The pendant gave one faint pulse.
Gideon lifted one hand and brushed his fingertips along the opposite wall. A faint line of blue light appeared beneath his touch, thin as a scratch. It traveled forward along the stone, then split into three different lines that disappeared into three corridors that had not been there a moment before.
I was sure of it.
My breath caught as I realized the passage had widened around us.
“It’s like a map or a maze.”
“Yes and no,” Gideon said, moving ahead.
Keegan crouched and touched the floor near the center passage.
“Did you track her?” I asked Keegan.
“Yes.”
Every nerve in my body lit.
“Which way?”
He didn’t answer immediately, and my hope stuttered as his gaze lifted to the three corridors. “All of them.”
Gideon nodded as if he’d expected that. “It pulls the scent through the walls.”
I closed my eyes for half a second. “Then how do we know?”
“We don’t follow scent.” Gideon glanced at the pendant.
The silver thread lifted again, trembling slightly before pointing toward the left corridor, and Keegan moved first.
The corridor shifted as we entered, stretching longer with every step. The walls were lined with shallow alcoves.
I noticed that each held objects covered in dust. There was a broken mirror, a rusted key, and a cracked teacup. Things that felt ordinary until I realized every one of them gave off the faintest pulse of memory.
My memory.
“This place collects pieces,” Gideon said, voice quieter than before. “It uses attachment to mislead.”
“Comforting,” Twobble muttered from beside my leg. “I’d like to leave all my attachments outside next time.”
The teacup rattled as we passed, but I didn’t look at it.
“Maeve?” My mom’s voice echoed faintly.
I froze so abruptly that Twobble nearly walked into me.
The voice came from the alcove with the mirror.
Gideon turned immediately. “Don’t answer.”
My eyes burned. “That’s my mom.”
“It might be,” he said. “That’s the point. These objects are pulled from your past. They’re meant to lure.”
“How do you know this?” I asked.
Gideon’s gaze darkened. “I put them there. Mirror from your mother’s home. Tea cup from Stella’s. And a key from your old house with your ex.”
