The Shadow Prince (51 page)

“Brim,” Daphne says, in a gravelly voice that sounds like the growl coming from the beast. She holds her hands out in front of her and slowly approaches the three-headed panther.

“Don’t,” I caution.

One of the beast’s heads snaps at her.

Daphne is undaunted. “It’s me, Daphne. You like me, remember? Haden and I sang to you.”

Brim snorts through all three of her noses.

Tobin and Lexie try to escape through the doorway, but a sharp
squawk from Lexie snatches my attention. I turn slightly away from Brim and Daphne to see the man from the motorcycle chase—or at least I assume it is the same man, as his face is still obscured by the helmet—standing in the doorway, blocking their escape. He has Garrick by the back of his collar. Lexie tries to push him out of her way, but he responds by shoving Garrick at her. The two stumble to the ground. Tobin takes a swing at the masked man’s stomach. The man blocks the blow and then slams his gloved fist across his jaw, sending him sprawling. Tobin shouts as he hits the back of one of the couches.

The noise distracts Daphne momentarily and her gaze breaks from Brim’s eyes. The beast sends a paw out and swipes Daphne’s feet right out from under her. She hits the ground, her elbow slamming against the linoleum first, and the Compass flies out of her grasp. It sails up into the air and then slides across the floor until it comes to a stop only a few feet from the doorway. My attention is torn in two directions as the panther crouches over Daphne, growling, and the man in the motorcycle helmet stoops down and grabs the Compass.

“No,” I shout, forcing a bolt of lightning through my chest and into my hand. I don’t know which direction to throw it. Brim roars. I run for Daphne, but throw the bolt over my shoulder to try to stop the man as he runs to the door. The lightning hits the doorjamb as the man jumps through it. I try to take aim with a second bolt, but I am too late. The man escapes.

I whirl back around toward Daphne and the beast, with the long bar in my grasp. Daphne lies on the ground; the beast is on top of her. The panther rears back her three heads.

Daphne opens her mouth. I expect her to scream, but instead she starts to sing. It’s a faint, strangled sound at first.

“Oh, star of mine …,” she sings. The panther stops midstrike and stares at her, two of her three heads cocked with curiosity. “High in the sky. Were I a bird, to thee I’d fly.”

I recognize the words. It’s the lullaby that my mother used to whisper to me. The one that made me want to be able to soar like owls from their roost.

Daphne sings another line of the song.

The beast seems mesmerized by her voice. I come up behind her, the electrified metal bar in hand, and take aim at the top of her spine. I want Brim’s death to be as quick as possible.

Unwavering, Daphne keeps singing.

The beast sighs, and I raise the electrified bar, ready to strike.

Daphne catches my attention by shaking her head. “Don’t!” her eyes say to me. “Sleep, my little starling.” She whispers the last line of the song.

Brim’s three mouths yawn and then her body convulses with a great shudder as it curls in on itself. Seconds later, she is a little ball of fur again, curled up and snoring on top of Daphne’s chest.

“I … I can’t believe that worked,” I say, taking in the odd scene. It would have been a pleasant picture, if not for all the blood. I’ve never felt gratitude so strongly before as I do in this moment. I know Daphne did this not only to save herself and Brim—she’d done it for me. So I wouldn’t have to lose the one thing I had left that had always loved me.

Daphne sits up, cradling tiny, sleeping Brim in her arms. “So that’s what happens when you get a hellcat mad.”

“I told you she wasn’t good company in tight quarters.”

“Well done, Daphne,” Dax groans, struggling to get up from the floor where he lies.

“Nice of you to finally join us again,” I say.

He gives me a pointed look that quickly softens as he pats his chest, as if trying to force more air into his lungs. He winces and closes his eyes, needing rest before trying to stand.

Daphne checks on Joe. “What happened?” he moans, starting to regain himself.

“Sarah,” she says, suddenly remembering the Oracle. She sets Brim on the ground and rushes toward the woman, who looks like nothing more than a crumpled pile of bloody bathrobe and matted hair. Daphne turns her over, brushing the hair from her face. A raspy, croaking noise slithers out from between Sarah’s lips. It sounds like she’s trying to say the word
Compass
.

“He got away,” Daphne says frantically. “That man stole the Compass. What am I supposed to do?”

“You will get the Compass back. You will use it to seek the Key. Only you can open the lock that guards it. You are the Anoich …” Sarah winces and takes a panting, shallow breath as if she’s just run up several flights of stairs. “Anoichtiri. Your heart and soul will open the lock.…” Her next breath is faint, more of a wheezing. She trembles. “My time has come.… Daughter of the Music.” Her eyes roll back into her head and a faint smile crosses her lips. Her back arches against the hard floor. A glittering blue light emanates from her body and a gale-force wind whips around us. When it fades away, Sarah lies limp and lifeless on the linoleum.

The sky outside grows dark, as if a large cloud is blotting out the sun. In the dimness, I notice a different light. It’s a strange, pulsing glow that reflects off the walls and windows. The origin of it comes from somewhere near Simon’s body—or rather the
amulet that lies on the ground beside him. It blinks with a green light, almost like a beacon.

“What is that?” Daphne asks, leaving Sarah. “Where did it come from?”

“I don’t know.” I am unsure if it belongs to Simon, or if the Motorcycle Man dropped it when he made his escape.

I kneel next to Simon’s body and reach for the amulet—but he grabs my wrist. He’s still alive—despite his body having been torn open, his intestines spilling out of his gut.
“Elios,”
he whispers, blood trickling from his mouth. Tears of pain stream from his eyes.
“Elios
, please.”

“What is he saying?” Daphne asks.

“He’s begging for mercy.” But I don’t know why. There’s nothing I can do to save him now.

“We can’t leave him like this,” Daphne says, baffling me once again with her concern for those who’ve wronged her.

“You’re right,” I say, placing my hand over Simon’s chest. She turns away as if she knows what I am about to do. I send a shock of lightning into his rib cage until his grasp on my wrist falls away.

After a moment, Daphne turns back to me. “Are you okay?” she asks, extending her hand toward me to help me stand.

“I will be.” I pick up the amulet. It’s slick with blood and almost slips through my fingers. I catch it up, curling my fingers around it, and reach out to take her extended hand.

But her hand is no longer there. I look up to see why she’s pulled it away—but she’s gone, too. Daphne has disappeared.

Darkness and firelight have filled the common room.
No, not the common room. I’m somewhere else
. The oily smell of torches burns my lungs. I blink several times and my vision focuses on
a black, looming throne in front of me. A man wearing a golden breastplate sits upon it.

I fall back to my knees. I know where I am.

I am in my father’s throne room once again—in the confines of the Underrealm.…

chapter fifty-six

Sarah is dead and the Compass is gone—and it feels like a piece of my soul has gone with them. A deep emptiness pulls at me. Sarah said I’d get the Compass back, but she didn’t say how.

Joe winces as he tries to sit up. Haden crouches over Simon.

Blood pools out of the man’s mangled body. How he’s still alive is a mystery to me—perhaps it has something to do with his strange powers. I can only imagine the agony he must be in. The broken tones and notes that surround him sound like the embodiment of misery. “We can’t leave him like this.” I don’t know if I mean we should call for an ambulance … or something else … but I know there’s nothing any paramedic could do for him.

“You’re right,” Haden says. The tone that comes off him is a mixture of reluctance and determination. Strength and yet tenderness. Relief and yet … grief. It’s the sound of mercy.

I turn away, knowing what Haden must do.

The notes that surround Simon fade away into silence, and I know the deed is done. I turn back to Haden and offer him my hand—hoping to fill it with something that might make this empty sensation go away.

Haden picks up the pulsing amulet, almost dropping it,
and reaches for my extended hand. Just before his fingers touch mine, a bright burst of light pulses out of the amulet in his other hand.

All the life seems to drain out of his eyes, and he collapses at my feet—his hand still outstretched as if trying to reach me.

“Haden?” I gasp. “Haden, what’s wrong?”

I grab his shoulders and shake him, but I get no response. His eyes are open and he’s breathing—but it’s like nobody is home.

“What happened?” Dax says, trying to stand. “I blacked out again. What …?”

“I don’t know. He grabbed this amulet thingy off the ground, and then there was this flash, and he just collapsed.”

“Amulet?” Dax stumbles toward us. He kneels next to me. “That’s no amulet. That’s a communication talisman.” He tries to pry it from Haden’s rigid grasp, but he pulls his hand back sharply as though the talisman burned him. “It has some sort of invisible shield around it.”

“What’s going on?”

“We have to snap him out of there,” Dax says, slapping his hand against Haden’s jaw. “We have to get him back here!”

“What do you mean? Where did he go?”

“This thing, it’s a communication talisman. It’s like a between-realms cell phone. Only instead of transporting merely your voice to the person who’s calling you, it transports your soul so you can converse face-to-face—like astral projection. Someone must have been trying to communicate with the owner of this amulet, but Haden answered the call.” Dax slaps him again with an urgency that makes me shake.

“Who? I mean, where is he, then?”

“This is Underlord craftsmanship. So my guess—his father.
Haden’s in the Underrealm, and he probably has no idea what’s going on.”

“Can he get hurt there?” I ask. Haden’s father is the one person Haden seems truly afraid of. What would he do if he thought Haden had gone off the rails with his quest?

“Yes,” Dax says. “If something bad were to happen to him there … the connection between his soul and body could be severed permanently.”

He grabs Haden’s shoulders and shakes him with what strength he can muster. “Snap out of it!”

I could run right now, I realize. I could take off this very second. Haden isn’t here to stop me, and Dax is in no condition to follow. I could escape all this destiny nonsense. I wouldn’t have to be this Cypher or vessel or Anoich—something or whatever—if they couldn’t find me. I could choose to go.

I could be done with all of this if I just run right now.

I reach for the keys to the Tesla that dangle from Haden’s pocket. His body convulses in my grasp. His mouth forms what looks like a scream, but no sound comes out. Tears well in the corners of his wide-open eyes.

I drop the car keys and cup my hands under his chin. “Haden!” I say into his ear. “Haden, come back! I need you here.”

chapter fifty-seven

“What’s your report?” my father demands. He rises from his ebony throne.

Report?

What’s going on?

How am I even here?

Where is Daphne? And Dax and the others?

A few short months ago, all I wanted to do was return to my home in the Underrealm—to leave the chaos and discomfort of the mortal world behind. I dreamed of my return. Longed for it. Now I am desperate to figure out why I am here—and how to get back to where I was only seconds ago.

“Have you found Haden yet?” my father says. He must think he’s speaking to someone else. My head is lowered, so he must not recognize me—or perhaps it’s because he never looks directly at a subordinate if it isn’t necessary.