Authors: Bree Despain
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.
“You?” He narrows his eyes at me. “I don’t believe it. Simon was one of my best, and you’re nothing but a weak, simpering nursling.”
“And yet I still scare you enough to cause you to draw your sword.”
Ren glances at the blade he brandishes in his hand. He lowers it ever so slightly. I glance around the throne room and see that we are completely alone. It’s unlike Ren to be without his royal guard, attendants, and advisors. He must be sorely agitated or in dire need of privacy. Is the Court truly turning against him?
“Besides, Simon may have been a fierce opponent, but he was hardly
your
best. He’d betrayed you,” I say, hitting on what I suppose to be a sore spot for Ren. “He’d turned on you. Your
loyal
servant was planning on selling the Cypher—the Key along with it—to the highest bidder. The Skylords.”
“You know about the Key?”
“Yes.”
“Where is the Cypher? What have you done with her?”
“Why should I tell you?”
“Are you planning on betraying me, too, then?” Ren shoves the tip of his sword so it’s only inches from my face.
“Can you even hurt me with that here?” I say, referring to my astral state. I am outside of my body, so how can he cut me?
“No,” my father says. “But your soul is made of energy, which means I can still hurt you with this.” Streaks of blue lightning crackle up his sword, swirling around the blade. I can feel the heat and the rhythm of electricity and I know he’s not bluffing. “Do you know what happens if I cut you off from your body while you are here?” Ren says loudly enough that I can hear him over the pulse in my ears. “You’ll never find your way back to it. You’ll become just another one of those nameless, faceless nothings that roam the Wastelands. Banished to being a hungry, desperate shade for the rest of eternity.”
“You won’t do it. You need me.”
Ren responds by slashing his electrified sword in the air, sending the swirl of lightning sailing at my chest. I grit my teeth, absorbing the blow and letting it flow back out of me the best I can. I’ve taken worse hits in training, but the pain is still enough to force me to my knees.
“That was just a warning blow, boy,” Ren says. “Just to show you that I can touch you here. The next one won’t be so pleasant.” He walks back to his throne and picks up a small vessel made of pottery, from under the ebony seat. I take a few deep breaths while his back is turned, to regain my strength.
He returns with the vessel and holds it out in front of me. “This is water from the river Styx, the River of Unbreakable
Vows. On the Oracle’s behest, I made a vow with this water during the Choosing Ceremony, in which I covenanted that whoever brought the Cypher to me would become my heir. My successor. That is what you want, isn’t it, boy? You want to belong. You want to sit at my right hand. You want your honor restored. I am prepared to give you all of that, but you must do one thing for me.” He dumps the water from the vessel onto the ground in front of where I kneel. It splashes and pools around my knees. “You make an unbreakable vow that you will bring the Cypher to me. The words will be written in the water, and I can use that to show the Court that you haven’t forgotten your quest, that you haven’t gone off the path. To prove to them that you are worthy of being called
my son
.”
I look up at my father, meeting his eyes for the first time since my return. I wonder if I will see that same disdain he usually looks at me with. But instead, I see something very different. A look of fear crosses my father’s eyes. It mars the near-perfect mask of nonexpression on his face that I have always tried to emulate—and I realize why he hadn’t filled me in from the very beginning about Daphne’s true importance. I know why his Oracle had kept the details from me. Because now that I know what he needs Daphne for—to find the Kronolithe of Hades—I know just how much power I have in my hands. I have Daphne. I have everything he wants: the missing link to finding the Key to the underworld, to finding the object that can turn my father into everything he pretends to be—a god.
I have the power here. The leverage.
Daphne isn’t only the key to finding the Kronolithe; she is also the key to getting me everything I had ever wanted, and more.
“That is what you want, isn’t it, my son? One little vow is a
small price to pay to have all the honor and the glory of the Underrealm bestowed on your head.”
Vows made on the river Styx are nothing to be taken lightly. An unbreakable vow is just that—unbreakable. I’d already seen how such oaths control Dax and Joe. What little free will I have in the matter would be gone. I would not be able to stop myself from bringing Daphne to him when the time came.
“I should have made you vow
before
sending you as Champion. That addled Oracle tried to convince me it would backfire, but I see now she was playing games with me. I’m not leaving it up to your impulses anymore. You will bring her to me, no matter what.”
“What will you do with her?” I ask.
“Whatever it takes.”
“The Oracle says you need her heart and soul. Will you sacrifice her?”
“Yes. If needed.”
“Then my answer is no. You can’t have her.”
Because I realize now the price for what Ren is offering is too high. I will not give Daphne to him. I will not let her die. I cannot trade her for what I have always wanted—because she is what I
need
.
My father tears into me with another bolt of lightning. This one comes so fast and strong that I cannot brace myself. The lightning grips me like a great taloned bird sinking its clutches into my rib cage, and slams me against the altar. I sink to the ground. My body writhes against the marble floor as the bolt ravages through me. I scream. Tears flood my eyes. The pain is too much to stop myself.
The lightning dissipates, and I hear the echo of my father’s
laughter. He mocks my agony. Or perhaps it is my tears that set him off. I had never wanted to let him see me cry again, not since the day Mother died. I have tried to suppress and fight my emotions, to keep the human side of me at bay. I have let him push me down. I think about what Daphne said about my father being afraid of me when I stood up to him as a child.
What I might be capable of now if I had not cowered to his will earlier in my life …
Beyond my father’s derisive laughter, I think I hear another sound.
Like Daphne calling my name.
“You would put concern for some human girl over your duty to me?” Ren asks. “To your entire realm?”
Haden, come back!
I think I hear Daphne call.
I need you here
.
I try once again to cast away the talisman, but it is still branded to my hand. I roll onto my side—it takes all my strength to do so—and look at my father. “I love her.”
That’s barely something I want to admit to myself, let alone to him, but at the moment, it feels like the most powerful thing I still have inside of me.
“Love? You would put such a silly notion over having your honor restored?” His derisive laughter starts to sound more desperate and hungry to me. The sounds of a man with few options left.
“You can’t restore my honor. It was never yours to take in the first place.” If it hadn’t been for Daphne and my time in her world, I would have never realized that. There is also one more thing I would not realize, either. The clues finally click together in my head.… “What do you know about honor anyway? You failed your quest, didn’t you? You shouldn’t be king now. That’s
why they’re trying to take it away from you.”
“What do you know about anything?”
“Eighteen years ago, the Oracle predicted that the child of Demi Raines would be the Cypher. You were sent to the mortal world as Champion in order to bring her back. The idea was to make her your Boon, your mate, and the Cypher would be the child you created together. But you failed. Someone else got to her first. A musician named Joe Vince swept her off her feet, and before you had any say in the matter, she was pregnant. There was no way you were going to convince her to come with you now. So you struck a deal with Joe. He didn’t know what he was really agreeing to when he traded the soul of his firstborn child for fame and fortune. But you had the proof you needed to
claim
that you had still secured the child of Demi Raines for the Underrealm. I imagine you carried back the words of Joe’s vow in a vessel of water like that one.” I point at the vase he’d used to pour the water in front of me. “You also brought back a Boon—my mother, Kayla, for good measure. But she wasn’t the prize you needed, and that’s why you scorned her. That’s why you hate me. Because I am more like her than Rowan is. It’s why you treat me like I’m a failure—because I am the reminder of your own.”
“I didn’t fail. I am king here. You best remember that.”
“But you won’t be for long, will you?” I try to grab the side of the altar to use it to push myself up. I am too drained of strength and fall back to my knees. “You succeeded your father and became king because you had
technically
fulfilled your quest. But there are those in the Court who question your eligibility. And then there’s the matter of your deal with Joe not being enough. That’s where I came into play. Your deal with Joe will give you Daphne’s soul. Is it supposed to come to you immediately when she dies—bypassing
Elysium or the Wastelands, where it would get lost forever? But the problem is, you need her heart, too. Which means you need her alive—and no living person can cross through Persephone’s Gate unless she does it willingly. Which meant you needed a Champion to finish this for you. You needed her to be brought back as a Boon. Rowan was your first choice—he’s always been your favorite—but you got nervous. You decided to consult the Oracle and got the shock of your life when she chose me.”
“You’re proving right now you weren’t up to the task, as I thought.”
“I’m proving I’m not your little puppet. You think I care if you remain king? Call in the Court right now. I’ll tell them to their faces that you should be overthrown.”
“You think you know some things, but you don’t know the half of it, nursling. I’m the one holding this realm together. I’m the only one who has any reason around here. Yes, there are Heirs who want me ousted, and, yes, your fulfilling your quest is the only thing stopping them from taking over. But my remaining as king is the only thing that is stopping your precious human realm and all those humans you
love
from being destroyed!”
“What do you mean?”
“As you should know, the Pits fill the space between our realm and the Overrealm. But what you aren’t privy to is the knowledge that the locks on Pandora’s Pithos are starting to fail, and my authority is the only thing keeping some of the Heirs from ripping through the walls of the Pits in order to use it as a bridge out of the Underrealm—setting all the Keres loose on both our realm and the mortal world in the process. There are Heirs who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the Kronolithe in order
to reignite the war with the Skylords. They’re sick of being locked away. They think the Underlords should rule everything. I’m the one who believes in the order of the realms. I’m the one who wants to keep the stalemate in place—and if I need to sacrifice one little Cypher to find the Kronolithe in order to remain in control, then so be it!”
“You’re lying,” I say.
Garrick had told me the locks on the Pit are failing. I know it is a possibility the Keres can get out on their own—but the possibility that the Court would let them out
on purpose
is something I can’t believe.
Haden
. Daphne’s voice echoes in my mind, giving me the strength to keep talking back to Ren. “You want the Kronolithe so you can become a god. You want to
be
Hades, not just use his title.” The idea of my father as an all-powerful, immortal deity makes me quake where I kneel.
“It’s an added perk, yes. But believe me, I as your
god
is a much better option than the alternative.” Ren forms a new bolt of lightning in his hand. It rumbles and cracks as it surges with power. “What is that human saying? ‘Third time’s a charm’? Or, no, maybe I’m looking for ‘Three strikes, you’re out.’ I am guessing your soul can’t take a third blast without breaking the link to your body. So this is it, boy. You make the vow to bring her to me and I will make you my son once more, my eldest son—my heir—or refuse and it’s good night, sweet prince, for you.”
Sarah’s words about my destiny come to me then.
You have two paths before you now, young Haden.… One will lead to the honor you have craved since you were a child, while the other will lead to the end of Lord Haden, prince of the Underrealm
.
I don’t know why destiny chose me for this. I don’t know why I would be given more than one path. But the Oracle had said that
I
would decide which path is which by the choices I make—and that the first choice would be upon me soon.
“What is it going to be?” Ren asks, a great sphere of lightning encircling his hand—aimed at me.