The frustration in my chest coils tighter, mixing dangerously with fear. I press my palms into the desk, leaning forward. “I’ve spent this mortal exile searching for a loophole in that damned contract…carefully, secretly, never drawing attention. Now Levi knows everything. What does it mean?”
Constance takes another slow sip, watching me thoughtfully. “What do you think it means?”
I glare at her. “That’s not an answer.”
“Oh, but isn’t it?” Lorraine says gently. “Perhaps the answers you seek aren’t found in paperwork and clauses.”
“Enough riddles,” I snap, standing upright, fists clenched. “I need to know what this means. Have I broken some rule? Have I endangered him? Or myself?”
Constance lifts a brow, calm as ever, like she’s indulging a child. “Well, haven’t you?”
A growl rumbles in my chest. “Stop speaking in circles. Why push Levi into this path if it risks everything I’ve protected?”
Agnes’s gaze cuts like glass. “Protected…or hoarded? Secrets. Distance. Loneliness. Centuries of it. Tell yourself it’s noble if you want, but cages can feel safe, too.”
The words settle, heavy and uncomfortable. I swallow hard, my throat tightening. “I’ve done what I had to do.”
Lorraine lifts her head, the faintest smile at the edge of her mouth. “Or just what you knew how to do?”
They watch me, patient and predatory. I realize they’re not going to offer me clarity or comfort, only knives disguised as riddles. I turn abruptly, pacing away to the far window overlooking the still-slumbering town. Dawn breaks slowly, spilling muted gold across rooftops.
“Levi knows who you are,” Constance says lightly, almost amused. “Curious, isn’t it…sometimes others see us long before we see ourselves.”
I close my eyes briefly, anger and relief warring inside me. Because the fear, fear for Levi, fear for my loophole…pales in comparison to how I felt when he looked at me and didn’t flinch.
He saw me and stayed. And after a lifetime being kept at arm’s length, I don’t know what to do with that.
“You can’t meddle like this,” I say, my voice softer now, the fight draining out of me like air from a punctured lung.
“We always meddle,” Lorraine says.
I exhale sharply, my shadows shifting restlessly at my feet. I turn back to face them. “What am I supposed to do now?”
Constance’s smile is infuriatingly calm. “You’re asking for rules to save you from a choice you’ve already made.”
I stare at them, these three impossible beings who have controlled my fate for so long, and know they’ll offer no clearer answers. No loopholes. No way out.
With one last weary glance, I turn to leave, the doors clicking softly shut behind me. Hiding shrank me. Choosing puts me on record. Either way it’s a decision.
Levi knows the truth. And for the first time in centuries, hiding isn’t an option.
12
Levi
The greenhouse behindthe shop is my sanctuary.
My world hums here. Sunlight filters through foggy glass, casting everything in a soft, magical glow. Everything here runs on chlorophyll and hope…my heart can’t help but sync to it.
I sink onto the rickety stool by the potting bench, surrounded by ferns that arch over me. My hands move on autopilot. Pressing soil around the base of a struggling orchid, misting tender new fig leaves. But my mind isn’t here.
It’s back in Hayden’s apartment.
Specifically, on Hayden.
Hades.
Because that’s a normal thing to process. Totally regular information. My crush, the man who runs the local funeral home, wears far too many shades of black, and has perfected the art of the scathing eyebrow raise, is literally the former god of the underworld.
