Shady shakes his hand. I’d bit him, hard, in order to get him to let me go. I can only hope he doesn’t get the inclination to bite me back. But that isn’t my biggest concern at the moment.
Tobin is out there, alive—but not for long, according to the message he had shouted in front of the cliffs. Do they know I am here, or had Tobin been forced to deliver that message multiple times throughout the Underrealm?
I consider shouting back, alerting Garrick and his men to my presence right away, but without the Key, what good would turning myself over do?
I need the Key before I can do anything.
“You have to help me,” I say, pacing in front of Shady. “I need to save my friend. I need to find the Key, and I need your help in order to do it.”
“You said your friend is in the mortal world,” Shady says. “You said he was looking for Kore. How is he here now?”
“This is a different friend. Haden is my friend who is headed to the Skyrealm. Tobin is my friend who is being held for ransom by the king.”
“How can you save them both?” Shady asks. “If youuu trade Key for the one called Tobin, how will youuu use it to return to the one called Haden? Youuu said he will die if you are not reunited. Youuu said we need him to bring Kore back and dessstroy the Keres.”
I stop pacing. For a faceless zombie, Shady is awfully logical, and I can’t ignore what he is saying. I need the Key to save Haden. I need the Key to kill the Keres. But I also need to give away the Key to save Tobin.
My best friend versus the boy I love.
“What will this king do if he gets the Key?” Shady asks. “You said you need to find it before he or the Court find it. What will they do with it?”
I think of Garrick and his two shadows. His manipulations to get the crown. “Release the Keres,” I say, speculating. Garrick must be working with the Keres. And what would they want more than to be freed from their prison?
And what will they do once they’re free? I already know the answer: destroy everything.
I’m not just looking at the question of saving Tobin versus saving Haden—I’m looking at the question of Tobin versus the greater good.
But Tobin is here because of me. He traveled to the Underrealm—risked everything—to help me. How can I just walk away from him? How can I leave him to die?
“I can save both of them,” I say, pacing again. “There has to be a way to save both. Garrick said I have until first light to save Tobin. Haden told me he has about forty-eight hours left. What if I can use the Key to get close enough to free Tobin, and then the two of us get out of there before Garrick actually gets his hands on it? Then we can use the Key to save Haden and stop the Keres.”
“Annnd get Kore back?” Shady says, his moaning voice hopeful and leading.
I stop pacing and stand in front of Shady. “Yes,” I say. “I promise you this, if you help me find the Key and save my friends, I will help you find Persephone.”
Shady drops to one knee, his hand pressed against the ground. “Then I ammm your humble servant, Daphne of the morrrtal realm. I will help youuu save both your friends.”
“Thank you,” I say, fighting back a wave of emotion.
After a moment, I turn away and gaze out over the cliff. “Now all we need to do is find Charon, hope beyond hope he has the Key and is willing to hand it over, and then make it back to the palace before first light tomorrow. Easy peasy.” My stomach clenches. There is nothing easy about any of this—let alone the fact that the dock near the gate, where I had first encountered Charon, was at least a day’s journey from the palace. And we don’t even know if that’s where Charon will be. “How on earth are we going to find Charon and get back in time?” I mutter to myself.
“Use your Kronolithe to send ussss there,” Shady says.
“Send us?”
“Kore’s pomegranate gave her ability to move through Underrealm with ease. She would think of where she wanted to go, and her Kronolithe would send her there.”
“You mean like teleportation?” I ask, clasping my hand over the necklace.
“I do not know word, ‘teleportation,’ but I do know it can take youuu from one place to another in this realm in blink of an eye.”
“So you’re telling me I could have blinked myself right out of your cave anytime I wanted?”
“Yesss,” he says. If it were possible for a faceless man to look sheepish, Shady was pulling it off. “That is whyyy I did not tell you.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” I ask. “Show me how to teleport ourselves off this rock.”
“It is not as simple as youuu make it sound,” Shady says, approaching my side.
“Nothing ever is,” I say.