Page 56 of Find My Way Down to You

Her red lip curls at me. “Heshould not be here.”

Cary shrugs carelessly. “Tell that to Prince Milos.”

“The mortal is not on the schedule.”

There’s a noise at the back of Cary’s throat. A laugh held back. “Should we schedule meetings with mortals now, Minta?”

She wrinkles her nose.

I glare at both of them. They’re acting as if I’m not right here. Fire hisses in my bones, the sparks of After August’s wrath rising to the surface. I shove him down when I hear the soul say, “Your Highness, I beg you. Don’t send methere!”

The rawness of her plea makes my stomach drop. I half turn to Cary and whisper, “You said there are other places souls go.”

He nods once, eyes straight ahead.

It’s impossible to stop the stammer when it reaches my teeth: “Wh-where?”

A muscle in Cary’s jaw jumps. Matching my low voice, he says, “You do not want to know.”

But I do. I need to know. Where else is there besides the Meadows and Elysium? Where else can I search for London? And what other land is so terrifying that this soul is quivering, silvery tears slipping down her weathered cheeks?

“Your H—”

“Enough.” Milos leans forward. His elbows rest on his thighs. Steepling his fingers, he gives the woman a long look. “Murder will not be rewarded. Or forgiven.”

“P-please—”

With a listless wrist flick, the soul’s words are cut off. She’s frozen.

“I have decided,” Milos says. “The Abyss.”

In front of me, Aminta nods. Her finger swipes down the tablet’s screen. I watch names scroll by. They move too quickly. A blur of letters strung together. But my eyes focus when the list finally stops.

My heart shoves its way into my throat.

She highlights a name:Leila Avci.

But near the bottom of the screen, I see it.

London.

I mean…I think I see his name? Just like I thought I saw him outside the gelato shop. Or on the bus the other week. Isthis the grief again? All my anguish manifesting his name on the screen?

It doesn’t matter. Aminta clicks off the list before I can confirm anything.

She taps on Leila’s name, then a column with destinations pops up: the Meadows, Elysium, the Abyss.

Aminta locks the screen, but I can’t shake the feeling. What if it was his name?

“It is done,” she says.

Exhaling, Milos wiggles the fingers of one hand.

A shadow falls over the sugar-white carpet. It moves like a python toward Leila’s frozen form. The guards back away. My pulse pounds against my temples as the black stretches up her ankles. It consumes her slowly into the inky pool of its mouth.

The last thing I see is fear etched into Leila’s face. She’s gone. So is the trail of blackness, dissolved like smoke into the carpet.

I breathe in sharply.