The Shadow Prince

“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

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.