Chapter 43. The Ivory Solstice

ARDEN

It was here.

The Ivory Solstice.

The day I had dreaded from the moment Tessa first introduced the concept to me. The day when the fantasy of neutrality ended, and everyone had to make a decision—alight with a faction or be left to the mercy of chaos.

I hadn’t left my dorm much the past week, slipping in and out of classes like a shadow, working shifts in near silence at the Evermore café. Rowan stopped by every shift with his sunny charm and flowery words. Elias made his presence known with a smirk and a riddle I never asked for. Jaxon hovered, tense and growling at anyone who so much as looked my way, and Cade… Cade remained distant.

Except for that day when he shattered my walls only to ask for something that hollowed me out.

“Do you think if I break my leg, I won’t have to go?” I muttered as I sat on the edge of my bed, tugging a comb through my hair.

Tessa glanced at me from the mirror, already in her gown—sleek, navy, and far more