Into the Dark: The Shadow Prince Part 44

Joe nods and slinks to the kitchen table, where he sits across from Garrick. Both of them bury their heads in their arms.

Dax opens the fridge and asks if he can make a taco for a snack with the meat and tortillas he finds in a couple of Tupperware tubs.

I nod my approval and I find myself wondering just how long I'll be stuck in this house with all of them. It's not like they can all stay in hiding forever.

But where do we even go from here?

How do you combat a race of beings that can control the weather?

Guilt eats at me. This is all my fault. My very existence, apparently, is putting everyone in this house in danger. My instinct is to figure out a way to protect them, but I don't even know where to start.

The things Sarah said about my origins and my destiny come back to me. She'd called me many things other than just the Cypher. She said I was the Keeper of Orpheus's Heart and Soul. The Vessel of His Voice. I remember Joe telling me about how Orpheus was such a great musician that he could control the elements with his voice-animals, trees, rocks, and such. Even monsters and G.o.ds were not impervious to it. I think about how I was able to calm Brim when she'd gone all beast cat, and how my voice had caused the Keres to go solid enough for Haden to kill it. I'd even been able to use Simon's persuasive tone against him to weaken his hold on my friends.

Did inheriting Orpheus's voice mean that I had inherited his supernatural abilities with music, too?

Maybe my musical OCD isn't an impairment at all-maybe it truly is a gift, like I had always thought.

Maybe Orpheus had been able to hear the tones and sounds that the world and people around him put off-and tapping into that was how he used music to control the elements.

Maybe this is why I've always felt like my voice was meant for bigger things than what Ellis has to offer.

There's a small potted bonsai tree on the coffee table in front of me. Its serene tone reminds me of Asian meditation music. I'd always thought it had a calming effect. I listen to it for a minute, soaking in its song. Then concentrating all my energy at the little tree, I hum the same tone that it puts off.

Move, I tell the tree with my thoughts as I hum. Come to me.

Just when I start to think that this whole idea is as cracked as possible, the little bonsai tree-pot and all-lurches forward a good two inches. As if it is actually trying to come to me.

I jump and glance around the room. n.o.body else seems to have noticed what I've done. What I can do. I decide that, for the moment, it might be best to keep this new development to myself. Until I know how I want to use it.

I start nodding off next to the couch to the sound of Haden's rhythmic breathing. It reminds me of sleeping beside him in the hotel. I am about to give into the slumber that pulls at my mind when Tobin shakes me awake.

"Daphne?" He sticks a framed photo in front of me. It's one that normally hangs on the wall between the bathroom and my bedroom upstairs. "When was this taken?" I blink a couple of times and focus on the picture. "Last winter. The town has a Christmas party every year. Jonathan made us all matching elf costumes."

"Last winter? As in, a year ago?"

The urgent notes coming off him make me sit up-his usual syncopated beat that had attracted me to him has increased in rhythm tenfold.

"What's going on?"

"This girl," he says, tapping the gla.s.s. "Who is she?" I look at the photo and see who he's pointing at.

Her untamed red hair curls out wildly from under her elf hat, and she looks so pale compared to the rest of us desert folk in the photo. She could never spend much time in the sun because of her fair complexion. "That's CeCe Caelum."

Dax makes a noise from the kitchen.

"The girl who's missing?" Tobin asks.

I nod.

He sinks into Jonathan's easy chair with the photo on top of his knees.

"What is it?"

"That's my sister," Tobin says, holding his fingers splayed over his mouth. "That's Abecie."

"What?" Dax says, dropping the taco onto his plate. "Are you sure?" I ask. "I mean, you're j.a.panese and CeCe . . . um, isn't."

"Half sister," Tobin says. "But I never thought of her that way.

My mom had her before she married my dad."

I nod. The reason Tobin reminds me so much of CeCe in both tone and personality finally makes sense. Almost all that time she'd been missing from his life, she's been in mine.

"She's alive," he says.

Dax grabs the photo from Tobin. "Abbie," he says. "I've been looking everywhere. . . . And she was here. That's why I couldn't find her."

"You said she was dead," Tobin says, standing. "Daphne said that you told her that she died!"

"Not exactly," Dax says. "I just didn't deny the idea." "Why would you do that?"

"It was better for people to think she was dead-for her protection-and I had vowed not to speak of her. Or of what happened. I . . . I don't know why I can speak about her now. . . . The Oracle must have released me from my oath when she died. . . ." "Then you'd better start explaining." Tobin looks like he wants to punch Dax in the face.

"What do you know about Abbie's biological father?" "Not much," he says. "I know my mom hates his guts. She never treated Abbie the same as me and Sage. It was like Abbie was some burden she had to bear."

"Abbie's father was a Skylord."

"Whoa, you mean Abbie is like those people who were chasing us? She's part Skylord?"

Dax nods. "Though her powers were mostly dormant when I met her. Your sister wasn't just any Boon I was sent to fetch. The Court was desperate to have her, so they made a deal . . ." "With my mother," Tobin says, and I can hear a string of discordant notes rattle through him. "I started putting the pieces together after Joe admitted to the deal he made-why my mom was covering up those attacks in Olympus Hills. My mom was always all about her work when I was little. She was obsessed with this new wind turbine that she and my dad engineered. She said it had the power to change the world, but they couldn't get the backers they needed to finish it.

That is until some mysterious benefactor came along. He made my parents' company take off the way it did. . . . And then they sold the company to him and brought us to Olympus, and she took over as mayor. That benefactor must have been Simon. My mother is working for the Underrealm, isn't she?

And she didn't just know that Abbie had been chosen to be taken-she traded my sister and her allegiance for the money she needed to finish her life's work, didn't she?" "Yes," Dax says.

Tobin nods, anger ringing off of him, as he accepts the terrible truth. His mother had not only traded Abbie like Joe had traded me-but she had done it knowingly.

"If Abbie chose to run away rather than fulfill my mother's end of the bargain," he says, "I can see why my parents act like she's dishonored our family. My mom must be in pretty deep with the Underrealm because of it. But what I don't get is how she even got involved in all of this in the first place? I mean, this is all just so insane. I've been searching for the psychopaths responsible for what's been going on in Olympus Hills, and it turns out I've been living with one of them all along? How does that even happen?

How did she get hooked up with Simon in the first place?" "You see," Dax says, "centuries ago, all humans worshipped the G.o.ds of the five realms. But as those selfish G.o.ds kept warring against each other and decimating the earth in the process, humans started to turn away from them in favor of softer, friendlier versions of deities. Instead of a vengeful Sky G.o.d, they wanted more of a divine father figure. Most humans lost faith in the realm G.o.ds, but there are still select groups who worship and serve them. Secret societies who keep their dealings very private. They're rewarded with fame, fortune, power, or whatever they desire in return. Your mother was sought out by Simon, the leader of one of these groups-a collective of Hades, the G.o.d of wealth, worshipers, because she had something the Underrealm wanted. Your sister."

"You mean there are more people who've made deals like Joe and Mayor Winters?" I ask.

"Yes," Dax says. "Olympus Hills is home to many of their members."

"Wait?" Lexie asks from where she stands on the stairs. I didn't realize she'd been listening in on this conversation. "You mean, like more of my neighbors could be involved in this sort of stuff . . .

maybe even my parents . . . ?"

"You're Lexie Simmons?" Joe asks from the table. "Your father is one of the owners of the Crossroads Hotel, right?"

She nods.

"There are all sorts of stories about people making deals with the devil down by the crossroads," he says. "That's why I played at the Crossroads Club all those years ago. I had some silly notion something might happen, but never thought it really would. Only it wasn't the devil who came knocking. . . ."

Lexie sits heavily on one of the steps, as if the weight of realizing she may not be immune to all of this is too much for her at the moment.

"So the Court wanted Abbie," Tobin says, bringing the topic back to his sister.

"Abbie was chosen by the Court because they thought they could use her to reinvigorate the bloodlines of the Underlords," Dax says. "They wanted to use her for prime breeding stock for the Court."

"That's disgusting." Tobin b.a.l.l.s his fists like he wants to take his rage out on Dax.

"I agree," Dax says. "I fell in love with your sister, and she fell in love with me, and the thought of her being used by the Court in that way . . . I knew I couldn't bring her back there. We found the Oracle and she gave us instructions.

Sarah told Abbie to find a place to hide until I could come back for her. . . ."

"But why did you leave her in the first place?" Tobin asks. "Because that was part of the bargain I made with the Oracle. I had a role to fulfill before Abbie and I could be together. I've been trying to find her since I returned-doing research, and sneaking off to check out our olds haunts, and searching some of the hiding places we'd discussed. I thought I'd had a line on her about three weeks ago, the night of the festival, but it turned out to be a dead end. I was beginning to think I might never find her. No wonder.

She'd found the best hiding place in the world. It seems as far as the Skylords and the Underlords are concerned, Ellis Fields doesn't even exist."

I can't help wondering if CeCe-I mean, Abbie-had been bound by a similar oath not to talk about all this stuff. Otherwise, she would have told me. I considered her as much my real sister as Tobin did. A pang of guilt hits me. Over the last couple of months, I'd been so hurt by the thought that she was trying to cut me out of her life, I hadn't stopped to consider that she might really be in trouble.

"But it sounds like someone did find her," I say. "She's missing again."

"Marta," Joe says. "It could have been her. She might have recognized Abbie when we were here."

"Marta is in on this, too?" I ask.

He nods. "She's one of Simon's lackeys who's supposed to keep an eye on me."

"But it could have been the Skylords, too," Dax says. "If Marta spooked her and she ran from town, they could have gotten to her. They've wanted her back ever since they found out the Underlords were after her."

"I can't believe it," Tobin says. "I got this close, and now she's gone again. She could be anywhere."

"We'll find her," Dax says. "The Oracle told me we'd be reunited again if I helped Haden find his true path."

chapter fifty-nine.

haden

I wake several hours later. Daphne's house is empty. For a moment, I wonder if I have been abandoned. I wouldn't blame them. Daphne should have left me back at the hospital. I am surprised she didn't run the first chance she got.

I hear voices-laughter-from outside the house. I wander out the back door and find the others gathered around a table on the deck. They pa.s.s food to each other-chimichangas, most likely Dax's suggestion-and talk like they're merely in the cafeteria back at school.

"You should have seen the look on his face!" Dax says. The others laugh.

"Whose face?" I ask.

The group falls silent and they all look at me expectantly. Like they've been waiting for me to tell them what we're going to do next. I walk to the edge of the deck and lean against the railing. I look up at the sky. There are more stars above us than I have ever seen during my time in the mortal world. This place is beautiful in a whole different way from Olympus Hills. I wonder if Daphne will be happy staying here.

A streak of lightning rips across the sky, blotting out the stars, and thunder rolls in the distance. The air feels arid around here, but I can smell rain on the horizon. The Skylords are still out there.

Waiting.

What else is out there waiting for us? Who is the motorcycle man who'd taken the Compa.s.s and what does he plan on doing with it? Who was he working for? What will Ren do to retaliate?

Another thought creeps into my mind-the same thought that haunted me while I slept off the effects of the day. . . .

Dax approaches with a plate of food.

"Are you hungry?"

I shake my head. I'm starving but I can't bring myself to eat. Not with the sick, heavy feeling that sits in my gut.

He places the plate on the railing between us. "So what exactly happened down there?" he asks softly.

"Like I said, my father tried to force me to make an unbreakable vow that I would bring Daphne to him, but instead I vowed that I never will."

"That was brave," he says.

"What if I made I mistake?"

"You didn't."

"How do you know that?" I search his face, looking for the truth.

"Because I believe in you. That's why."

"I'm not sure you're putting your belief in the right place. My father said some things when I was down there. He tried to convince me that he was about to be overthrown by the Court, and if they succeed, some pretty terrible things are going to happen."

"Like what?" It's Tobin who asks the question.

I can see the others are listening now. I turn to face them. All their eyes are on me-except Daphne's.

She stares intently at the food on her plate.