by Bree Despain
Electricity pricks at my fingertips from the thought of her. It tingles against the metal of the talisman in my hand. I tuck it into my jacket pocket for safekeeping. Maybe the thing can be used to barter if for nothing else.
Brim gives a satisfied purr and then hops up on to my shoulder. She follows me outside with the others. We all pile back into Ethan’s car. I glance back at the house, wishing Dax were one of my traveling companions. I need his help now, as I had needed his help with our mission to the Underrealm. If only I hadn’t let him follow that mysterious call that had supposedly come from Abbie. If only he’d been there in the grove to protect Daphne, then maybe none of this would have happened.
If only I had any idea where he is now . . .
chapter eighteen
daphne
I spend the next few hours desperately trying to get the talisman to work. There are no numbers or dials or symbols to give me any indication of how to make it connect to the person I want to call. I try pressing the center stone as if it were a button, I try rubbing it like a genie’s lamp, I try holding it up and saying, “Call Haden,” as if it operated like Siri on my phone. I try holding it in my hands and thinking of Haden. I try picturing him with my mind’s eye until my heart begins to ache with longing.
I contemplate waiting for Shady to return so I can ask him if he knows how to use this thing—but I then I realize that he may have no idea what he’s given me. As far as he knows, it’s just a medallion on a chain—a pretty gift for his queen—and not a communications device. Since he is trying to keep me captive here, it wouldn’t make sense for him to give it to me otherwise. If I dare ask him about it, he might take it away—and then I would have no chance of making contact with the mortal realm.
“Call Haden,” I say to the talisman again.
Nothing.
“Call Haden,” I say louder and clearer. Crap, maybe it only understands Greek? I remember the Lesser boy telling me that I was speaking perfect Greek, but I have no idea how I’d done it . . .
Was it the same with Shady? Was he speaking English or was I speaking . . . um . . . Shadese? And how?
I concentrate on the idea that I can speak Greek and then practically shout, “Call Haden!” at the medallion.
It sits as dark and cold as ever in my open hands.
Tears flood my eyes and I am about to toss it aside in frustration in favor of eating a few turnips for dinner . . . when the idea of turnips makes me remember something. The talisman Haden has doesn’t belong to him. It had belonged to Simon. Haden found it after Simon’s death, hidden in a bag of rotten turnips in Simon’s fridge . . .
I clutch my talisman tightly in my hands and try a new tactic.
“Communicate with Simon’s talisman,” I say to it.
Half a second later the talisman lights up with a faint green glow. It pulses brighter and brighter, as if to indicate that the connection is growing stronger. I laugh with joy, holding the talisman out in front of me. It’s working! I can’t believe it’s working!
Now all I need is for someone on the other line to answer . . .
chapter nineteen
haden
The rest of the night passes by as an uneventful drive. Ren snores for most of the trip, and I allow Terresa to lay her head on my shoulder to sleep, only having to push her wandering hands away twice. I am grateful for the opportunity to stretch when we finally pull over in a place called Shasta-Trinity National Forest early in the morning.
There’s a motorcycle parked near the entrance to the campsite and a woman stands nearby, her arms crossed expectantly.
“Hello,” Ethan says, calling to her.
She smiles when she sees him, then smooths her expression into a professional, soldierly look, and nods to him in return. “Captain Bowman.”
“This is Lieutenant Jessica Ball,” Ethan says, approaching the woman. “The comrade I told you about.”
I give her a nod. If Ethan trusts her to help us, then I have to as well. Although, I must admit that when Ethan told me one of his comrades was meeting us, I had pictured a burly warrior, not this petite woman with long, curly, dark hair.
“Ugh, her,” Terresa says, not quietly, and crosses her arms with a glare.
“Nice to see you, too, Terresa,” Jessica says.
“Traitor. Don’t you dare make eyes at my man!” Terresa calls to the other woman. “I’m watching you.”
“Her man?” Jessica says to Ethan. One of her eyebrows raises in a slightly amused expression.
“Long story,” he says. “I’ll fill you in later. For now, we should focus on setting up camp. The gate is due north from here.” Ethan points straight up at the sky, rather than actual north. The plan is to camp here for the rest of the day, giving us a chance to rest before making the ascent to the gate at nightfall. Skylords do not see well in the dark, so a nighttime infiltration into the palace will improve our odds of going undetected.
Ethan hefts his duffle bag over his shoulder, and Jessica follows him deeper into the clearing. Terresa stomps after them, as if she feels the need to keep a vigilant eye on her supposed rival. However, from the way Ethan and Jessica brush hands as they walk, I get the feeling that Terresa doesn’t have to worry about this other woman making eyes at me.
“How are you doing?” Jonathan asks me. His voice sounds especially heavy.
I’m leaning against an old wooden table that sits in the clearing. I stare at my gray-black veins. I’ve been sucking on bits of a bitter dark chocolate bar that I picked up at a rest stop a few hours ago—testing Lexie’s theory that chocolate is a mood enhancer. Its effects are mild, but seem to have staved off the worst mood swings for now. “All right,” I say, even if I don’t know for how long that answer will be true.
“I can give you a dose now,” he says, pulling two small arrows—one blue, one purple—from his nearly empty quiver. I know a third one is tucked in there, somewhere, not to be used. “But I’d rather save it if you can wait. You never know, something might go wrong up there . . .”
I ache for another dose of emotion. I crave it like a traveler who has been without water for days. Even though I agree with Jonathan’s reasoning for waiting, the mere mention of the option to have it now makes it hard to think about anything else.
“I can wait.” I tuck my blackening hands into my jacket pockets and walk over to help Ethan set up a small tent. It can’t possibly fit more than two people at a time.
When the tent is up, I tell Jonathan and Terresa to take the first shift resting—not wanting to be anywhere near her in confined quarters again—and then I tell Ethan and Jessica I’m going to take a walk. He eyes me for a moment in a way that makes me think he’ll protest, but then he nods. I expect Brim to follow me, but she stays and sits at attention, watching Ethan unpack food from a small cooler. She coos when he opens a package of cold cuts. If he’s not careful, she might take off his finger in order to get to them.
I walk into the trees, following a narrow, rutted path, until the campsite is well out of sight. I contemplate turning back, but a strange, warm sensation pressing against my side catches my attention. It takes me a minute to realize the source of it is coming from my jacket pocket. I reach in and close my fingers around the chain of the talisman and pull it out. I almost cannot believe my eyes—the medallion pulses with a pale green light.
Someone in the Underrealm is trying to make a connection . . .
chapter twenty
daphne
“Daphne?”
His voice is tinged with shock and disbelief. Still, it’s the most wonderful sound in the world. Almost as wonderful as the sight of him. Standing here, in the cave. A pillar of light in the darkness.
“How?” I ask, trying to push myself up to a standing position. “You’re here.”
“You called me here?” His voice is so filled with astonishment that I can’t tell if it’s a statement or a question. I don’t care. He’s here. That’s all that matters. Haden had once explained tha
t a communication talisman worked like a cell phone, only it didn’t just transmit a person’s voice to you, it brought their soul. And yet, I still didn’t expect to see him here in front of me. His jade-green eyes look tired and his dark brown hair is rumpled, but he’s such a sight for sore eyes that just looking at him takes my breath away.
I want to run to him. I need to wrap my arms around him. But running is hardly an option with my braced knee.
I take two hobbling steps.
“You’re hurt,” he says, and then he’s the one running to me. He jogs up to me and holds out his arms as if he were trying to steady me as I teeter on my feet. His hands don’t make contact, they just pass through me as if I were a ghost. Or if he were a ghost . . .
I gasp, tears filling my eyes once again. “Are you dead?” I whisper.
Part of me worried that Garrick had gone back on his word—that he had sent Haden to an execution rather than banishing him to the mortal world.
“No,” Haden says. “Only my soul is here. My body is back in the mortal realm. I forgot in my excitement that I cannot touch you.”
“Oh,” I say, wiping my tears away with relief.
He lifts his hand to his own eyes. I see it then, the black spindly veins wrapping around his hands and fingers. It has spread so fast.
“That means I can’t kiss you?” I want so badly to touch him. To kiss him. To cure him of the poison in his system.
Haden shakes his head. “Only energy can pass between us.”
He holds his hand up in front of him, as if he were pressing against an invisible window that separates us. I do the same. Our hands look as though they are touching, but I can’t feel anything. A blue spark lights up from the tip of Haden’s index finger, giving me a little shock.
“I felt that!” I exclaim with so much excitement that I almost topple over. I steady myself, grabbing my injured knee.
“You’re hurt,” he says again, dropping his hand away. “What happened? Where are you? This doesn’t look like the palace. Did Garrick do this to you?” he says, indicating my bandages. “I’m going to strangle that little rat.”
“It wasn’t Garrick, but it was a rat,” I say. “I escaped Garrick.”
“Of course you did,” he says, like he wouldn’t expect any different.
“Only problem is that I was attacked by some Shades, and now I’m being held hostage by one of them in a cave . . . Well, not exactly hostage . . .”
“You’re being held by a Shade?” His beautiful jade eyes are marred with panic. “Daphne, you have to get out of there. It’s going to eat you!”
“No, I don’t think so. He says he’s trying to protect me—”
“Says?” He shakes his head. “Shades do not speak.”
I shrug. “This one does. At least to me. And I’m pretty sure I’m safe here for now. A little too safe . . .” I hold my hands up because I can tell he’s about to protest. I don’t have time for arguing. Who knows when Shady might return—and if he saw me using the talisman, he might take it by force. “Enough about me. I may not have much time. Tell me how you’re doing. My mom, Joe, Jonathan? What’s happening out there?”
“They’re fine,” he says. “I’m fine.”
He tucks his hands behind his back, and I know he’s lying about his condition.
“How long has it been, out there?” I ask, realizing I have no idea if time moves at the same rate in both our worlds.
“A couple of days since I returned.”
“Then there’s still time. Jonathan said I’d have two weeks.”
Haden starts to shake his head, then stops as if he’s hiding something.
“What is it?” I ask.
He looks down at the ground.
“Tell. Me.”
He pulls his hands out from behind his back. “It’s spreading too quickly,” he says quietly. “Jonathan doesn’t know why—maybe something about my metabolism. He’s been giving me something to try to stave off the worst effects, but at this rate, if I’m lucky . . . I maybe have forty-eight hours before it overtakes me completely.”
“Forty-eight hours?” I say with disbelief.
Two days? Two days? Here I thought I had a little less than two weeks to find a way out of the Underrealm—a daunting prospect on its own—and now I only have two days?
If he’s lucky . . .
“Don’t worry,” he says. “We have a plan to try to get you out. We’re heading into the Skyrealm. We’re going to infiltrate a secret prison and try to find Persephone. If there’s anyone who knows how to get you out, it’s going to be her.”
“You’re going into the Skyrealm?” Panic rises up my spine. “And you’re going to break into a secret prison?”
“Oh, and the Sky King’s palace. But that is a bit of a side mission.”
“Are you insane?”
“I know it sounds addled, but Daphne, I will do anything to get you out of there . . .”
“I can find my own way out. I have a lead on where I might find the Key—if I can only persuade Shady to take me there.”
“Finding the Key would be the best option, but you still won’t be able to leave without my help. You’re bound to Garrick, which means I’ll have to come into the Underrealm and . . .”
“And what, kill him?”
“If I have to.” Haden doesn’t meet my eyes. “Or drag him out kicking and screaming. Whichever is easiest.”
I wonder if it’s the black poison talking, or if Haden is really willing to kill his younger half-brother. I wonder if I will be willing to let him . . .
“In the meantime, I’m not waiting for the Key to turn up in the Underrealm. I’m going to do whatever it takes to figure out how to save you, from my end.”
I want to protest but I know it won’t do any good—just like there’s nothing he can say that will stop me from trying to figure my own way out over here. And I don’t want to argue, not when our time could be over any second. I lift my hand toward Haden. If he was really heading into the Skyrealm, this may be my last chance to see him. Ever. “Do that again,” I say, indicating his hand. I want to feel his energy again.
Haden lifts his hand, but instead of bringing it to mine, he raises it to my face. A small shock of energy lights against my cheek. I lean into it as if it were a caress. He touches his fingers to my shoulder next. It’s a small shock. It makes me shudder, and not with pain.
He touches my side.
The shock makes me sigh.
He leans forward and I know what he wants. Maybe it will even work . . .
His face is there in front of mine. I know we can’t really touch, but I bring my lips to where his are. A spark of energy lights between them. I can feel his energy burst against my lips and it ripples through me. The spark was only a flicker, but it feels like a flame.
A soul kiss.
A noise catches my attention. The sound of stone sliding against stone—the boulder at the entrance of the cave is being moved. Shady is coming back.
I pull away from Haden. “I have to go.”
“No,” he says, reaching out like he can stop me. “Don’t go.”
Light from outside edges into the cave.
“I have to.”
I drop the talisman, breaking the connection, and Haden disappears.
chapter twenty-one
haden
“Daphne!” I shout as she fades away. “Daphne, don’t go!”
It’s too late. The cave is gone. I am standing in the forest. Completely alone.
“Daphne, no!” I scream.
I collapse to my knees, gripping the talisman in my black-veined hand. I have to get her back. “Call Daphne!” I shout at the medallion. “Bring Daphne back!”
The talisman doesn’t listen. It sits lifeless and uncaring in my grasp.
“Bring her back!”
I throw the talisman against the ground. “You worthless piece of kopros . . .” Then I snatch it back up again, afraid I’ve broken it. I slide my fingers over its s
urface, inspecting it for damage. “Call Daphne,” I insist.
Electricity builds under my skin. I can feel it crackling around me. I fight the impulse to fry the talisman for its insolence. The problem isn’t the talisman, it’s me. I don’t know how to make it work.
I’m the worthless one.
Daphne is on her own because of me. She’s injured. She’s been captured by a Shade. “It’s going to kill her. She’s going to die!” I’m rocking on my knees, shouting at the talisman. “Bring her back!”
I let a surge of electricity build inside my chest. It surges up my arms. I place my hands over my ribcage. I’m the one who should suffer. I’m the one who should . . .
But before I can finish the thought, I am grabbed from behind. It must be Jonathan because Ethan crouches in front of me, looking like he’s about to spring.
“Leave me alone!” I shout.
Ethan lunges, wrapping his hands around mine and yanking them away from my chest as a burst of lightning escapes my fingers. The shock flings him away from me. He crashes against the base of a tall, quaking tree. Jessica runs to his side.
I’m rocking again. Ranting something about Daphne. Brim jumps into my lap. She purrs and meows. Normally her presence is calming, but even her soft touch racks me with guilt. I don’t deserve to be comforted.
“What in Zeus’s name is wrong with him?” Jessica asks.
“There’s black poison in his veins. It’s making him insane,” Ethan sputters. “He’ll hurt himself if we don’t dose him again.”
“I’m on it,” Jonathan says, his voice coming from behind me.
“No, I don’t want it.” I want to be miserable. I deserve to be miserable. Can’t they see that? I fling my arm back to knock Jonathan away. Someone else snatches my hand before it makes contact with Jonathan’s side. Brim sinks her teeth into my leg.
“It’s okay,” I hear Terresa say in a crooning whisper. She pets her fingers over my hand. “I’m here, my love.”
“Get away from me!” I try to pull away, but her grip is as strong as a griffin’s. A sharp pain catches me in the arm and I know it’s too late to stop them. Warmth rushes through my veins. After a moment, I feel a strange uplifting sensation. It’s not the same as the bubbling giddiness or the drunken heaviness that I experienced before.
