Page 142 of Find My Way Down to You

Fear made all my decisions before. Every left or right was influenced by anxiety. But now I’m clearheaded. Moving on instinct.

We slip past shrubs sculpted into animals I can’t even recognize. The mirrors change too. Gilded snowflakes. Crescent moons. Spiky asphodels. Their reflections call our names, demand our gaze.

We don’t look.

Something else changes in the maze. Or I hadn’t noticed it before. When I lean in the wrong direction, the flower petals on the walls close tight like fists. If I turn the other way, they bloom. Full and beautiful.

They’re directing me. Composing a song in step with the water.

At some point, Cary finds his way back to my side. He smells nice. Clean sweat and salt water. Our knuckles brush—steel meeting flint. The fire spreads to my lips.

“What do you know about Cora?”

His head turns a little. Shock briefly rings his eyes. “Only what I have read.”

Right. Cary, ferrier of souls and part-time bookworm. It makes me smile. Knowing more about him now.

“It was long ago. She loved what she did for souls.” Hiseyes lower. “But she did not have a love of her own.”

I guide us through another passage, listening.

“Then she fell for a mortal.” Cary keeps his gaze from mine. “And he fell for her too.”

We take a left. Then a right. It’s another two passages before Cary speaks again.

“Love is not promised to Deathless. We cannot neglect our obligations.”

He stops again. The tightness in his jaw tells me he’s fighting with himself. Deciding whether to reveal more.

I cautiously brush the back of his hand. His fingers flex. Finally, his dark gaze levels with mine.

“What happened?”

“She hated being away from him.” Behind his lashes, gold licks at the black. “So, she brought him to Aides.”

I slow my steps as reality catches up. “He was the last mortal to come here, wasn’t he? Before me.”

Reluctantly, Cary nods. “She broke the rules for him. Over and over. Until she was given a choice: our world or yours.”

Another piece falls into place. The rule of five visits. Cora is the reason it exists. Not to protect mortals. To protect the underworld’s secrets, its existence.

“She chose love,” I say.

“She chose mortality,” Cary counters. “To lose who she was.”

“For love,” I reiterate. His mouth purses.

The flowers direct us to a narrower corridor. Our shouldersgraze. I say, “Then a Deathless canchooseto be mortal.”

Cary looks up. “Yes. I mean, no one has since her. From what I read, it is…well, complicated.”

He doesn’t elaborate. We fall back into silence. Heavy, suffocating silence.

“I’m sorry,” I blurt. “That I used you.”

Despite the anger still churning in me, I have to say this. I kept secrets from him too. He deserves to hear why.

“I was so desperate to talk to London again. Tell him—” I catch my bottom lip between my teeth, hesitating.