Page 132 of Find My Way Down to You

My gaze flits to his neck. The faded rouge climbing the side. Aminta wears a matching shade on her lips.

I do not want your heart. I want your power.

“No,” I say.

His head tilts. “No, you are not ready? Or no, you do not want to make a deal?”

I lift my chin, clinging to whatever bravery I can find. “The second one.”

A relieved sigh comes from somewhere in the room. Henri, maybe. In the corner of my eye, Cary is as still as a statue.

Milos slides a finger over his mouth, considering me. “Are you sure?”

“I wish things would’ve ended differently for me and London,” I answer. “There’s so much I want to tell him. But I’m done chasing the what-ifs. I can’t change what happened.”

Carefully, my eyes cheat back to Cary. He doesn’t react. Not out loud. But that muscle in his jaw moves. Just slightly.

“I trust London is safe,” I say to Milos. “And one day I’ll see him again. Tell him everything. Now I’d like to go home. Give my life another chance.”

Silence descends on the room. Milos’s stare is unwavering. I do my best to look like I’m confident in my decision.

He licks out a smooth smile. “How very sentimental. So mature. I knew you were special.” He stands. It only takes five steps to reach me. “It is also too late.”

My face falls.

Was I supposed to be here sooner? How long ago did the sand run out?

Milos’s grin turns cruel. “This is your fifth trip to Aides. You know what that means.”

I pull in a painful breath. Cary warned me. Right after Milos invited me to the ball. My head snaps in Henri’s direction. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Henri tries to respond, but Milos cuts him off.

“How could he possibly know you had already visited a fourth time? That you snuck here with my brother for some”—his eyebrows wiggle suggestively—“private time?”

A pit opens up in my stomach.

Milos circles me, snorting. “Hmm. Our dear ferrier is not the only one who loves secrets.”

In the half light, Cary’s eyes are hollow. His lips flat. I hear his voice in my head, the last thing he said to me in my apartment:

Do not return to Aides. Until it is your time.

He was trying to stop me. To keep me safe from this fate. And, like a fool, I didn’t listen.

“I can’t stay here,” I rush out. What about my parents? Max?

“You had a choice,” Milos notes. “You turned down my offer, remember?”

His offer. Of course. He said it himself, right here in this room.

Mypower.

I square my shoulders. “I’m the descendant of a Deathless, right? That means I can still come and go. I’m not bound to Aides. Like you are. I have her power.”

Milos’s lip curls. “That you do.”

Pride vibrates through me, my chest puffed. Milos treats everything and everyone like a game that he always wins. But I can play too.