chapter fifty-two
daphne

The nurse leads us to a small recovery room. “You can have a few minutes with your father now,” she says, pushing the door open. “I must warn you, he’s been through quite the ordeal and he’s still pretty groggy. He keeps going on about fighting angels of death in the underworld or something like that.”

“Huh, weird,” I say and feign a shrug.

She leaves, and I find myself standing outside the door until Haden squeezes my hand. “I’ll wait out here and give you some time alone with him,” he says. I nod and finally enter the room.

I find Joe lying in a hospital bed. His head is bandaged and his face is black and blue, but he still manages to smile at me.

“‘Ello, Daphne. Is it morning already?” he says, reminding me of the first day we’d spent together after I’d come to live with him. Though he hadn’t been so enthused then to be woken up. His British accent is especially thick in his groggy state.

“It’s afternoon already,” I say, echoing what I said then. My voice catches and tears fill my eyes. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you in one piece!”

“Well, not exactly one piece,” he says, lifting his bandaged arm and I realize the doctor had been dead serious when he said he didn’t think they would be able to save his hand. “Say ’ello to Stumpy!” Joe says far too cheerily as he holds out his handless arm as if he wants me to shake it.

“Hello, Stumpy,” I say, but refrain from touching his bandage. The tears only come harder now. “That’s your strumming hand,” I say, thinking of how my father the great musician will never be able to play guitar again. Or the grand piano in his studio. Or any of the instruments that he prides himself on.

“Don’t fret,” he says. “Heheh. Get it? Fret. Like a guitar fret?”

I playfully roll my tear-filled eyes. Even the Joe Vince isn’t immune to dad jokes—but it does make me crack a small smile.

“Maybe they’ll give me a hook and I can get an eye patch and change up my whole act. Arrg, the band’ll be Joe Vince and the Pirates!” he says in a terrible pirate accent.

I give a little laugh. This seems to make him happy.

“Seeing you here, smiling, means the sacrifice was worth it,” he says.

“I love you,” I say and rest my head on his chest.

He strokes my hair with his good—I mean, only—hand. “I love you too, Daph.” After a minute he yawns and his eyes grow sleepy. “Now what are you doing hanging around here for? You should be out celebrating your victory!” He sits up a little bit. “Wait, we won, right?”

“Yes, we won.”

“Then get out of here,” he insists. “Go party. Go celebrate. Let this old pirate rest and come see me tomorrow. You can give me the play-by-play then.”

“Okay,” I say. I give him a kiss on the cheek and rejoin Haden in the hallway.

“Are you okay?” Haden asks, giving me a mournful smile. I nod and then fold myself into his outstretched arms and let him hold me. We survived. Joe is going to be okay. And the world is safe. I let the shock of it all wash through me until I can smile again.

“I love you,” Haden whispers against my hair, sending tingling electricity through my body.

“So, what should we do now?” Tobin says as we leave the hospital. He walks hand in hand with Lexie down a wooded path that leads to the road. Dax and Abbie are with us also. Much to my surprise, Mom had said she was going to stay and sit with Joe for awhile. I think she wanted to give us kids a chance to celebrate without her hanging around, but I also hope she doesn’t plan on smothering Joe with a pillow when the nurses aren’t looking.

“There’s that promise to find Persephone,” I say, “but for now I really need something to eat. I think it’s been days since I had anything other than flower blossoms.”

“Tell me about it,” Tobin says, rubbing his stomach. “Shady—I mean, Hades—was all about those gray flowers, but man, they tasted like bitter black licorice.”

“I promised everyone hot chocolate and muffins,” Lexie says. “I know a good place the next town over, since Olympus Brew is probably closed with the evacuation and everything.”

“Sounds good to me,” Tobin says.

“Us too,” Dax says. He’s got his arm around Abbie. It makes my heart swell to see the two of them reunited. I had worried what Ethan’s reaction would be to Abbie’s announcement about being engaged to Dax, but seeing the way he looks at his lieutenant, Jessica, when he thinks no one is watching makes me think he’ll get over it.

“Congrats, by the way,” I say to Dax and Abbie, realizing that in my worry over Joe, I hadn’t said it before.

“I’m still not okay with this marriage business,” Tobin says, letting go of Lexie and giving his sister a playful shove. She grabs his hat from his head.

“You are, too! Your ears are completely burning!”

Tobin chases his sister up the path. Dax and Lexie jog after them, laughing.

I pull on Haden’s arm, slowing him down so we have a little distance from the others.

“Have you thought about what you’re going to do now?” I ask him.

“What do you mean? I thought I’d stay here, go to school, maybe join a band or something. I read on the Internet that girls like that sort of thing. I thought I’d give being human a try . . . with you.” He looks deep into my eyes as if searching for something. Then he glances away. “Unless that’s not what you want. I assumed when you said you wanted to go home, you meant Olympus Hills. But I guess you might want to go back to Ellis Fields with your mom . . . And leave all of this behind . . .”

“Don’t be addled . . .” I say, using a term he would. “Of course I’m staying here with you. What I meant is that you need to give some thought to where you’re going to live now. I doubt you’re going to want to share a place with a honeymooning Dax and Abbie and with Tobin hanging around.”

“Oh, yes. I suppose you’re right.”

“You know, Joe has an entire empty wing at his mansion. I bet he’s going to need an extra hand around the house—pun not intended. I could ask him if we could have an indefinite house guest? You know, if you don’t mind living under the same roof as me . . .”

Haden pulls me tight against him. “I would like that very much,” he says in a voice so low and soft it makes my heart beat faster. “You know, for a minute there in the Underrealm, I thought I’d lost you. That you had decided to choose a different destiny than one with me . . .”

I shake my head, hating the idea that I made him worry. “I wouldn’t do that. Our destinies are intertwined, you know?”

“I know.” He leans in and kisses me. Electricity crackles between us, warming my lips and sending a tingling sensation down my spine. I kiss him back, running my fingers into his hair and then down his neck and chest. When we part in order to breathe, Haden pants against my cheek, “So what does our destiny hold now, Daphne Raines?”

“Apparently muffins and hot chocolate,” I say with a little laugh against his skin. “And froyo. I could really go for some froyo right now.”

Haden leans in to kiss me once more . . . but a burst of lightning explodes above our heads. I reel around to find Rowan standing in the trees next to the path. He holds a pulsing ball of lightning in his hand.

“I told you to watch your back, little brother!” he snarls, and pulls his arm back, ready to strike. Before he can release the sphere, a large gray paw sails out from behind a tree, swiping his feet out from under him. Rowan slams into the ground. A large, three-headed panther springs out from behind the bushes.

“Brimstone, you’re back!” I sing, matching her growling tone.

With a little pop, the panther shrinks back down to the size of a kitten. Brim jumps up onto Haden’s shoulder. She purrs as he scratches her ears. “I knew you’d find me,” he says. “You always do.” She nuzzles his cheek.

Rowan moans and then collapses against the grass in a faint. Brim hisses down at him.

“Yeah, I know,” I say to her. “I’ve always hated that guy, too.”

“Go home,” Haden says to Rowan. “You’ll find it very different there now, what with Hades’s return.”

“What?” he blinks up at us, I imagine both dazed from the blow and astonished by the news.

Haden pulls my hand to lead me away.

“That’s it?” I ask. “Shouldn’t we restrain him or . . . ?”

“He’s not important anymore,” Haden says. We leave Rowan behind and continue down the path toward our friends. “So this froyo you speak of,” Haden says tentatively, “what exactly is it?”

“Frozen yogurt.” I smile at him. “I forget you still have so much to learn about being human.”

“Is it like ice cream?”

“Yes, it’s like ice cream. And you get to mix in whatever toppings you want. Like fruit or candy or marshmallows or whatever.”

Haden squeezes my hand. “Then froyo is definitely part of our destiny,” he says.