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Shock rings through me like the low toll of a distant bell. I’m not sure how much time I spend standing there in a dumbstruck state; in total disbelief that she would give this to me. Her mother is here. Right now.

Does she think I wouldn’t target her? Does Alor put that much faith in our friendship and the shared debts to each other that she thinks I won’t hunt her mother? That I’m so honorable?

The paper crumples in my trembling fist.

When Mother died, everything changed. Arina and I lost our safety and our home. Our lives became a never-ending loop of survival and vengeance. Arina’s drive to find the truth led her deeper into the academy than ever before. Perhaps even to find the World to bring Mother back, just as I want to.

I pocket the papers, and my hand brushes against the cards. Six of them. Five real—Death, the Hierophant, Judgment, Temperance, and Fortune. Plus one forgery.

Slowly, I take them out and flip through them. I hold two seemingly identical copies of Death. It mocks me. Of all the cards, I found it the easiest to make as my other forgery.

The king having previously used the World. The fall of the past kingdom. Worldkeepers. Mother’s death. Ravin knowing more than he let on while playing his own game. Kaelis…

Don’t trust Oricalis, Mother whispers from beyond. Then I hear her, as gentle as a lullaby, The World can do anything… And if I have it, I’m changing everything. I’m fixing it all. My mind is made up.

I swap the two Death cards. The forgery goes with the stack of four back into my pocket. I twist and pry at the top of my corset, gaining enough space to wedge the real card around my ribs.

As subtly as possible, I reenter the ballroom.

My hands are still shaking. Ears still ringing.

Especially when my eyes instantly find Lady Ventall among the crowd.

I slowly move on the edge of the room, finding a spot from which to observe her for a while.

She’s a tall, wiry woman with skin like her daughters’ but hair in a more golden shade.

The Death card burns against my side. Even though, as a gold card, it can’t be used, I fantasize about trying to cast it her way.

I might not know what it does, but I’d bet it’s not good, and I’m ready to unleash all the pain I’ve been forced to carry for a lifetime.

Keep it together, I command myself. Head high, I tear my eyes away and fall into the flow of the room.

Lady Ventall might have been the one to order Mother’s death, but did someone command her?

She’s the High Lady of Clan Tower—the closest clan to the crown.

No doubt her hand moves at the king’s whispers.

Even Bristara said that they had proof of Clan Tower’s involvement, but that Prince Ravin is the one charged with hunting the Worldkeepers.

It could have been his command in an effort to obfuscate his involvement.

If I kill her here and now, I risk not only never finding out the full story of who killed my mother and why, but also the World itself.

The latter is more important.

“While I appreciate how murderous intent lights your eyes, I do think you might want to control it before too many people take notice.” Kaelis’s voice and movements are as smooth as the silk lining of his coat.

“Murderous intent?” I’m sure my smile is positively sinister. “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I take it your work went well?” His voice drops especially deep as he struggles to keep it from rising with anticipation.

Rather than answering, I close the gap between us and reach into my skirts.

I transfer the five cards from my pocket to his, slipping them inside his jacket with a pat.

Letting my knuckles drag across his chest. Looking up at him through my lashes, I inhale deeply, feeling the real Death card press against my ribs.

So long as I have one of the true Major Arcana, no one in the Oricalis family can summon the World.

I keep control over it and reserve the chance of using that legendary card for myself.

“It went perfectly. He should be none the wiser.” And neither is Kaelis about my true intentions.

I’ll see where he puts the cards, then make more forgeries as I’m able to subtly collect more supplies.

I’ll steal them from under his nose, just like I did his father.

If Bristara spoke true, Kaelis isn’t summoning the World without the vessel card that only I know how to make.

But I don’t know enough about it to feel confident relying solely on that.

“Clara.” He catches my hand, eyes searching mine. They narrow slightly. “What is it?”

“What is what?” I pull away a little; he holds fast. It’s like he sees right through me. Like he knows every thought without me saying a word.

“There’s something more.”

“I couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come.” I smile earnestly and mean every word. For a second, I think I’ve shaken his suspicion. But Kaelis continues to study me. It feels like his gaze is peeling the fabric from my body, that I’m exposed before him. It has me fighting a shiver.

“No…There’s something more here.” His other hand reaches for my face, cupping my cheek. It’s somewhere between tender and commanding. “Tell me.”

My lips part, but no words come. I must get away from him. Just being in his presence, I’m torn in two. Torn between all I know and feel and fear, and the want to trust him once more as I was starting to. To believe in him the way I wanted to believe.

“If you need me to kill someone, say the word and it shall be done.” He gives me a slight smile: arrogant, wicked, and frustratingly appealing all at once. “The world is ours to design or destroy.”

Before I can muster the words to say something, a commotion interrupts me. A group stands at the entrance of the ballroom, causing those gathered to fall to a hush. The crowd parts as they make their way through.

If I thought I was cold before, I’m completely numb now.

These are not Stellis, adorned with their raven and dove feathers. Nor are they the city enforcers that line the walls with their silver and green. These men and women are dressed in a drab gray-brown color that is imprinted in my worst nightmares.

At the center of the Halazar guards is Glavstone. A waking nightmare who has come back to haunt me with his now twisted and scarred face, remnants of Kaelis’s abuse.

Kaelis wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me closer.

“My apologies for interrupting your soiree,” Glavstone announces. The music halts, the band catching on to the abnormality. “But there is an escaped fugitive in your midst.”

Whispers and gasps rip through the crowd. I try to move away. Kaelis holds fast.

“Don’t run,” he whispers harshly. “It’ll only look worse. Stay by my side; I will protect you. I swear it to you, Clara.”

I know running will look horrible. But it’s all I can think of. I won’t go back there. I can’t.

“Don’t let them take me.” No sooner have I uttered those words than Glavstone’s eyes swing to me.

“There she is.” His face is filled with a hatred deeper than any I’ve ever beheld. With a lift of his finger, the guards move for me. It’s like my first night in the academy all over again, but this time so much worse.

Kaelis positions himself between us but remains close at hand, no more than a step away. “Warden Glavstone, I will not have you sullying the good name of my bride-to-be.”

The guards clearly don’t know who to listen to, and they freeze mid-step. The whole room is as still and silent as they are. Waiting to see what will come next.

“Her ‘good name’ is not what you think.” Glavstone thrusts a hand in my direction while addressing the room. “This woman has deceived you all. Her name is not Clara Redwin, but Clara Graysword.”

Technically not that, either, I would’ve japed, if I weren’t locked up with panic.

“She is the fugitive who escaped Halazar nearly a year ago, hiding in plain sight, and making a mockery of our royal family with her deception.”

More gasps. Somehow, in the crowd, I find Luren. Her eyes are wide, mouth agape. I pull my attention from her before her shock can fill me with guilt I can’t conceal.

“You would dare call into question my word?” Kaelis’s voice has dropped to a deadly hush.

“Only to protect the sovereign I love so well.”

“My brother is right.” Ravin emerges from the crowd to our left, a good twenty paces away.

The mere sight of him has rage igniting in me once more.

“You make a bold and dangerous claim against a woman who is set to be the High Lady of the new Clan Hermit. I hope you wouldn’t say such things without proof?

” He’s defending me? As if he weren’t the person to put me in Halazar last time…

But I don’t let my guard down for a second.

“Your royal highness”—Glavstone approaches and bows, holding out a small envelope—“I present my evidence.”

Do something, Kaelis, I beg with every beat of my heart. But he doesn’t move. Why won’t he move?

Ravin opens the envelope. What’s inside is more than enough for the world to crack underneath my feet.

Two sets of cards. One inked on the pitiful scraps of paper Glavstone would acquire off cutting room floors for me to ink his illegal cards upon.

The other set inked with the pristine inks of the academy, the cards I’d worked so hard on for the Three of Swords Trials.

“I previously uncovered her illegally inking, even within Halazar. How she got the materials, I don’t know,” Glavstone says, like he wasn’t the one telling me to ink.

“I confiscated the cards she made in prison. The similarities to the cards she submitted during her Three of Swords Trials are apparent.”

“Liar,” I breathe. My inking completely changed during my time in the academy…didn’t it? Was it enough? Does it even matter?

No…they’ll use whatever proof—or lack thereof—they want.

“Quiet,” Kaelis hisses.

Glavstone continues, “Forgive me, I thought I could yet reform her.” He gives a dramatic sigh. “But perhaps we should be glad of her ways. How else could we have uncovered the truth?”

“This is, indeed, irrefutable evidence,” Ravin says finally, passing on the cards to his father, who comes to a stop at his side. But he seems irate. Does he know? My heart beats in my throat, drawing nausea.

“I would like to see these cards for myself.” Kaelis moves, leaving me and crossing toward his family. “I am the one who oversees the Arcanists of Oricalis. I should be the judge of their similarities.”

“Brother, would you not be biased?” Ravin smirks.

“Seize her,” Glavstone commands the guards, taking the opportunity of my protector no longer blocking their path.

The guards heed his command, led by none other than Savan. His eyes shine with a cruel delight that says, Finally I have you. Ravin steps around Kaelis at the same time, positioning himself to keep Kaelis from getting to me, if he should try.

I take a step backward. Their hands reach for me. Suddenly there are hundreds of hands lurching from a prison cell that’s been overcome by a grime and filth that I, somehow, have yet to be able to wash off my skin. Off my very soul.

“Clara—” My name is so full of warning. Kaelis’s voice is the only thing that could cut through the swelling panic. But it’s too late.

“It’s time to come home, wretch,” Savan snarls. Glavstone looks on with uncontainable glee.

Turning on my heel, I run. I almost make it to the door that I entered from. But the guards are faster. They grab me, and a scream rips from my throat.

The Ten of Wands rises from my deck. I don’t even remember calling it, but it bursts into ten tongues of fire that slam into the men and women holding me. They tumble backward. Fabric rips as they try to hang on to me. My skin is a constellation of bruises and scratches.

“Was that the Ten of Wands?”

“Couldn’t be.”

“Isn’t she just a first year?”

Whispers sting like bees. Never have I felt so exposed. They all see me. They know who I am—what I am. They’ll find out everything if I stay.

I keep trying to move forward for the door as if it opens to another world for me to slip into. Somewhere I can be safe, and not just a back hall where there’s probably already a dozen Stellis waiting.

Ravin moves into my field of view, a card in hand. Silver flashes before my eyes. It’s a Major, but I can’t tell what. “Enough.”

“No.” I barely have time to say it. My body and magic move on instinct. A silvered card rises from my deck. The whinny of a distant horse echoes throughout the hall and weaves among the crowd’s gasps and murmurs.

Our cards explode into a shower of sparks and glowing dust at the same time. Ravin’s face twists, mouth opening, but whatever he was about to say or do is lost to me. Light shimmers around me, and the Chariot whisks me away.