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I consider saying no. The last thing I want to do right now is follow Kaelis anywhere.

But saying no is a luxury I don’t have…not if I’m being sensible about my predicament and what is most likely to yield information I need.

And my better sense has left me too often in dealing with this prince.

Bristara is right— I need to pull myself together.

She didn’t say it in as few words, but I know her well enough to hear it without her saying it.

“Fine,” I say begrudgingly.

We cross through the main bedroom to the exact opposite corner.

He opens a side door neatly tucked into the stately molding.

I’m met with a perfectly normal—by a prince’s standards, at least—dressing room.

Decadence drips from floor to ceiling, with tailored fabrics on the walls and plush velvet chairs.

A long table stretches down the center, its polished surface gleaming under the light of a chandelier.

“Does dressing exhaust you so much that you have to sit down in the midst of doing it?” I nod at the chairs.

“It’s exhausting being this good-looking.”

A snort of amusement escapes me. I quickly scowl at the look of triumph that Kaelis wears.

“?‘Good-looking’ for someone who seems to only dress in the dark. Is everything black and gray because you don’t have to think about it matching?” I run my fingers along the garments hanging on the racks. If my grubby hands touching his clothes bothers him, he doesn’t let it show.

“I have a look, and it suits me.”

I pause, getting a glimpse of an equally lavish bathroom through a cracked door.

The door stands between rows of shelves holding everything from perfume bottles to jewels of state.

But the bathroom isn’t what distracts me, nor is it the other locked door that Kaelis is moving toward.

I can’t help myself; I lift one of the dark gray crowns off its place, shift over to a mirror, and settle it upon my brow.

The circlet, inlaid with obsidian stones, looks utterly out of place on me, and not just because it’s a little too big. My cheeks are still slightly sunken, and my eyes and hair lack their luster. I look like a pauper wearing a prince’s crown.

“Are you that excited to wed me and claim your crown as princess?” Kaelis’s movements are soundless.

Without warning, he’s at my side again. His fingers curl around my shoulders, and, for a shared breath, we both occupy the mirror.

Him behind me, so close that I can smell the scent that must’ve come out of one of these crystal perfume bottles.

“Hardly.” I remove the crown and settle it back on its shelf.

The prince leans in, tilting his face toward me, as if he were about to kiss me on the cheek. I inhale slowly, about to tell him off yet again, but he whispers, “A crown suits you, you know.”

“You’re a wretched liar.” My words are even and dry. They don’t betray the treacherous quickening of my heart.

Kaelis releases me with a low laugh that I feel almost as if it were in my own chest. “That usually works on most women.”

I turn, glaring up at him. “I’ve no interest in your crowns or titles…or previous escapades with women or men or whomever else.”

“I know, and it’s quite refreshing.” He steps away. “It did suit you, though, as queen of the rats.”

I make a noise of disgust.

Kaelis produces an intricate silver key from his coat pocket and unlocks another tucked-away door that I hadn’t noticed on entry with a soft click. The dimly lit passage beyond beckons, and Kaelis takes the lead. Once more, I follow him into the unknown.

The passage is straightforward. A downward slope, a turn, another, straight on again.

I can taste the warm summer air before I see the narrow, arched windows that line the left and right sides.

They offer glimpses of the mist below the academy that consumes its base, and of the main structure ahead of us.

“We’re inside the bridge to your apartments,” I realize as I get my bearings. Kaelis nods. “Why not just walk across the top?”

“You think I want everyone to know all of my comings and goings?” He glances back with a sly smile. “I’d lose most of my air of mystery if I can’t be seen popping up at random places throughout the academy, with everyone unable to figure out how I got there.”

He seems rather proud of this and says it like it’s all a game. But all I hear is: I can be anywhere, and everywhere. As if I weren’t already always looking over my shoulder.

Back into the bowels of the academy, downward, and downward still, we continue.

The walls become rougher and the air cooler, to the point that my breath curls into frosty puffs despite it being summer.

We’re deep in the cliffs, and I can feel the weight of the stone—of history and magic—all around me.

Finally, the passageway opens to a vast, cavernous room. The only competition for its magnitude is its beauty. Both steal my breath away.

A monumental sculpture of an androgynous figure stands proudly in the center.

It’s carved from a marble-like stone, primarily alabaster in color, but instead of gray veins roping through it there are streaks of glowing magic, as if the stone is nothing more than a facade for pure power within.

The glow of the sculpture, though bright enough to see by, doesn’t even touch the highest point of the ceiling.

Their face is one of serenity and ageless wisdom, eyes closed and smile coy. They extend their arms, cradling a globe in their hands on which is rendered in intricate detail all the oceans and continents of our world. Lands I recognize…and ones that I have never even imagined.

I’m drawn to the base of the statue. A ring of what appears to be glowing water separates the figure from an outer wall with twenty numbered slots, each clearly crafted to house a card. The meaning is clear.

“Twenty slots, twenty Majors,” I murmur, resting my hand in the center one labeled with a 10 —the Wheel of Fortune…my slot.

“The journey of the Fool. Each encounter exposed the true, magic nature of the world. All must be accounted for before the World might be summoned once more and used.” Kaelis speaks quietly, but his voice carries on echoes in the empty space.

I look between him and the statue. “It’s real, then.” This would truly be an intricate lie if it weren’t. Everything he’s said, the Majors, how the others acted, what Silas said…It’s too much evidence stacking up to believe the World is a ruse any longer.

“You stand before the nexus of all power. The one card that matters more than any other. Where everything has ended, begun, and will end, and will begin again. Where kingdoms have risen and fallen. Over and over for time eternal.” He looks up at the statue with awe and reverence.

I lean against the base of the sculpture, studying him. “What do you want with the World?”

“What anyone would.” He drags his eyes to me, and with them a chill runs down my spine. “To change everything.”

Folding my arms, I ask, “Change it to what ? Does this world not suit you enough as it is?”

A rumble of bitter amusement rises in his chest. The noise coils tension within me.

I can’t tell if it’s arousal…or fear. The way he looks at me is as something to be claimed.

Possessed. Owned. I tighten my arms slightly around myself, as though I could protect my person from the man who already has me in his palm.

Maybe, something in me whispers, he was right about you.

Maybe, for once in your life, it’d feel good to submit.

I push the thought violently away and keep my focus.

“No. Not in the slightest.” His answer is so simple, raw, and direct, it almost catches me off guard.

“Oh?” I shake my head, and disgust creeps into my words. “The prince with his own castle, who has a direct hand in controlling all the magic of the kingdom, who personally ensures the futures are stolen from every Arcanist, who—”

“Had his own future stolen,” Kaelis snaps.

I’m startled to silence, and he uses it as an opportunity to speak over whatever thoughts I had that are now lost. “Oh, Clara, you didn’t think that highborn and lowborn Arcanists were the only ones who were made to sacrifice futures to the Arcanum Chalice, did you? ”

“But you…” I honestly thought it’d be the case.

“I am an Arcanist, above and before all else. That puts me in service to the crown and under the laws of the land just as any other.” Kaelis closes the gap between us with purposeful steps.

For once, I don’t feel as if he is pursuing me as a predator…

but instead as someone tryingto meet me as an equal.

The idea is so foreign that my mind instantly rejects it.

“I was brought to the fortress and, before none but my father, made to give up my future. I surrendered all three cards to the Chalice.”

“He forced you to do that, even as a prince? As his own son?”

“I am the spare. I exist as a tool to my father and my brother. To manage their magics, fortify their borders, maintain their trade, and keep them safe.” Kaelis comes to a stop before me.

He’s telling the truth. That, or he’s an even better liar than I ever gave him credit for. But everything in my marrow tells me he’s being honest.

“Forgive me if I don’t feel sorry for you.

” I unfold my arms and grip the edge of the pedestal.

My gaze is sharp, I know it is, but I do nothing to dull it.

He’s trying to claim that we have something in common when we don’t.

“You might be struggling, but it is not the way the rest of us are. You still have spent your days in gilded halls with tables and cups full. You might be seeking freedom, but you aren’t just using the cards.

You are using people to obtain it. You’re no better than anyone else in your twisted family. ”