“And just like that, he’s back in charge,” she says, bitter notes mixing with her already chaotic tone.
“I guess being a prince has its perks.” Calix turns around with his flashlight aimed at the tuning fork–shaped tree. I hold my breath as he steps toward it. He stumbles into one of the holes we’d left in the ground and falls forward on his knees, muttering what I suppose are Skylord curses. He picks himself up and brushes off the dirt. “If you think I’m going to keep stumbling around in the dark against Ethan’s orders, you’re mistaken. I’m heading back.”
“Suit yourself, suckling,” she says as he picks his way back to the path. She shines her light again in our direction.
“We’ll see how Ethan feels about your insolence.”
Her shoulders drop, and she almost loses her grip on her flashlight. “Calix, wait.” She follows after him up the path. “Don’t tell Ethan.”
“Come on,” Haden whispers, once they’re out of sight. “Let’s get out of here before she decides to come back.”
chapter twenty-three
HADEN
After we leave the grove, Dax drives us back to the house in the Model X, taking a longer route with several unnecessary turns and side streets just in case Terresa and Calix’s leaving the grove was a feint. The conversation between the two Skylords makes me quiet with contemplation. Either what they said meant that Ethan had told me the truth—that he was attempting to keep his two lackeys off our scent—or the conversation was staged to make me think that is the case.
Either way, Terresa is getting far too close for comfort. And knowing now that Rowan is the one who has been tailing me for the last few months makes me shiver with paranoia. How are we to continue researching the Key with more than one adversary watching our every move?
It was a mistake for us all to have been in the same house tonight. What little cover we’d been keeping may have already been blown.
Daphne’s head lolls as she sits next to me, reminding me how late it is. I can see her fighting to keep her eyes open. I wish I could tell her that she is welcome to rest her head on my shoulder if she wants to sleep. Instead, I shake her awake.
“Hmmm?” she breathes.
“Daphne,” I say. “I need you to do me a favor. However, you are not going to like it.”
Her drooping eyes open wider. “As in?”
“I need you to go home tonight. Back to Joe’s, I mean.”
She starts to shake her head.
“I also need you to ask him to give you back your part in the play.”
“I don’t want—”
“I know you don’t, but it’s important. We can’t be seen together like this. That was a pretty close call back there in the grove with the Skylords, and letting you stay at my house nearly put you in the same room as Rowan. I also know that we aren’t going to be able to solve the Key and Compass quandary if we cannot get together.…” Plus, I can’t stand the idea of staying away from her. “Which means we need a reason to all be together where no one will question what we’re doing. We need to bring Joe in on this. He hasn’t made all of his final casting decisions yet, right? Do you think he might be willing to give me a part?”
“You want to be in the opera?” Tobin asks.
“We’re all going to be in it,” I say.
“What?” Garrick balks. “I am not going to be singing or dancing or any such thing.”
“Then tech crew,” I say to him, and then meet Dax’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “I’m sure Mr. Morgan will take on a new faculty advisor and a tech hand if Joe puts in a request. Rehearsals start in earnest next week, which means we’ll have two hours after school each day with a plausible reason to be together.”
“Good thinking,” Dax says.
“But it will only work if we’re all involved.” I place my hand tentatively over Daphne’s. “You’re going to have to talk to your father.”
“Fine,” she says, pulling away from me. For the second time tonight.
“Circle the lake a couple of times,” I instruct Dax, “and then take us to Joe’s.”
chapter twenty-four
DAPHNE
It’s nearly one thirty in the morning when we pull into the driveway at Joe’s, but all the lights on the main floor shine through the windows. Dax and the others pull away, leaving Haden and me on the front porch. Haden stays without my asking, as if he thinks Joe and I need an intermediary.
“You might want to zip that up,” I say, pointing at Haden’s hoodie, which has come open almost all the way to his navel. It’s not an unpleasant sight, but I don’t think showing up in the middle of the night with a half-naked companion is going to get my conversation with my father off on the right foot.
“Oh yes,” Haden says, his voice sounding garbled, as he zips his jacket up to his collarbone.
I pull out my house key and let the two of us in through the front door.
“Joe?” I call tentatively, my voice echoing in the white marble foyer. “I’m home.”
“I don’t care what you have to say. I’m done with you!” Joe’s shout echoes from somewhere up the grand staircase.
I am taken aback for a moment and almost bolt right back out the door, but Haden’s hand against my shoulder stops me.
“You don’t have any control over me anymore!” Joe’s voice climbs in anger, but from the sound of it, he’s moving through the second-floor hallway toward the stairs. “Simon is gone, which means you have no place in my life.” Joe appears on the landing and makes his way down the stairs, his phone pressed to his ear. “I’m sorry, Marta. I don’t care what you do with yourself now. You’re fired.”
“Joe?” I call again.
“Daphne?” Joe drops his phone. It lands hard against the marble, but he doesn’t seem to notice as he bounds down the stairs, two at a time, to meet me. “You came back.” He stops short of hugging me and stands awkwardly in front of us. “I can leave the house. Sleep somewhere else tonight if you don’t want me here.”
I shake my head. “Can we talk?”
I sit Joe down in the main-floor family room. Haden lingers in the entryway, seeming to be fascinated by Joe’s collection of all-white artwork. It takes me a few moments to get the courage to speak, but then I relate to Joe everything that has been going on for the last three weeks, from our search for the Key to the Skylords at school, and Rowan’s revealing himself as the Motorcycle Man after Haden and Dax broke into his vacated apartment.
“So the lead I provided ended up being useful?” Joe asks.
I nod. In a way, it had. “And now we need something else from you.” I launch into my explanation of Haden’s idea to use play rehearsals as a cover for our group to meet without interference from the Skylords or Rowan.
He nods along with the idea, showing he sees the logic in it.
“Which means you’ll need to find places for Dax and Garrick on the crew,” I explain. “And Haden wants a part in the play.”
I expect Joe to agree right away, based on the hopeful tone he puts off, but instead he leans forward, clasping his hands over his knees. “I’m going to need three things from you first,” he says, like he has all the bargaining power in the room. “First of all, I want in on these meetings. I told you back in Ellis that since I got you into this mess, I want to do everything in my power to help you get out of it. I’ve already proved I can be helpful, so I need you to trust me enough to let me into your circle.”
I push my hair behind my ears, not sure how to respond.
Haden takes a step into the room. “He should be a part of this, Daphne. We could use all the help we can get.”
I sigh. Then nod. “And your second demand?”
“You’ll keep living here. No dorms. No slumber parties with a bunch of teenaged boys.”
That one I had expected already. “Okay.”
“My third request is actually for Haden,” Joe says, looking at him. “I’m going to need to hear you sing.”
“What?” Haden
asks. I can hear a tiny tremor of fear rolling off him.
“If you’re going to be in my masterpiece, then I am going to need to hear you sing. I only have one male role left to fill, and it’s a big one. Hades. I’m not handing that role over to just anyone. I’m going to need to hear you sing.”
“Right now?” Haden asks.
“You’ve heard him sing before. At the Light-up Olympus Festival …,” I start to say, but then I remember that Joe hadn’t exactly been sober the night Haden and I performed a duet in front of the whole town. More like wasted out of his mind.
Joe ducks his head in what I assume is shame.
“Couldn’t you merely put me in the chorus?” Haden asks. I don’t know exactly why he wants a part in the play rather than requesting a spot on the tech crew like Garrick, but I imagine it’s because he wants to be on the stage with me as much as possible. He’s been taking his self-appointed role as my bodyguard quite seriously.
Joe looks up at us again. “I’ve already submitted my chorus selections to Mr. Morgan. There’s one last audition for the role of Hades on Wednesday. You’ll have to impress me as well as Morgan if you want to be in the cast. Take it or leave it.”
“I’ll see you then,” Haden says, accepting the challenge. “Good night, Daphne.”
Haden heads for the foyer and lets himself out. I am about to head up to my wing of the house when Joe stops me. “One more thing, Daphne …”
“Haven’t you made enough demands for tonight?”
“This isn’t a request,” he says, reaching into the breast pocket of his shirt. He pulls out what looks like a large gold coin. “I want to give you something.”
“I don’t want any more bribes.…”
Joe presses the coin into my hand. “This isn’t a bribe. It’s a commitment.”
I look at the coin. There’s a number 1 engraved in the middle with a triangle around it. On the top of the coin is the inscription TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE.
“What is this?” I ask.
“It’s a sobriety coin. That one signifies one month of complete sobriety, but it’s been six weeks since I’ve had a drink. Not since that night … the night of the festival, when I was so drunk you had to protect me instead of me protecting you.”
Joe had almost been killed by a Keres that night. If it hadn’t been for my vocal powers—in the form of a shrieking scream—that had made the shadow monster become solid enough for Haden to blast it to smithereens with his lightning, Joe would have had his life force sucked out of him by the parasitic Keres. I didn’t think he’d remembered any of it.
“I see now why you got so mad about the scooter. You don’t need gifts and bribes from me; you need me to be a better man. A better father. I’m giving you that so you can see that I’m trying to change. For you. I’ve been going to meetings. I don’t even feel like touching alcohol again—because I need to be sober for you. I fired Marta.…”
“I heard.”
“And with Simon gone, that means nothing else has control over me anymore. Nothing is stopping me from being who you need me to be. I understand if you don’t want me. I understand if you want to kick me out of your life. But I want to be your father, Daphne—if you’ll let me.”
Tears flood my eyes. I press the coin tight in my hand. My anger is still there, sitting in my chest. I know it’s going to take time to go away. I know the wall around my heart won’t come down all at once. I know it will take me time to trust him again. But seeing him standing there in front of me, hearing the notes of sincerity that accompany his words, I know there is only one thing I can do at the moment.
I step toward Joe and wrap my arms around him. I hold him tight in a hug, crying against his chest, his hot tears landing on top of my hair while he shakes in my arms, and I cling to that coin in my grasp.
chapter twenty-five
HADEN
Over the next few days, I long for Daphne’s help with preparing for the audition, but since getting together with her outside of the play would defeat the purpose of our clandestine plan, I stick it out on my own. I alternate my time between practicing the first song Daphne ever taught me with a loaner guitar of Joe’s, and worrying over when or if Rowan will choose to reveal himself again.
The fact that he hasn’t yet by Monday makes me fret even more. What if I had been wrong about supposing that we could use his desire for a talisman to help us get our hands on the Compass? Knowing where the Key is hidden and not being able to access it make my patience grow thin. But at least as long as Rowan stays away, the Skylords won’t be able to steal the Compass out from under him, either.
Wednesday comes, along with my audition. I take the stage with my guitar, the last of the auditions for the day. Daphne sits in the audience with a few other students who have come to watch the proceedings. She seems to be careful not to give me too much notice, as if we are merely acquaintances instead of comrades—either that or she still has not forgiven me for making her go back to Joe’s.
I approach the mic and address both Joe and Mr. Morgan, who sit in the middle of the auditorium. “I’m Haden Lord, and I am auditioning for the role of Hades, god of the Underrealm … er, I mean, underworld.”
As I start to strum the guitar, I notice a presence in the room that I didn’t expect. Ethan Bowman stands in the back of the auditorium, his arms crossed in front of his chest as he watches me with an intent stare. If he’s going for intimidation, I won’t let it deter me. I launch into the song, pretending Daphne is sitting next to me like when she taught it to me, and try to sing as if it were only for her.
It seems like no time until the song is over. There’s a spatter of applause from the few students in the room, and Joe and Mr. Morgan put their heads together, conferring. Then Joe looks up at me and calls, “Congratulations, Mr. Lord, the part is yours.”
I nod a thank-you and let my sight drift to Daphne for the first time since I finished singing. She gives me a small smile before her gaze darts to the side of the auditorium in warning. Terresa stands in the shadows of one of the east-side doorways. I duck my head and walk with my guitar to a back exit instead, not giving Daphne a second glance.
Ethan nods as I pass him. “Interesting talent you have for an Underlord,” he says quietly. “I hope keeping your end of a bargain is another one.”
“It is,” I say under my breath, and push my way out the exit door.
chapter twenty-six
DAPHNE
The first group rehearsal starts on Saturday. Tobin and I are paired off for most of the morning, working on a duet from the opening act of the play, while Lexie and Haden are supposed to run lines for one of the underworld scenes. Garrick is assigned to be a stagehand, while Dax volunteers as the assistant for the props and costume master—a job he seems to be taking quite seriously, considering he’s only using it as an excuse to be here. Only, we’re so busy all morning, I start to worry that using rehearsals as a front for secret meetings isn’t going to work, until we finally break for lunch. Mr. Morgan and the other students leave campus to find food, but Joe orders pizza so the rest of us can stay behind.
I sit on the stage, waiting for the delivery and nursing a bottle of apple juice. Mr. Morgan ran us through our paces so many times this morning that my voice is starting to feel strained. I realize I’m already letting this Key and Compass business adversely affect me because I’ve been skipping out on my self-mandated daily vocal exercises in favor of angsting over whether the Skylords or Rowan is going to suddenly decide to kidnap me.
Which is why I groan when someone finally brings up the subject at hand.
“Any sign of Rowan?” Joe asks as he sits down between Lexie and me. Haden, Dax, and Garrick sit across from us in a circle. The only one who hasn’t joined us in our pseudohuddle is Tobin. He sits with his legs dangling over the edge of the stage while he studies pages from Abbie’s diary. He must have read that thing five times over by now. I’m starting to worry that he’s becoming obsessed.
But
, really, could I blame him?
“Nothing,” Dax says. “It’s like Rowan is a ghost in the wind.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Haden says. “Why would he show himself only to disappear again? What is his endgame?”
“He probably knows we can’t get to the Key without the Compass,” Dax says. “Perhaps he’s biding his time.”
“But for what?” Haden asks. “He seemed desperate enough for a talisman; I thought for sure we would have heard from him again by now.”
“Do we want to hear from him again?” Lexie asks. “From what you’ve described, this guy doesn’t sound like someone you want to have a family reunion with.”
“We need him if we’re going to get the Compass.”
“How’s the search for Simon’s talisman coming anyway?” I ask. “We’re going to need it if we have any hopes of making a trade.”
Dax shakes his head. “Haden and I have turned the house over looking for it. Simon could have ditched it somewhere in Vegas, for all we know.”
“I’m tired of waiting for Rowan to make the next move,” I say. “There has to be another way that we can try to track him down.”
“But how?” Lexie asks. “The motorcycle lead was a bust. What else do we have?”
The group falls silent for a moment until Joe checks his phone. “The pizza guy is out front.” He reaches into the back pocket of his skinny jeans. “Bugger, I must have left my wallet at home.” I can tell by the tone that comes off him that he’s worried he’s made himself look bad in front of me—like I’ll think he’s being irresponsible. “I might have cash in my car.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Haden says, pulling a black credit card out of his back pocket.
Joe shies away from it. “I couldn’t let you pay for the pizza I ordered.”
“It’s not a big deal. It’s Simon’s account anyway.”
“In that case …” As Joe plucks the card from Haden’s fingers, an idea hits me.