“Daphne?”
His voice is tinged with shock and disbelief. Still, it’s the most wonderful sound in the world. Almost as wonderful as the sight of him. Standing here, in the cave. A pillar of light in the darkness.
“How?” I ask, trying to push myself up to a standing position. “You’re here.”
“You called me here?” His voice is so filled with astonishment that I can’t tell if it’s a statement or a question. I don’t care. He’s here. That’s all that matters. Haden had once explained that a communication talisman worked like a cell phone, only it didn’t just transmit a person’s voice to you, it brought their soul. And yet, I still didn’t expect to see him here in front of me. His jade-green eyes look tired and his dark brown hair is rumpled, but he’s such a sight for sore eyes that just looking at him takes my breath away.
I want to run to him. I need to wrap my arms around him. But running is hardly an option with my braced knee.
I take two hobbling steps.
“You’re hurt,” he says, and then he’s the one running to me. He jogs up to me and holds out his arms as if he were trying to steady me as I teeter on my feet. His hands don’t make contact, they just pass through me as if I were a ghost. Or if he were a ghost . . .
I gasp, tears filling my eyes once again. “Are you dead?” I whisper.
Part of me worried that Garrick had gone back on his word—that he had sent Haden to an execution rather than banishing him to the mortal world.
“No,” Haden says. “Only my soul is here. My body is back in the mortal realm. I forgot in my excitement that I cannot touch you.”
“Oh,” I say, wiping my tears away with relief.
He lifts his hand to his own eyes. I see it then, the black spindly veins wrapping around his hands and fingers. It has spread so fast.
“That means I can’t kiss you?” I want so badly to touch him. To kiss him. To cure him of the poison in his system.
Haden shakes his head. “Only energy can pass between us.”
He holds his hand up in front of him, as if he were pressing against an invisible window that separates us. I do the same. Our hands look as though they are touching, but I can’t feel anything. A blue spark lights up from the tip of Haden’s index finger, giving me a little shock.
“I felt that!” I exclaim with so much excitement that I almost topple over. I steady myself, grabbing my injured knee.
“You’re hurt,” he says again, dropping his hand away. “What happened? Where are you? This doesn’t look like the palace. Did Garrick do this to you?” he says, indicating my bandages. “I’m going to strangle that little rat.”
“It wasn’t Garrick, but it was a rat,” I say. “I escaped Garrick.”
“Of course you did,” he says, like he wouldn’t expect any different.
“Only problem is that I was attacked by some Shades, and now I’m being held hostage by one of them in a cave . . . Well, not exactly hostage . . .”
“You’re being held by a Shade?” His beautiful jade eyes are marred with panic. “Daphne, you have to get out of there. It’s going to eat you!”
“No, I don’t think so. He says he’s trying to protect me—”
“Says?” He shakes his head. “Shades do not speak.”
I shrug. “This one does. At least to me. And I’m pretty sure I’m safe here for now. A little too safe . . .” I hold my hands up because I can tell he’s about to protest. I don’t have time for arguing. Who knows when Shady might return—and if he saw me using the talisman, he might take it by force. “Enough about me. I may not have much time. Tell me how you’re doing. My mom, Joe, Jonathan? What’s happening out there?”
“They’re fine,” he says. “I’m fine.”
He tucks his hands behind his back, and I know he’s lying about his condition.
“How long has it been, out there?” I ask, realizing I have no idea if time moves at the same rate in both our worlds.
“A couple of days since I returned.”
“Then there’s still time. Jonathan said I’d have two weeks.”
Haden starts to shake his head, then stops as if he’s hiding something.
“What is it?” I ask.
He looks down at the ground.
“Tell. Me.”
He pulls his hands out from behind his back. “It’s spreading too quickly,” he says quietly. “Jonathan doesn’t know why—maybe something about my metabolism. He’s been giving me something to try to stave off the worst effects, but at this rate, if I’m lucky . . . I maybe have forty-eight hours before it overtakes me completely.”
“Forty-eight hours?” I say with disbelief.
Two days? Two days? Here I thought I had a little less than two weeks to find a way out of the Underrealm—a daunting prospect on its own—and now I only have two days?
If he’s lucky . . .
“Don’t worry,” he says. “We have a plan to try to get you out. We’re heading into the Skyrealm. We’re going to infiltrate a secret prison and try to find Persephone. If there’s anyone who knows how to get you out, it’s going to be her.”
“You’re going into the Skyrealm?” Panic rises up my spine. “And you’re going to break into a secret prison?”
“Oh, and the Sky King’s palace. But that is a bit of a side mission.”
“Are you insane?”
“I know it sounds addled, but Daphne, I will do anything to get you out of there . . .”
“I can find my own way out. I have a lead on where I might find the Key—if I can only persuade Shady to take me there.”
“Finding the Key would be the best option, but you still won’t be able to leave without my help. You’re bound to Garrick, which means I’ll have to come into the Underrealm and . . .”
“And what, kill him?”
“If I have to.” Haden doesn’t meet my eyes. “Or drag him out kicking and screaming. Whichever is easiest.”
I wonder if it’s the black poison talking, or if Haden is really willing to kill his younger half-brother. I wonder if I will be willing to let him . . .
“In the meantime, I’m not waiting for the Key to turn up in the Underrealm. I’m going to do whatever it takes to figure out how to save you, from my end.”
I want to protest but I know it won’t do any good—just like there’s nothing he can say that will stop me from trying to figure my own way out over here. And I don’t want to argue, not when our time could be over any second. I lift my hand toward Haden. If he was really heading into the Skyrealm, this may be my last chance to see him. Ever. “Do that again,” I say, indicating his hand. I want to feel his energy again.
Haden lifts his hand, but instead of bringing it to mine, he raises it to my face. A small shock of energy lights against my cheek. I lean into it as if it were a caress. He touches his fingers to my shoulder next. It’s a small shock. It makes me shudder, and not with pain.
He touches my side.
The shock makes me sigh.
He leans forward and I know what he wants. Maybe it will even work . . .
His face is there in front of mine. I know we can’t really touch, but I bring my lips to where his are. A spark of energy lights between them. I can feel his energy burst against my lips and it ripples through me. The spark was only a flicker, but it feels like a flame.
A soul kiss.
A noise catches my attention. The sound of stone sliding against stone—the boulder at the entrance of the cave is being moved. Shady is coming back.
I pull away from Haden. “I have to go.”
“No,” he says, reaching out like he can stop me. “Don’t go.”
Light from outside edges into the cave.
“I have to.”
I drop the talisman, breaking the connection, and Haden disappears.