“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.

I can feel my soul wavering. It can’t survive that kind of blast.

“You realize that if the Heirs get their way,” Ren says, “she’ll die, along with all your precious friends. You give her to me, and maybe I’ll let you have whatever is left of her after I get the Key.”

Haden! I hear my name again. This time, it sounds like Daphne and Dax together.

Thoughts of Daphne fill my mind. The sound of her voice when she sings. The touch of her skin as I held her hand as she slept. The way she didn’t mock me when I cried. The way she makes me feel human. That mean right hook of hers …

“I’ll make the vow,” I say.

“Wise decision.” Ren snuffs out the bolt in his hand and walks closer to me, his feet making tracks in the puddle of water from the River of Unbreakable Vows. He stands over me, towering so high that it reminds me of what it felt like to be a child trapped under his shadow. “Do it now.”

I place my hand that has the talisman branded to it in the puddle. The water edges over my fingertips. It feels cool and calming compared to the pain that I have endured today. I look up at Ren as he glowers down at me, and can’t help wondering how that expression will change when I make the vow. How will he look at me then? “I vow, on the water of the river Styx, the River of Unbreakable Vows, that I will … never bring Daphne to you.”

Before Ren can react, I send a surge of lightning into my hand. It hits the water and explodes, electrifying the wet ground all around us. The blast sends Ren flying through the air toward his throne, and me sailing backward.

I hit the altar with a soul-shattering crack, and darkness surrounds me.

Chapter fifty-eight

DAPHNE

Haden’s body convulses in my arms, like he’s having a seizure. He twists and writhes in silent agony. And then he goes limp and still. So still and breathless that I think the worst.

No. No, he can’t be dead.

“Haden, come back!” I say, smacking his face.

Nothing.

I try a softer approach and press my lips to his forehead. “Please, Haden,” I say, brushing my hands through his hair and then pressing my fingers against his neck. No pulse. No nothing.

“Daphne,” Dax says. “I think he’s gone.…”

Haden lets out a great, gasping groan and sits bolt upright, like he’s waking from a horrific nightmare.

“Haden!” I throw my arms around him, holding him to me. “I thought you were dead.”

Haden’s vision seems to focus and he takes in the surroundings of the Sunny Ridge common room. The carnage of the events with Brim and Simon surrounds us. I can hear his heart pounding out a frantic melody.

“For a moment, I thought I was, too,” he says, his voice sounding more like a croak.

He flexes his fingers and a charred object that vaguely resembles the talisman falls from his hand, leaving a raised, blistering welt of its size and shape in his palm. “That actually worked,” he says, like he’d caused that kind of damage on purpose. “Scrambled the connection to the Underrealm … Sent me back here.” He pinches his leg like he’s making sure he’s truly back inside his body. “Half expected to wake up a shade in the Wastelands instead.”