“She’s not here,” Jonathan says when he rematerializes outside the prison cell where Ethan, Psyche, Brimstone, and I wait. He had only been gone for a minute at best.
“Are you sure?” I ask. “Search again.”
“I’ve been through the prison three times. Persephone isn’t here, and we need to go. Now.”
I have no reply. Every last bit of hope I have left in my blackening body was hanging on this plan. How can she not be here? “Search again.”
“You’re not hearing me. We need to leave. Now. The minotaur is headed this way.”
“How close?” Ethan asks, reaching for his mother’s hand.
“If we move fast, we may make it to the exit before it sees us. But like I said, we need to go now.”
Ethan and Jonathan usher Psyche into the corridor. I don’t follow.
“Come, Haden,” Ethan says.
“No. I have to stay. I can’t leave without Persephone.” Maybe Jonathan missed something. Maybe I can find her on foot.
“Trust me, Haden, she isn’t here.” Jonathan’s voice is flooded with urgency. “Either she was moved, escaped, or was never here to begin with. We need to outrun the minotaur, unless you want this place to become your grave.”
“Maybe it would be better to stay in our cell, rather than outrun it,” Psyche says.
“We’ll lose the exit,” Ethan says. “If we wait too long, it will shift locations and we may never find it again.” He looks at me and holds out his hand. “Either come with us or hand me the Arachne’s thread. I will not let my mother get trapped in here.”
I look at the spool of translucent thread in my hand. It’s my only lifeline out of this place. Brim butts her head against my ankle, trying to prod me forward. A roar echoes through the corridor. The minotaur is coming.
“Now, Haden,” Jonathan commands, his voice echoing with godly authority.
I wrap my fingers around the spool and dash out of the cell. Brim bounds over my feet as I run. Her back and tail bristle when another roar from the minotaur fills the corridor. The others are close at hand as we jog through the maze, following the trail of the fragile string. I can tell Jonathan wishes he could fly, but the corridor is too narrow to spread his wings. After several left and right turns that I would not have recalled on my own, I finally see a shimmering rectangle in the wall up ahead. It must be the exit. The rectangle wavers as if it were blinking in and out.
“It’s fading,” Ethan says, pushing his mother toward the exit. She reaches back for Jonathan’s hand and the two cross through the exit together, vanishing from my sight. Ethan goes next, disappearing into the fading light.
I’m only inches from the exit when I realize that Brim is no longer underfoot. I turn back, looking into the bright corridor, and see that she has come to a halt several feet back. She faces away from the exit, her nose in the air as if she’s caught the scent of something. Hellcats are the world’s most efficient trackers—Brim could find me anywhere, and once she locks onto a scent it’s almost impossible to dissuade her. “Not now, Brim,” I command. “Come.”
The roar of the minotaur grows louder. It’s just around the corner. Brim takes off down another corridor, running deeper into the maze. Following whatever scent she picked up. “No, Brim! We need to leave!”
A hulking, dark form careens around the corner. All I can see are its blazing red eyes, glinting horns, and a mouth full of teeth. I drop the spool and lunge to follow Brim—only to be caught from behind. A strong grip closes over the back of my neck and I am yanked backward. I fall back through the exit. The last thing I see is the hulking creature thunder into the corridor where Brimstone had disappeared.
The hand that pulled me through the exit releases me. I try to scramble for the opening, but the shimmering rectangle evaporates right before I touch it. The exit has moved. All that stands in front of me is a stone wall. No, the mountainside. I claw at it with my fingers, as if I can pry the mountain open. “Brim!”
I sink to my knees, clutching my head. Once again, an invisible barrier has cut me off from someone I love. I don’t know how to save her, as I don’t know how to save Daphne. Not now that the hope of Persephone is gone. “Brim, no.”
“I’m sorry, Haden,” Ethan says. “We can come back. We can find another way in. Another day.”
“Another day?” I say through clenched teeth. “No, we get Terresa and we find Brim now. I promised I would never leave her behind again.”
“There’s no time. The new entrance could be hundreds of miles from here. It would take too long . . .”
“She’s with the minotaur!”
“Your cat will be fine,” Jonathan says, stepping forward. I can hear the doubt in his voice.
“She’s not merely my cat. She’s my friend. She’s my family. And now she’s gone. Just like Daphne.” I stand, feeling the sudden urge to take a swing at Jonathan. “All because of you. This was your plan. You’re the one who led us here with your false promises of finding Persephone.”
“They weren’t false promises.” He flaps his wings. “It was a hope.”
“A false hope. A lie,” I say, realizing it. “You tricked us into coming here. You knew Persephone wasn’t here. You knew it, but convinced us to come here anyway. To storm the palace and get your bow back. You even finagled it so we’d rescue your wife from servitude. You don’t care about Daphne. You took advantage of my love for her. You used me. You’ve gotten everything you’ve ever wanted, you conniving koprophage, and I’ve lost the last good thing I had because of it.”
I lunge at Jonathan, ready to strike, but Ethan jumps in the way. I take a swing at him. He grabs me by the shoulders and wrestles me to the ground. I feel a surge of electricity building in my chest. I’ll blast his face off and then do the same to his treacherous father.
“You’re being unreasonable,” Ethan says, shoving me away. “It’s the poison talking, not you.”
I raise my fist, holding a crackling bolt of blue lighting. I don’t care what excuses he has. I don’t care. “Get out of my way so I can send your father back to the gates of the dead where he belongs. Where he should have stayed!”
Ethan raises his own bolt of lightning. “You’re out of your mind, Haden. Look at your hands!”
I look at the hand that holds the lightning bolt. Every vein has gone black. My fingernails are dark and clouded, like each one has been smashed by a hammer. I am doing it again. Giving into the poison. Being unreasonable. I extinguish the bolt and Ethan lets me go. I roll onto my knees. “She’s gone. They’re both gone.”
First I lost Dax, then I lost Daphne, and now I’ve lost Brim. I have absolutely nothing left to lose. I have nothing left to give.
“We’ll figure out a new plan,” Jonathan says, stepping closer. “I love Daphne as if she were my own child. By Apollo’s Chariot, I promise you I will not rest until we find her. I didn’t even let death stop me, need I remind you.”
I nod, pretending to let him comfort me, but I know there’s nothing more he can do.
But there is something left that I can do, I realize. There is one thing left I have to give. One last course of action I can take. The idea has been prodding at my brain since Jonathan told us about standing at the main gates of the Underrealm. No living thing can pass through those gates without it being unlocked with the Key. No corporeal thing can get through. But the gate will open for the dead.
A dead soul could enter the Underrealm. A dead soul could find Daphne. A dead soul could help her escape from that Shade’s cave. A dead soul could help her find the Key. A dead soul could help her escape the underworld and return her to her family.
“Do you want another dose?” Jonathan asks, searching his quiver. “Where’s my last dart?”
“You gave it to me,” I say. “You gave it to me and I vowed I wouldn’t give up on finding Daphne. I vowed I wouldn’t give into the nothingness again.”
“Good,” Jonathan says, clasping my shoulder. “We need you.”
I nod again and let him help me to my feet.
“Do you want me to administer it to you now? I have my bow back, which means I can make more once we return to the mortal realm, but it will take time. Possibly too much time, though . . .”
“No,” I say. “I’m fine for now.”
I let Ethan and Jonathan lead me through the night back toward the hut where Terresa and Jessica wait with my father. When no one is watching, I pull the last emotion dart from my pocket. I wrap my fist around it. I will honor my vow to never give up on finding Daphne, but I was wrong about not giving in to the nothingness. I squeeze my hand, crushing the last dart into dust, and let it trail behind me as we leave Brim and the Black Hole behind.
There is one last thing I can do to find Daphne.
I need to die.