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“I’ll get you any coat you could ever desire.” Kaelis takes it. Once more, he moves on before there’s an opportunity for me to decipher the deeper meaning of what he just said. “Now, watch.”

Kaelis throws the coat into the room. It hardly has an opportunity to catch the air.

The moment it opens, a beam of light blinks in and out of existence.

The coat is cleaved in two. Like sharks in a frenzy, the quick flashing light cuts each piece a hundred times more before the pieces land on the sandy floor as barely visible scraps… little more than dust, or sand.

“ Oh. ” Had Silas not come to my aid, I would’ve been reduced to an unrecognizable pulp. No wonder why I saw the tiny shard of bone; there’s nothing else left of the people who die here.

“That’s why you had to follow me exactly. ”

“How did you know where the beams of light would appear?”

“It’s a pattern,” he says like it’s obvious, but it certainly was not.

Resisting the sensation of feeling inept, I continue my inquiry. “I asked what that room was…How does it work? What cards made it? How does the magic sustain itself?”

“That is the power of the Fool.” Kaelis turns, leading me through the tunnel. “Good job of keeping up, by the way.”

“You sound impressed.”

“Not really. I already knew how nimble you are.” His voice is deep, and the glance he casts over his shoulder is borderline suggestive.

“Do you?”

“I’ve watched you closely for months. Made easier now that I share my apartments with you.”

I pull us to a stop in the tunnel. Kaelis’s eyes swing to mine, a dark brow arching. “Then why have you treated me like an unwelcome guest ever since I moved in?”

“I have not.”

“You certainly have.” I level my eyes with his, and he lets out a noise somewhere between a huff and a sigh that tells me he’s giving in.

“Because…” His one word shivers up my spine. “Knowing I had you there, with me. It gives me ideas.” The sentiment turns his voice deep and grave by the end.

“What sort of ideas?”

Kaelis’s eyes shine in the low light. “You wouldn’t want to know them.”

“Bold of you to tell me what I do or do not, would or would not want.”

“You’ve made your feelings—your resentment —toward me perfectly clear.”

“And you feel the same about me,” I say with confidence.

“Do I? Tell me how much hatred I have shown you. How much resentment.” Kaelis waits.

I open my mouth and slowly close it. The man has been withdrawn of late, but not resentful…

In fact, it’s been months since I last felt anything that might resemble animosity from him.

I hate that I’m suddenly tongue-tied. Second-guessing half my thoughts and words.

With a barely audible sigh, Kaelis pulls me along as if we’re both running from the moment and headfirst into whatever else awaits us. “This way.”

We round a corner. Heat and light pelt me. I blink, my eyes instantly watering. A wall of fire blocks our path.

Kaelis stops right in front of it. The swirling flames roar with such ferocity they create their own wind. It tangles embers in his hair, illuminating the black and purple with gold.

“Do you trust me?” He tightens his grip on my hand, looking back my way.

“What’s with that question?”

“That’s not an answer.”

I know it’s not. Do I really trust Kaelis? His dark eyes, now sparking with flames, bore holes into me. As if he thinks he can find the answer inside me before I can. Knowing him and his eternal arrogance, he probably does think so.

“Do you trust me?” he repeats, the question barely audible above the roar of the flames.

I suck in a breath. “Yes.”

Fingers locked with mine in a viselike grip, he lunges forward into the fire. Shock steals a scream as I’m pulled through.

But the fire feels like nothing more than a whisper of cool air. Kaelis and I stand between two rows of flames lined by piles of ash that I suspect might have once been human. Still, even seeing as much, I can’t help but wonder…

“Is any of it real?” Even as I ask, sweat rolls down the back of my neck.

“Most of what you see is real.” Kaelis guides me down the next wall before pulling me through. “But there are gaps in the fire, filled with illusion. The places we’re going are the only places that are safe.”

We navigate to the other side, unharmed.

“How did you figure all this out?” I ask as we start down the next tunnel.

“Slow progression, testing, instinct.” He shrugs, as if it’s nothing.

“A dangerous game of trial and error.” I really loathe when the prince is so impressive. It makes me want to work even harder.

“Isn’t it always?” When he glances back at me, I can’t help but feel like I’m the focus of that sentiment.

“What’s next?” I move the topic to the task at hand and away from him and me.

“It’s a room that can sense emotions—any negative or angry thoughts or feelings will trigger the room to fill with acid. Keep the room dry, for long enough, and the opposite door will open.”

“Swords, Wands, Cups…” I reason. “The final room is something to do with Coins?”

He nods, and we come to a stop at the threshold of the next room. The walls are covered in crushed crystal dust, and they shimmer under the light of a central orb.

“This room will be easy enough to pass through. All you must do is be happy.”

Before I can respond, Kaelis pulls me into the room. “Be happy”—the words drag across my mind as my feet stumble. How long has it been since I allowed myself to simply be happy? How long since I’ve had a reason for it?

Liquid from an unknown source seeps into the room and rises to my ankles. The leather of my shoes hisses softly. Tiny bubbles form. The acid is mild, but I’ve no doubt it won’t take long for it to eat through.

“Clara,” Kaelis says softly, drawing my eyes to him. The man isn’t panicked in the slightest that we might drown and dissolve in a room of acid. He has that half-quirked smile that lets me know he really means it—that I’m seeing him truly. “Let go of it all, just for a little.”

“Easier said than done.” I laugh nervously.

The acid rises again. As it reaches the tops of my shoes and begins to seep into my trousers, singeing my ankles, my heart begins to race.

I want to let my pain and fears go—I’m trying to—but every time I try to not think about the trials of my life I think about them even more.

“Dance with me.” The request is so unexpected that it stills all the emotions and insecurities swirling in me.

The acid halts its rise.

“What?”

“Surely you know how to dance?” He sounds the slightest bit skeptical as he holds out his hand.

I scoff and take it. “We had dancing most nights in the club.”

The world spins as he turns me in place. A simple four-step. It’s the sort of dance everyone learns as their very first, but with a few embellishments on his part, it becomes so much more. Enough to dull the increasing pain and make nothing else matter but him.

“You’re very frustrating, you know that?” I say as his palm glides around the small of my back.

“Why so, this time?” His footwork is immaculate.

“Because you’re so damn good at everything.”

“Not everything.” He still wears a smile, but it turns sadder.

“Name one thing you’re bad at.”

“Getting people to trust me.” The words are heavy, as if they’ve been weighing on him for some time. “No, earning their trust.”

“I just literally walked through fire for you, Kaelis. Five months ago, I was ready to slit your throat…I’d say you’re not as bad at earning people’s trust as you think.”

He twirls us, pulling me closer in the process. His lips brush against my ear. “I’ve wanted to dance with you ever since the Arcanum Chalice. Ever since seeing him in the flesh at the soiree.”

“You don’t strike me as the jealous type,” I say.

He straightens. “I’m usually not. But you are—you’ve always been—different.”

“Why is that?” The question isn’t a throwaway for conversation’s sake. I want to know.

“Because…” A slight smile tugs at the edges of his mouth. “It’s you.”

“What does that mean?” I laugh.

“Every time I see you, I see what the world could be.”

Without warning, the door opposite lights up and the acid recedes entirely. My boots and trousers are suddenly dry, fabric mended, as if the acid never existed. Whatever magics are at work here are extremely powerful indeed.

Through the tunnel that leads to the next room, I fantasize over what might be in this secret alleged workshop of the Fool.

If this workshop is real—and maybe it is, given these barricades—what would the Fool protect with all his might?

What is essential in there for me to ink these counterfeit cards?

In the next room, my wonder and joy vanish like the acid in the previous. Skeletons litter the floor. Most have been rotting for so long they have been reclaimed by the soil. But some look as polished as clean dishes. They are all, distinctly, human.

I knew people died here from the first time I stepped foot in this place and saw the bone shard—felt the light slice into me.

But there’s something different between that vague notion and…

this. This isn’t scraps of bone barely larger than the motes of dust slowly claiming them.

Or piles of ash. I imagine the acid of the third room eats away its victims entirely.

But these are the whole remnants of people left to rot.

The brutality of these rooms comes into sharp focus.

“Are they…real?”

“Yes.” His tone is grave.

“You just leave them here?” I look between him and the room of skeletons. “Have you no respect for the dead?” Kaelis couldn’t do much about the remains in the first three rooms. But something could be done here.

“Firstly, they were trespassing.”

“And you aren’t?” I say quickly.

“It’s my academy.”

“Wasn’t this the Fool’s workshop? Which is why you’re forced to sneak in here, too? Just like they did?”

Kaelis opens his mouth. Closes it. Purses his lips. Then opens his mouth again. “Well, if my bones were there, I’d expect them to be left as a warning, also.”

I snort in disbelief at that.

“I would,” he insists. “Moreover, even if I wanted to get the remains, it wouldn’t be safe to.”

“No?”

“This final test is fairly simple, it just leaves no room—or very little room—for error. Once we enter, you cannot make a sound louder than the rustling of leaves. No matter what you see, or what the plants do…” He points upward.

The walls are covered with vines that creep down from the ceiling.

Dozens of flowers, as bright red as a dancer’s lips, hang from the vines.

“The final kiss,” I murmur.

Kaelis’s head swivels to me, surprise on his face. “You know of the Duskrose?”

“Surprised?”

“I didn’t take you for a botanist.”

“I’m not…but I’ve a good friend who is.” Ren could make anything grow with a mere look.

“Its pollen, when inhaled, causes total paralysis, including of the heart and lungs. When the pollen comes into contact with skin, it eats through flesh straight to bone.” Little wonder the skeletons in here are so clean.

Kaelis nods. “Move forward as quietly as possible if you don’t want to end up like one of these unwelcome guests. Are you ready?”

I nod.

He goes first, and I follow behind. There’s no “right” path, but I end up placing my footsteps behind his anyway. I’ve had ample practice with sneaking around. But the empty gazes of the skeletons that litter the room are solidly unnerving, even for someone who lived in the horrors of Halazar.

We carefully scramble over large rocks in the center of the room, no doubt placed there to encourage someone to literally slip up and make a sound, given their surfaces are polished to a near-mirror finish.

It’s on the other side that a glint of silver catches my eye.

I shift, swinging wide, my feet moving of their own accord to the skeletal wrist that still bears the metal around it.

It’s a bracelet, delicate, with a circular emblem of sXc on it—the very same one I had gifted to Arina when she entered the academy. So you don’t forget all of us on the outside. I rub wet earth off it, as if I could expunge the familiar marking.

“No.” The word escapes me as a raw whisper, but in the silence, it sounds like a scream. My opposite hand flies to my mouth, as if I could take back the sound, but it’s too late.

The flowers are opening. Their aroma is sickly sweet.

The pollen is releasing. I scramble, and Kaelis reaches back.

Survival instinct has me moving forward, one hand clutching the bracelet, the other clutching his.

He throws his coat over my head, himself only half under it.

I hearhis sharp inhales—sounds he tries to muffle with the heavy fabric overus.

Somehow, we make it to the other side, tumbling to the floor as another rain of pollen cascades upon us. Kaelis curses and throws the coat back into the room as it begins to disintegrate. He turns to me with anger, but it evaporates the moment he takes in my tear-streaked face.

“It was her. Arina,” I rasp. Kaelis’s lips part slightly in slack-jawed shock.

I’ve a big break, one that will change everything.

We’ll have all the resources we can imagine and really stick it to the crown.

They’re keeping them locked tight because they’re more powerful than anything we’ve found before, Arina had said.

I clutch the bracelet to my chest as everything I want to say but can’t chokes me.

Had she somehow discovered the World? Change everything…

Did she think she could bring back Mother, too?

“She shouldn’t have been dead. I didn’t believe. I—” Ichoke on a sob.

“Clara…”

“We’re not leaving her here.” With one look, I stop him in his tracks as he reaches out to, presumably, comfort me. Kaelis flinches almost imperceptibly. I might have missed it, if not for my wide eyes. “We’re not.”

His eyes drift back to the room—to the pile of bones that is all that remains of half of my heart. That is all I have left of her. There’s a split second when it seems he’s about to protest, to unnecessarily remind me of the danger once more, but he sensibly refrains.

Kaelis removes his long jacket as the flowers are retreating, becoming dormant once more. “I’ll gather her.”

“Thank you,” I whisper. I should do it, I know I should. But my knees are still too weak. My heart can’t beat strong enough to support me when it’s in this many pieces.

Kaelis takes my hand. Even though he says nothing, there are a thousand words wrapped in his touch, behind his eyes. It is an apology, and a sign of a shared grief that assures me he, somehow, understands this pain.

Releasing me, he stands and goes back to collect Arina’s remains.