. I could’ve been a stranger.

I blinked hard, trying to reorient myself.

The familiar scent of Evermore’s chapel filled my nose, incense and old wood and candle wax.

A golden chandelier swayed overhead, throwing shattered light across the vaulted ceiling.

I wasn’t in Elsewhere anymore. We were back at Evermore. Somehow, we had survived.

I swallowed, my throat raw. “What happened?” The smell of incense was a bitter tonic to my senses.

Verrine stood at the center of the room, her usual neat hair in frantic disarray. Deep circles had formed beneath her eyes. We were in some kind of chamber. There was a marble floor, cracked pillars, and a golden chandelier trembling overhead. Verrine’s office, maybe.

Dorian peeled away from a pillar on the opposite side, joining her. His lips were a tight line as Verrine spoke. “Tell me, Arabella.” She folded her hands neatly behind her back. “Was it worth it?”

My mouth was too dry to answer right away. This was over. I had survived Elsewhere, but I’d soon be sent back. I swallowed thickly, then eventually I managed to speak. “We found Dante. I tried to get the cards back.”

“This isn’t about the cards.” Verrine’s expression didn’t flicker, but Dorian’s brows jumped at that. “This is about defiance. Do you understand what you have done? What you three have done?”

“I’m sorry. I just wanted to leave Evermore. I think there’s been some mistake, some misunderstanding,” I said, and Dorian dropped his head. “Are you going to force me to graduate early?”

“No.” Verrine studied me, then paused to rake her hands through her frazzled hair. She turned away, her gaze drifting through the arched window toward the storm-lit horizon. “Not yet.”

“Why? ”

Her answer was quiet. Almost gentle. “Arabella, there are many things you do not yet understand. Your enrolment here is far more complicated than it seems.” She gestured to Hugo, whose eyes were wide beneath his dipped brow.

“That’s why I created a tether between you two.

I wanted to give you someone to lean on, someone to keep an eye on you.

I can see that careful bit of magic has been broken.

Luckily the severence triggered my slate, and I was able to locate you. ”

“What?” The air left my lungs. So none of it was real. Not the tether, not the closeness I thought we had. It hadn’t been a connection, it had been a leash. “Why would you do something like this?”

I stared at her, but my own voice felt muffled in my ears, as if I were listening underwater. I didn’t know what to feel, whether it was grief or anger or shame. I just knew I hated how calm she was.

“Your mother left Evermore years ago.” Verrine said.

“That should have been impossible. Her absence left an open wound in the system, Arabella. And you,” She seethed, yellow-brown eyes slicing straight through my defences.

“You are here as the consequence of that defiance. I would ask you to forgive me for not trusting you outright, but I can see now my instincts were astute. As always.”

Every part of me itched to scream. I curled my hands into fists, trying to steady the trembling in my chest. Verrine had been controlling me this whole time.

The silence between us was taut, and Dorian was still watching me intently.

It wasn't smug, or cruel. He was just… watching. Like he wanted to say something but didn’t trust himself to speak.

I hated that I still wanted to know what it was.

I swallowed. “So, what happens now?” A slow, knowing smile curled across Verrine’s lips .

“I think you know what happens now, Miss Davenant. You play by my rules unless you want to risk making Elsewhere your permanent residence.” I glared at her. “I didn’t think so. The three of you must get to bed now. It’s past midnight, and classes resume tomorrow, as normal.”

That was it? No punishment? Dorian’s jaw flexed. He stepped toward me, just close enough to make Verrine narrow her eyes. Her grip clawed around his arm, but she staggered for a moment. The resurrections had cost her.

“So what, we’re pretending like nothing is wrong? Like the cards aren’t missing?” I demanded. That didn’t make any sense. She should be furious. The cards were valuable, ancient, a student had taken them. “You’re not concerned that a student is missing?”

I swore I saw the trace of a smile ghost across her lips, but it was gone before I could tell if it was a trick of the torchlight. “Don’t tempt fate, Arabella,” she said simply.

A dreadful spluttering sound rang out next to me.

Hugo was on his hands and knees, fingers digging into the marble, gasping like he had been underwater for too long.

Something was wrong. His breathing was too shallow.

His skin had lost its warmth, his eyes hollow.

It was like he had been put together again with pieces missing.

Something cleaved in my throat. His lips moved like he was trying to form words, but no sound came.

He looked at me, through me, and I knew something wasn’t right.

A flicker of something dark passed over Verrine’s face.

Her magic had limits, that’s what Dorian had said.

Conducting three resurrections at once wasn’t possible.

“He’s not stabilizing,” Dorian murmured. “Mum, this isn’t good.” That was all he got out before Hugo collapsed again, blood of deepest red pooling beneath him .

“Out,” Verrine shouted, voice razor-sharp as it echoed off the stone and marble. “Both of you. Now .”

I choked back a sob as I raced through the double doors and back into the chapel. I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. If I saw him, saw what I’d done, I wasn’t sure I’d keep running.