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
DAPHNE
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
HADEN
“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.
How did I get here? And how do I get back?
I look at the amulet in my hand and the answer dawns on me. A communications talisman. I’ve heard the Heirs speak of them and how they work, but I have never actually seen one before. I try to cast it away, but it seems to be seared into my hand. I can’t let it go.
“The Court grows restless over the boy’s insolence. Lord Lex has proposed a vote of no confidence in my rule. They’re going to depose me if I can’t reassure them that Haden is still following the plan. Tell me you’ve got good news.” I hear him move closer, the sword at his hip slapping against his thigh as he walks. He must think I am Simon. “Answer me or I’ll blast you!”
I raise my head. “It won’t do you much good, seeing as how Simon is already dead.”
My father startles at the sound of my voice. “What is the meaning of this?” he says, drawing his sword. “Where is my emissary? How did you get this talisman?” He must be flustered to spare so many words for me.
“Simon’s dead,” I say, rising to my feet. “I killed him.” Brim had done the deed, but technically I had finished it.