Into the Dark: The Shadow Prince Part 39

"The rest of you can always stay in the car," I reply, ringing the admittance bell at the main entrance to Sunny Ridge. It's a small, shabby building at the end of a quiet street. Not the place where I would expect to find an Oracle living.

"No way." Lexie slings her purse over her shoulder. "I so want to see the look on your faces when this so-called 'Oracle' starts drooling on your shoes and you all finally realize how gonzo you've been acting. I wouldn't miss that for the world."

"I'm not missing this, either," Tobin says. "This Oracle lady had better have some answers about my sister." He reaches out and rings the bell a second time.

"I wouldn't mind staying in the car," Garrick says.

"Not you." Haden snags him by the back of his collar. "I'm not letting you out of my sight again." He had caught him trying to use the hotel room's phone while the rest of us were getting ready to leave.

"You might be here unwillingly but I have a feeling Simon isn't going to care about that if he finds us," he had said to Garrick, and ripped the phone out of the wall. Which meant we'd had to go to the hotel buffet for lunch instead of ordering room service. "He's going to be in an 'order you to walk off a bridge, ask questions later' kind of mood, don't you think?"

"What are you even going to say to get in to see this lady?" Lexie asks. "I doubt they're going to let a bunch of teenagers stroll into this place."

"Maybe we can pretend to be a traveling choir or something?" Tobin says. "We sing to the sick." Lexie snorts.

There's a rustle behind the door and then it opens. A short, grayhaired woman dressed in scrubs is there.

I fumble to find something to say and almost go with the traveling choir idea, but the woman claps her hands together excitedly. "Oh, you must be Haden and Daphne and the others!" she says. "Sarah has been waiting for you."

chapter fifty-three.

haden

"Did you tell them we were coming?" Daphne whispers as we follow the woman through the building. The floor is made out of a hard substance I believe is called linoleum, which tries to stick to my shoes with every step.

"No. I didn't tell them anything."

"Here we go," the woman says, ushering us into what must be some kind of common room. It is a warm room, even though it has several barred windows along the walls. It is filled with plush chairs, small tables, and a large green table in the center, with a small net stretched across the middle. Two men are using paddles to smack a small white ball back and forth across it. An older woman with stringy white hair sits in the corner, glaring at the wall, and sounds like she's having an argument with it, while others seem to be wandering almost aimlessly about the room. "Sarah will be so pleased you're here. She's been talking about you all week." She points us in the direction of a young woman who appears to be painting . . . with her fingers . . . at an easel at the far end of the room.

I take a step back. "That can't be her."

My memory jogs to my encounter with the Oracle of Elysium. Her skin was blue and glittery, and her veils swirled about her as if blown by an invisible wind. She emitted the power and majesty of the divine. But this young woman, this supposed Oracle in front of me, looks all too . . . human. Her skin is pale and peachy, and her hair is unkempt and matted in places. She licks the paint from one of her fingers and then looks up from her artwork as if she can feel my gaze on her.

"Haden!" She smiles and waves with a familiarity that makes it seem as though we are old friends.

But I don't know how she sees me-her eyes are milky and clouded over with blindness. "You came!"

She wipes her hands on her robe and bounds over to us. She clasps my hands before I can pull them away and then grabs Daphne in an embrace. "And you brought her! I knew you would."

"Is this some big joke?" Lexie asks. "Are you guys pranking me?" Sarah takes Daphne and me by the hands and pulls us toward a table near her easel. Lexie, Tobin, and Garrick follow tentatively behind. I notice then how quiet the room has become, and glance around.

The gray-haired woman who brought us here and all the other patients have disappeared without my noticing their leaving. "You have many questions, I know, but we don't have much time. Come sit.

Please."

I am hesitant to take the seat she offers.

"You are flummoxed by my appearance, Haden. I know. You also wonder what I am doing in this mortal vessel, allowing myself to be kept in an asylum. This is not my true appearance." She taps her finger against her nose. "I am in hiding. Witness protection, you might say."

"What did you witness?" Daphne asks.

"Everything," Sarah says with a coy smile. "I see all the paths. All the possibilities. Not just the ones the G.o.ds want me to see."

"So there is another way?" Daphne asks, leaning closer to this Oracle. "I have other options? I don't have to be a Boon or a Cypher or whatever?"

"You were never meant to be a Boon."

Daphne gives me a satisfied look. "You hear that?"

"But you are the Cypher. Your role in this is much greater than you can imagine, Daphne, Daughter of the Music." Sarah reaches her bony hand across the table and places it over Daphne's. "Being the Cypher is your destiny, no matter what path you take."

"Ha," Lexie says. "Your destiny is to be a zero. That's hilarious." That satisfied expression slips right off Daphne's face.

"I do not mean cipher as in the absence of value. Quite the contrary. You are the Cypher. You are the key to all of this."

"What do you mean?" I ask, confused. "Do you mean that Daphne is the Key of Hades?"

"No. Daphne is the Cypher. She is the key to finding the Key." I nod, realizing that Dax's theory had been correct all along. "But how? And why her?" The Oracle c.o.c.ks her head and seems to stare at me with her unseeing eyes. She plays with the mats in her hair. "Oh, I see now. My sister from Elysium told you very little of your and Daphne's destinies."

"Excuse me," Daphne says, pus.h.i.+ng up from her chair. "Can you please stop talking about me in the third person? I am right here. And I don't like being referred to as an object. I am not a key or a Cypher. I am just a normal human girl."

"No, you're not. And you never were," Tobin says from behind her-but his voice echoes out of him and I know it's Sarah, the Oracle, speaking through him. Her milky eyes have rolled up into the back of her head. Lexie gives a little shriek and backs away from Tobin. "You have many names, Daphne Raines. You are the Cypher. The Anoichtiri. The Daughter of the Music. The Descendant of the Great Musician. The Vessel of His Voice. You are the Keeper of Orpheus's Heart and Soul."

"Whoa, what?" Daphne asks.

"She's a descendant of the Traitor?" I ask. "How is that even possible?"

"Orpheus brought back more than the Key from the Underrealm. When Eurydice died, a casualty in the Thousand-Year War between the Underrealm and the Skyrealm, not only did Orpheus lose his new bride, but he also lost the child she carried in her womb. Distraught with grief, he prayed to his father, Apollo, for help in getting them back. Apollo had also heard the prayers of many mortals, whose homes and lives had been destroyed in the cross fire of the war, and he was determined to put a stop to it. In exchange for instructions on how to traverse the dangers of the Underrealm and bring back his wife, Orpheus agreed to steal the Key from Hades. It was intended to be a bargaining chip for Apollo to use to negotiate a cease-fire between the G.o.ds.

"While Orpheus failed to save Eurydice, he carried with him the child and the Key, the Kronolithe of the original Lord Hades."

"You guys," Lexie says, hugging her purse to her chest. "I don't know how you orchestrated all this, but the joke isn't funny anymore. Can we go?"

"No," the Oracle says through Tobin. "Our time is growing very short, and you all must listen and be quiet. Many have antic.i.p.ated the arrival of the Cypher for thousands of years. Nearly eighteen years ago, it was predicted that she would finally arrive in the form of Demi Raines's daughter. They tried to get you then, but they failed. The time was not right. The Champion was not right. You have remained protected in the Fields of Ellis, a safe haven for the servants of Apollo. But now that you have left, now that you have come to me, the wheels have been set into motion. The others will know soon whatever I tell you. The Oracles are connected that way. Whatever I say out loud will be known by all."

"Then why aren't you showing me?" I take her hand and press it against my forehead. I realize now that this is why the other Oracle showed me the instructions for my quest, rather than spoke it out loud.

"I cannot," she says, drawing her hand away and speaking for herself once more and not through Tobin's voice. She sounds exhausted, like that trick had drained her of most of her energy. "I do not retain all of my abilities in this human vessel."

"Then tell us the rest," Daphne says. "I need to know where I come from before I can decide where I'm going."

"Are you sure?" I ask her. "If we set this into motion and there will be no turning back." Daphne nods.

"The irony of all of this is not lost on me," Sarah says. "You came here, Daphne, to try to escape your fate, but coming here was always meant to be one of your first steps on your path to your destiny.

"When Orpheus stole the Kronolithe, it locked the Underlords in the Underrealm, rendering Hades mostly powerless, stripping him of his immortality. Hades sent Keres through Persephone's Gate to go after Orpheus to retrieve the Key and destroy him for his betrayal. Knowing he could not hold such a prize for long while being pursued, Orpheus hid the Kronolithe where it could not be retrieved. He placed on it a lock that only his heart and soul can unbind. The Keres soon caught up with him and tore him apart, leaving his child for dead. But Apollo found the child, and took him to the Amazons to be raised by one of their own. The child grew, married one of the Amazonian daughters, and had a child of his own. The Amazons were eventually slaughtered by the Sky G.o.d for refusing to hand him over, and the family fled to a new safe haven- where their posterity has remained protected, and oblivious to their heritage, until you chose to leave. You must see this, Daphne: you are the last descendant of that child. But not just any descendant. You are the one who has inherited the heart and soul of Orpheus. The one who can retrieve the Kronolithe. But before you can retrieve it, you must find it."

Sarah pulls a golden chain from around her neck. Dangling from the end of it is a large golden pendant with a circle of symbols in the middle. One of them is the raised outline of Lyra-Orpheus's lyre.

"You will need this. It is the Compa.s.s, and it holds the Instrument of Orpheus. They say the Instrument was cast into the stars, but that is not so. It has been with me all this time-I have fas.h.i.+oned it into a compa.s.s of sorts-but I have merely been waiting for you. Waiting to hand you your destiny." Sarah tries to press the pendant into Daphne's hand, but Daphne pulls away. She jumps up out of her chair. "I don't want that."

"You must take it." Sarah stands, meeting her. "There isn't much time, Daughter of the Music. You must take your destiny."

"You can't just try to hand me my destiny. I don't want it. I don't want any of this. You said there were other options. Other paths that you can see."

"There are many paths. And we choose our paths with the decisions we make. But escaping your destiny is not as easy as it seems. The moment you chose to leave the haven of Ellis, your and Haden's destinies became irrevocably intertwined."

Sarah turns to face me. The temperature of the room drops drastically and I'm forced to suppress a s.h.i.+ver. A pulse of energy fills the air and her words echo inside my mind. You have two paths before you now, young Haden. Both paths are fraught with peril. Both will bring you pain. However, 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.

Two paths? Two destinies? How can that be? "Which path is which?" You decide that by the choices you make. The first choice will be upon you soon.

"What does that even mean?"

Sarah stiffens, bolt upright. Her eyelids open and close rapidly over her blind eyes. "My time is up.

You must take this, Daphne, so I can fulfill my purpose." The Oracle presses the Compa.s.s into Daphne's hand. Daphne seems too stunned to protest this time. Sarah whirls toward the doorway of the common room. "They're here," she whispers. "Sooner than I thought."

"Who's here?" Tobin asks, regaining his own voice. "I need to ask you about . . ." He stops speaking as the door to the common room edges open.

"My time is up," Sarah whispers over and over again, while rocking on her heels. "My time is up." The door opens wider. All of us stare at the opening, antic.i.p.ating who . . . or what . . . might enter that has the Oracle in such state. The door creaks open another inch. . . .

And in prances a tiny, gray feline barely bigger than my two fists combined.

"Brimstone?"

She meows a greeting-or more likely a scolding-and bounds right at me. I stoop down to greet her and she jumps onto my shoulder, sinking her tiny claws into my skin to anchor herself.

"What are you doing here? How . . . ?"

I look back at the doorway. If Brim has found me, then Dax probably isn't too far behind. . . .

"I'm sorry, Haden," Dax says, filling the doorway. His voice is thick with warning.

And Dax would only come here if something is very wrong. . . .

He lurches forward into the room, and Simon follows right behind him, holding Joe Vince by the elbow. Both Dax and Joe hold their hands stiffly at their sides, as if they are unable to raise them.

"Joe?" Daphne says. "What are you doing here? And with Mr. Fitzgerald?" Joe shakes his head, his mouth clamped shut, as if he's unable to speak.

"Simon," I say. "You brought him here?" I ask Dax.

"I'm sorry, Haden. I had no choice. He forced me to tell him that I sent you to Vegas, and then he used Brim to track you. He knew she was here this whole time."

"Now, isn't this just the super-duperest of reunions?" Simon says in the jolliest of voices. "I wish I had my camera to capture the moment, because this must be my lucky day." He smiles, his white teeth gleaming. "I came looking for a runaway prince, and in addition, I find the Cypher . . . and the Compa.s.s!"

"You heard all that?" I ask.

"I have good ears," Simon says. "But the Oracle only confirmed what I'd already suspected of Daphne. Management was treating this particular quest in a peculiar way." His smile widens, reminding me of a nursling who has just been offered a fistful of sweets. "Now, Haden, hand over the girl and the Compa.s.s, and I might let at least one of you survive."

"No," I say, resisting the urge to do what Simon wants. I can feel his words nudging at my subconscious. "You're going to have to be more persuasive than that, if you think I'm going to let you walk out of here with her."

Simon shrugs and turns a toothy grin on Tobin. "How about you, then, young man? Bring Daphne to me. Pretty please? And Garrick, why don't you help?"

Dazed expressions cross Tobin's and Garrick's faces. Before I can stop him, Tobin grabs Daphne by the right arm, and Garrick takes her by the left from behind. Holding her by her elbows and shoulders, they propel her toward Simon.

"Tobin, what are you doing?" Daphne says, struggling to get out of their grasp.

Energy swirls inside my chest and I channel it into my hand. Electricity crackles between my fingers.

"Let her go!" I demand, threatening Tobin with the bolt of lightning.

"I . . . I can't help it," Tobin says through gritted teeth as he and Garrick push Daphne closer to Simon.

"Don't hurt him!" Daphne shouts at me. "Tobin, Garrick, let go of me!"

"They're being controlled," Dax says to Daphne.

"Very astute," Simon says. "All it takes is a please most times. You know what they say: you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

"Why would I want to catch flies?" I ask.

Simon raises his eyebrows. "Seriously? That's the part of all this you question?" I change my focus from Tobin to Simon, hefting a pulsing sphere of lightning in my hand.

"Tell them to let her go or you're the one I'm going to blast."

"How can you hit me without frying Dax?" Simon says, moving so Dax, still frozen, is in front of him -using my only friend as a s.h.i.+eld.

I extinguish the bolt, but stay in a ready stance.

"Now, boys, that's close enough," he says to Garrick and Tobin. "But make sure she can't get away." They stop moving, but they keep their hands clamped on Daphne's shoulders. She struggles and stomps hard on Garrick's foot but he doesn't let her go.

"What's the point of this, Simon? You can't take her to my father without her consent, remember? You can't just compel her to go through the gate."

"Why on earth would I take her to King Ren when she's worth so much more to the Skylords? I imagine access to the Kronolithe of Hades would be very appealing to them. And once the Underlords are finally exterminated, I'll be free to do as I please, instead of having to constantly babysit snot-nosed children with delusions of grandeur."

"You're going to sell her?" I ask. "I thought you were Ren's emissary."