Page 124 of Find My Way Down to You

Milos clears his throat.

“Yes,” I say, a sourness filling my mouth. “He knows.”

His smile is a blade. “You know, Deathless are not supposed to bargain. It’s a silly, archaic rule. My mother believes what happens to mortals is Fate’s decision. We are not meant to make deals to change destiny.”

I watch as his gaze drops to his hands.

“But what good is this power if we do nothing with it? If we do not decide our own destiny?”

In my periphery, Henri tenses. He’s not close enough to read his face. But his breaths are tight, short.

“Fate does not control me.” A quiet, bitter laugh passes through Milos’s lips. “However, the curse of who I am does.”

He touches my bicep. I force myself to stay still.

“I will make a deal with you, August.”

My eyes lift, eager.

“I will find this soul for you. You can be with him. Whenever you are in Aides.” His fingers drag down my forearm, tickling my knuckles. “He is yours.”

That hope I’m not supposed to have throbs against my temples. “What do I have to do?”

His eyes flicker. A viper trapping its prey. “Commit your soul to me. For eternity.”

Milos’s words strike like lightning. I could be with London.Anytime I’m in Aides. He would be mine again. That’s what I wanted, right? It’s why I kept coming back here, isn’t it?

But there is a price.For eternity.I start to step back.

He grips my hand, bones shifting the wrong way. “It is a small exchange,” Milos promises. “His freedom for mine.”

“What do you mean commit my soul to you? I have to…be, like, your—” I can’t find the right word. “Husband?”

He snorts dramatically. “August, please. I do not want your heart.”

My eyes fan over him. Faint red smudges climb up his neck. The aftermath of careless kisses.

Milos leans in. “I want your power.”

A haze falls over my brain as I look down at my free hand. Mellow brown skin, protruding veins. The nail beds rough from lack of attention. I don’t see anything spectacular. Not like I do in Cary.

What is Milos talking about? I don’t have any power. I’m normal.

Just a…mortal.

“My power?”

Henri won’t meet my eyes when I stare at him. There’s adingbehind me at the other side of the room. I whirl around.

Cary steps off the elevator, then stops abruptly. Before I knew him, the expression on his face was unreadable. A blank canvas. But now I can pick out all the vague tells: a small muscle in his jaw shifting, the quiet flare of his nostrils, dimmed light behind his eyes.

Milos barks out a laugh. “No one told you?”

A blend of frustration and humiliation surges through me. As hot as a newborn flame.

This isn’t the first time Milos has said something like this. Mocked my ignorance about their world. As if I should be aware of every secret and understand a place that didn’t exist to me a month ago. I never said anything before. Out of respect, out of need.

But I’m done being his joke.