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I stood up abruptly, ignoring the pain and the tears and everything that was trying to trap me in place, and I did the precise thing I’d insisted Leo shouldn’t do under any circumstances.
I looked back.
And there was nothing there.
A huge, shuddering sigh of relief shook my whole body, and I braced my hands against my knees, desperate to catch my breath now that I’d let it out.
“Smart.”
“Too smart.”
“Figured us out.”
“You. Immortal. Cunts.” I spit out each word, fueled by pure, blind rage. “If you three had faces, I would punch them.”
“She has no manners.”
“None.”
“Unfit for the kingdom of Hades.”
A slow, thin smile stole over my face, and I was sure that if anyone could see it, it might be described as malicious. Instead it was visible to only the darkness, and the darkness did not shrink from me.
But this time I didn’t shrink from it either.
Fuck this place. Fuck the underworld, and Hades, and Manea.
I was getting out of here, and there wasn’t a single thing left that could stop me.
I trudged onward, fighting against the resistance but no longer burdened by it. The darkness could try its worst to drag me back down, because for the first time in a week, I didn’t feel helpless. I had hope.
And in the face of unflinching nothingness, sometimes hope was enough.
Chapter Thirty-Four
I felt like I’d been walking for hours when the darkness began to abate.
A small part of me started to worry Leo had looked back, and my punishment was going to be walking alone in the darkness for the rest of eternity.
That would suck.
Instead, I walked on, and the world began to achieve texture and depth. The darkness gained shades and highlights. Things took form.
Trees lined a path, and stones pebbled the road beneath my feet. The landscape had a familiarity to it without being actually familiar.
Finally, Leo appeared ahead of me, standing at a crossroads in the path.
A five-pointed crossroads.
I came to stand next to him, taking his hand without thinking and holding it tight. “You didn’t look.”
His jaw had a grim set, and he said nothing, just stared straight ahead. But he squeezed my fingers, and that was enough. Whatever psychological trickery I’d encountered in the abyss, I hadn’t been the only one.
We’d both come through the other side, though.
Hecate was waiting in the center of the road, wearing her woman’s face as she greeted us. “We meet again.” The greeting could have applied to either Leo or me. Neither of us responded.
I glanced at the paths around me, and then asked, “So which one is this?”
