The Shadow Prince

“You dung eater!”

“That thing makes music,” Garrick says. I can see the panic in his eyes. Finally, an expression that belongs on a Lesser. “What are you doing with it?”

“Give it back.”

“It’s forbidden. If King Ren finds out—”

“He’s not going to find out.”

Garrick squeezes the neck of the guitar hard in his hand. I can feel the pulse of electricity building in his body.

“Don’t you dare.”

“We should destroy it.”

“Give it to me. That’s an order, Lesser.”

“No.”

I can’t tell if he refuses because he’s concerned about my well-being, or just because he wants to be defiant. Because he thinks he can be. He raises his free hand, tiny wisps of blue light crackling in his palm. I’ve never seen a Lesser use his lightning power before. The electricity is weak, but still strong enough to cause damage to the guitar.

I lunge at him.

Garrick squeals and scrambles up onto the armchair, but he can’t get away from me. I wrestle the guitar from him and thrust it at Dax, who tries to stop us from fighting. I grab Garrick by the collar. I raise my other hand. The energy that pulses through me would be enough to knock the teeth from his mouth.

“Why did you do it?” I ask.

“Music is forbid—”

“Not that,” I snarl into his face. “Why did you bring it here?”

Garrick’s eyes go wide. His mouth quivers. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do!”

“Haden, stop,” Dax says. “What is this about?”

“The Keres,” I say. “Garrick brought it here.”

“What?” he says. “That’s impossible.”

“Think about it. He works in the Pits. He has access to them. He must have brought one with him.” I shake Garrick by his collar. “But I want to know why. Did you think it would be amusing? Did you do it to distract me? Why, you little harpy?”

“Stop this,” Dax says, trying to pull me off Garrick. “Listen to yourself. Garrick didn’t know you were going to choose him to come with us. How could he have planned it? How could he even get a Keres out of the Pits? The barriers of the Pithos prevent it.”

Dax’s reasoning edges at my rage. I’ve acted again without thinking it through.

“It was an accident,” Garrick says softly. He cowers, holding his hands in front of his face defensively. “It must have attached itself to me. They can do that. Like a second shadow. It was a stowaway, like how you suggested to Dax that first night. I had no idea it was here until I heard you tell Dax and Simon that you saw it. Then I realized what I had done.”

“You idiot. Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because I knew you would react like this.”

“I don’t understand,” Dax says. “How is any of this even happening? The Keres can’t get out of the Pits. Only Hades himself could summon them through the barrier. I wouldn’t believe any of this if Haden hadn’t seen it himself.”

“The locks on the Pits are starting to fail. The barrier that keeps the Keres out of both the Underrealm and the mortal world is beginning to fall,” Garrick says. “Pandora’s Pithos is opening.”

“But that means more could get out. They could all get out.”

One Keres is a dangerous thing on its own. But one can become more when it becomes strong enough to multiply. The Keres are kept weak in the Pits to keep their numbers low. But even a handful of Keres, which hunt in packs, could rip through the Underrealm in a matter of days. If more get into the mortal world, especially depending on the type of Keres—disease, fear, violent death, war, pestilence—they can destroy a state, a country. Unchecked, they can multiply and multiply until they destroy this entire realm—and then move on to the others.

We’ve been lucky with this Keres that is loose on Olympus Hills, I realize. This one is merely a reaper. I’ve only ever heard of one other Keres escaping into the mortal world since their imprisonment. Humans called it the black plague.

“How can the Heirs stop the Pithos from opening?” I ask.

“They can’t,” Garrick says. “Not without the Key of Hades.”

I finally let go of him. Dax and I exchange a look. We are back to the Key once again. No wonder the Court is so desperate to find it. Bringing the Cypher—bringing Daphne—to them has more importance than just restoring the Underlords’ ability to move freely between the realms, even more than restoring their full powers—it is needed to stop the five realms from ceasing to exist.

“That’s just a worst-case scenario,” Dax says, as though he can read the thoughts that have slammed through my brain. The gravity of it all must be written on my face. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“How do you kill them?” I ask Garrick. “How do we stop this one before it gets strong enough to multiply?”

“You can’t,” he says. “That’s why Hades locked them away.”

“You have to know something.”

“I don’t,” Garrick says, and pushes me away from him. “I don’t know anything. I’m just a Lesser, remember?”

“You brought this thing here. Accident or no accident, you are responsible for what it does. The lives it takes are on your head. You have to help me stop this thing.”

“No,” Garrick says. “This is your responsibility. You brought me here, which means you brought the Keres here. It’s not my fault it was attached to me. That’s the hazard of living in the Pits. And you and I both know the real reason I was banished to the Pits in the first place. Which means what that monster does is on your head. Not mine.”

So he does know his banishment was my fault.…

He raises his fist as though he wants to blast me. Tiny threads of blue light encircle his hand. My shame prevents me from trying to stop him.

Dax grabs Garrick’s fist. He winces as Garrick’s lightning shudders up his arm, but he doesn’t let go. “Do not forget your place, Garrick. Haden is our Champion. Your insubordination is a crime, even in this place.”

Garrick’s face clouds over with the look of a hellcat. Then he drops his head like a scolded kit. “Fine.”