by Bree Despain
“Are you really going to leave me here?” he asks, his voice gruff. “You’re really trading me to the Skylord scum?”
His question is not what I expected, and from it, I gather that he must have overheard Jessica and Terresa talking at some point. “It was a necessary compromise in war.” That was something we Underlords were taught from a very young age—necessary compromise. As in being willing to sacrifice yourself for the will of the king.
“Do you know what the Sky King does to his enemies?” Ren asks. There’s no pleading in his deep voice, but I almost think I catch a flash of it in his eyes. I think of the bronze statues—the king’s trophies—lining the walls of the throne room.
I nod.
“And you would leave your father to such a fate?”
“You’ve never been a father to me,” I say, even though the thought of letting him become one of those gruesome statues gives me more than a pang of remorse. He had never been much of a father, but he had always been my king. I’d spent the first seventeen years of my life trying to win his favor.
“I may not have been a good father, but I am on your side, Haden.”
I scoff and raise the dropper to his mouth again. I’ll pry it open if I have to. He turns his head away from the potion. Toward me. He looks me in the eyes for the first time I can remember. “We both want the same thing. We want to save the Underrealm. I’ve made all sorts of necessary compromises along the way. But if you’ll let me, I will fight by your side. The Keres must be stopped. The realms must remain intact. That is all I have ever wanted.”
His words surprise me. I expected him to blame me. To rail at me for causing him to lose his throne and be banished. I did not expect contrition. I wonder what he must have dreamed about while under the sleeping spell to cause such a change.
“Elios,” he says, not looking away from me.
I avert my eyes. My father used to say the only thing weaker than invoking Elios—asking for mercy—was granting it.
But I know better than that now. No thanks to him.
I meet his gaze once more. I can see in his eyes that he’s not merely asking for mercy, he’s asking me to grant him my forgiveness. Something I never thought him capable of.
“Elios,” I say with a nod. Saying the word makes me feel cleansed somehow. Redeemed. I pocket the sleeping draught and go for Jessica’s keys instead.
If I am going to be gone, then the group will need more fire power. My father will take my place when I am dead. I can trust him to help destroy the Keres.
I unlock his hands and I am about to go for his feet when Terresa enters the hut. I gesture to my father to pretend to sleep. His loud grunting snores fill the hut once more.
“I’ve come for my prize,” she says, her voice husky. “Both of my prizes.”
She lays her fingers on my shoulder and I spin around into her arms. She stares at me with such desire, I am almost afraid she wants to devour me. I wrap one arm around her waist, pulling her against me. I clasp my other hand over her heart. “It’s racing,” I say, trying to make my voice sound husky and heady like hers.
“For you,” she says. “I’ve been waiting so long for this kiss.”
I lean into her. My lips almost touching hers. I stop as if taunting her. She groans in anticipation, her heart racing even faster under my fingertips.
“Let me have it,” she says, clasping her fingers in my tunic.
I send a pulse of lighting from my palm into her ribcage. It’s not enough to kill her. Merely to stop her heart momentarily. She crumples in my arms.
I lay her on the ground and whisper, “I’m sorry.”
“I had no idea you were such a devastatingly good kisser,” my father says as he stands, free of his chains now.
I stare at him. In all my years, I have never heard my father make a joke.
The others balk when Ren follows me out of the hut. They knew I was going to temporarily incapacitate Terresa, but the plan was to leave my father behind as a consolation prize to placate her temper when she wakes. “Change of plans.”
The others follow me to the Skyrealm gate. “And we’re flying all the way home,” I say. I need to make it back to Olympus Hills as quickly as possible, and now that we don’t have my unconscious father to deal with or Jonathan’s bulk, there is no need for a car.
“Do you want me to carry you?” Jessica asks.
“I can fly on my own,” I say, and step off into the clouds. I let myself fall for a moment, contemplating letting my death happen now, but no, I need to return to Olympus Hills first. If Brim ever escapes the Black Hole on her own, she will follow my scent all the way to the end of the line. I want that to lead her to Olympus Hills. To home. So she won’t get lost in the wilderness somewhere. I send bursts of lightning out of my hands as I had watched Terresa do, slowing my fall. I tip myself forward so I am lying flat in the air like an owl. A few more bursts of lightning send me soaring through the sky back toward Olympus Hills. Normally, I would revel in the feeling—finally soaring like bird on my own as I had always dreamed. But I feel no freedom now, knowing I am sailing to my death.
chapter thirty-four
daphne
I had intended on transporting Tobin and me directly to Persephone’s Gate at the outskirts of the Underrealm, but my concussed brain is unable to focus. I lose the picture of the dock in my mind and Tobin and I end up reappearing midair over the pomegranate grove at the edge of the royal grounds. The branches of a pomegranate tree break our fall, and we topple head over heels to the ground. The impact doesn’t help my head any.
“What was that?” Tobin gasps. “How did we get out?”
“Teleportation.” I hold up my pendant. “I picked up a few new tricks recently.”
“Nice,” Tobin says, but he’s shaking. Shivering uncontrollably. In the light of day, I can see that his face and arms are mottled with bruises and burns. He’s still wearing the costume toga from the opera we had performed in just before entering the Underrealm. It’s filthy, spotted with blood in some places, and hangs open, uncovering his hollow chest. A burn the shape of a handprint is melted into the skin just under his right pec. He’s been tortured. No wonder he shrunk away from my touch.
Tobin crosses his hands over his chest, clasping his shoulders, and begins rocking back and forth. He barely looks like himself. “I’m sorry you came. I’m sorry I let them use me to send that message. I just needed the pain to stop. I’m sorry Garrick got the Key. I’m sorry the Keres got out . . .”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. Garrick opened the barrier, not you.” I touch the top of my head, and to my surprise find that I’m still wearing Tobin’s fedora. It’s more than a little worse for wear but it should help keep him warm. I place the hat on Tobin’s head at a rakish angle. “That’s better,” I say. “It’s a bit tattered and stained but still intact. Just like you.”
Tobin gives the slightest smile and then collapses against my shoulder. He sobs and I let him—and eventually join in. We hold each other and cry until I sense the sky darkening. I look up and see a pitch-black cloud forming over the palace.
No, that’s not a cloud.
I tuck the Key into my bra for safekeeping and then grab Tobin’s hand. “We have to go. The Keres are coming.”
I concentrate once more on the image of the stone archway of Persephone’s Gate. We have to get out of this realm with the Key before the Keres catch up with us. But once again, we don’t make it. My mind clouds over, and we land in the water a few feet from the Elysium shore. The black cloud of Keres still follows.
“They’re coming,” Tobin says, shaking in my grasp.
I close my eyes once more and concentrate all my might on picturing Persephone’s Gate, but I can’t get a clear picture of it in my head. I’d been so frantic, searching for Haden, when we first passed through the gate, that I never really got a good look at it. Perhaps that’s why my foggy brain is having trouble locking on to the image. Instead, I think of the sandy beach b
y the dock near the gate where I last saw Shady. In the blink of an eye, we land in the sand.
“Kore, youuu returned,” I hear Shady’s familiar moaning voice say as I open my eyes. He approaches and even though he has no facial features, I can tell he’s happy to see me.
“Shade!” Tobin shrieks, scuttling away. He pulls on my arm, trying to get me to follow him under the dock. “Daphne, get us out of here.”
“It’s okay,” I say, loosening Tobin’s death grip on my arm. “He’s a friend.”
“A friend?” Tobin backs away even more, as if he doesn’t believe me.
“Kore, you’re safe. Youuu saved your friend.”
“Yes, and I got the Key as well. But we ran into a complication.”
“Whoa. Wait. Are you talking to it?” Tobin says, and I realize all he would hear is Shady moaning instead of words. “Can you understand what it’s saying?”
“I told you I picked up a few new tricks. And it is a he.”
“Whattt complications?” Shady says.
“That dark cloud out on the horizon. Those are Keres. They’re out of the Pits and looking for vengeance.”
Shady goes rigid and it strikes me as particularly terrifying that even Shades are afraid of the Keres. “You muuust get out of here. You muuust get to the gate. They’ll destroy you, Kore.”
“Come with us,” I say to Shady.
He shakes his head. “I am needed here. I will try to diiistract the Keres. Youuu must save your other friend sooo he can bring Persephone back.”
I nod and much to my surprise, Shady gives me a hug, pressing my head against his leathery chest.
“I’m going to assume you’re okay with this and not that he’s trying absorb your soul or anything like that,” Tobin says. “But also, we really gotta go.”
Shady releases me and I grab Tobin. We leave Shady behind and head up the beach. “I can’t picture the gate, so we’ll have to go on foot.” It’s not far, but that black cloud is getting too close for comfort.
I wish I could break into a flat-out run, but my knee is still a mess and it’s obvious that Tobin can barely keep up with my hobbling pace. His legs are so bruised, and he limps with every step. We leave the beach and enter the long ravine that leads to the gate. Once the stone archway comes into view, I grab onto Tobin and teleport us the rest of the way. I pull the Key from my bra and command it to enlarge.
“Hurry,” Tobin says, pointing to the opening of the ravine. The sky above the beach has become black with shadow. I hope Shady is okay.
I stick the key into the air in the center of the archway, much like I had seen Terresa do when she unlocked the gate from the other side. I twist the key and feel a slight resistance, as if turning an old lock. A sphere of faint green light begins to pulse from the center of the archway. I pull the Key out and shrink it back down to an easy-to-carry size and slip it into the pocket of my cloak. We watch as the sphere of light pulses and grows, slowly filling the archway.
“Come on, come on,” Tobin says besides me. His fingers twitch at his sides and he rocks on his toes like he’s about to sprint through the gate as soon as it is ready.
Screeching cries echo through the ravine. The sky grows dark. The green light brightens to the shade of emeralds, and the symbols etched in the stone light up.
“I think that means it’s fully active,” I say.
“Good thing,” Tobin says, looking back at the dark shadows filling the ravine.
I turn toward the gate. It’s only wide enough for one person to enter at a time. Tobin insists I go in front. He stands closely behind me and I hold my hand behind my back, clinging to his. “Here goes nothing,” I say, taking a deep breath. I know there’s a possibility the gate won’t allow me to enter. If Garrick is somehow miraculously still alive after being attacked by the Keres, I won’t be allowed to leave. I tentatively stick one foot into the green light and sigh with relief when I’m not repelled back.
“Hurry,” Tobin says. I can barely hear him over the screeching roar of the Keres. I step fully into the light, pulling Tobin with me. Only he doesn’t come. As hard as I yank, he doesn’t move.
“Tobin!” I look over my shoulder. My hand that holds Tobin’s is still outside the green light. I try to pull it toward me, but it won’t budge. Tobin stands outside the archway, a look of horror on his face. He tries to stick his other hand into the light, but it’s as if he’s hitting glass.
“I can’t go!” he shouts, his voice sounding far away from me now like he’s trapped underwater. “It won’t let me in!”
chapter thirty-five
tobin
Persephone’s Gate won’t let me enter. Daphne yanks and yanks on my hand until it feels like she might remove my fingers, but she isn’t able to pull me through the archway.
“Did you eat anything?” Her voice sounds like she’s at the end of a long tunnel.
“What?” I shout back.
“Did you eat or drink anything?”
I start to shake my head, but then I remember demanding water before I would deliver Garrick’s message. I nod. “A guard gave me water.”
Daphne’s frantic expression turns to pure panic. I don’t know what the problem is.
“You’re bound,” she says. “You must be bound to that guard.”
I remember it then. A part from the play we performed about Orpheus’s travels to the underworld. In it, he was warned not to eat or drink anything while in the underworld or he wouldn’t be able to leave. I remember now Daphne warning me about this when we first entered the Underrealm—but I could barely remember my own name after being trapped in the Chair of Forgetfulness; it had completely slipped my mind. Even if I had remembered, I wouldn’t have been able to help it. I was so thirsty. I hadn’t had anything to drink in days.
“What do you mean?”
“I was bound to Garrick because he gave me the first thing I ate in the Underrealm. I think you must be bound to the guard who gave you water. I think unless you have his permission or he’s dead, you can’t leave.”
A horrible dark feeling rolls over me and for a half a second, I will the Keres to find that horrible guard as quickly as possible. Then I shake myself, letting the terrible thought pass. This can’t be happening!
Daphne tries again in vain to pull me into the gate. I realize now that the only reason she hasn’t passed through into the mortal realm is because she’s holding on to me. The ravine grows black as night around me. Daphne is shouting something, but I can’t hear her over the Keres’s wails that fill my ears. She needs to go. She needs to lock the gate from the other side.
“Find the others and come back for me!” I shout and pull my hand out of her grasp. She screams and tries to reach for me, but then she is gone. The empty gate glows green. I turn my back on it and step into the dark ravine.
chapter thirty-six
haden
I separate from the others when we make it back to Olympus Hills. I have no desire to return to Joe’s mansion and have to face him or Daphne’s mother empty-handed.
Jonathan tries to stop me. “I don’t think you should be alone. The poison is spreading.”
“I need some sleep. A few minutes at least. Then we can regroup.”
He frowns.
“I’ll dose myself beforehand,” I say, patting my belt as if the emotion dart was still tucked in there. “What’s this one do anyway?”
“It’ll make you pontificate about love—you’ll start spouting poetry.”
“See, none of you will want to be around for that.”
Jonathan gives a laughing sigh. “I’ll set to work on making something new. It may take a day or longer.”
“I’ll be okay until then.”
I head back to my empty house and walk up to my bedroom. There’s a permanent impression in the blanket on my bed where Brim always sleeps. This is the place I want her to come if she ever escapes.
And if she doesn’t, if the minotaur bested her—then I will find her on the oth
er side. Just as I will find Daphne.
I put my earbuds in and turn on a song from my iPhone playlist. It’s one of my favorites. It features a mournful singer with a lone guitar, telling his lover not to fear death because when her soul embarks he’ll be there with her to follow her into the dark. The song makes me think of Orpheus traveling in the underworld to save Eurydice. It makes me think of Daphne trying to come after me. Now it’s my turn.
I made a vow to never give up on saving Daphne, and I intend to keep it, even if I have to do it over my own dead body. I will only be a soul, but that’s good enough to find her, to help her locate the Key, and lead her back to Persephone’s Gate, where she can pass through and go find her family. It is enough to save her from the Shades, and the Keres, and Garrick, and all the other monsters of my world. I will follow her into the dark and ensure she makes it back into the light.
She will have to leave me behind, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make to ensure her safety.
There’s a small voice inside my head that sounds so much like Dax. It reminds me of the voice I heard the first night I returned to an abandoned Olympus Hills. The one that tried to talk reason into my addled brain. It tries to tell me I am giving up. That I am taking the coward’s way out.
But that is not the case. I am already dying. I will be dead in a day without the cure. Perhaps even hours. The last dart is gone, and I won’t be alive before Jonathan can craft a new one. I am simply speeding up the natural order of things. I’m not giving up; I’m accepting my last resort. The last possible sacrifice I can make to save Daphne.
I’ve been leading to this option all along, I realize now. This is where I was destined to end up. Ethan should have let Lexie’s car hit me. They should have let me go then. Or in the campground when I tried to blast myself. Perhaps I could have already found Daphne by now if they had. I’ve only been a coward by delaying the inevitable.
