The Shadow Prince
Page 36

“Couldn’t sleep?” he asks, his voice sounding strained.
I stand there awkwardly for a few seconds. I am not sure I have forgiven him yet, and I am even less sure if he’s forgiven me.
Brim meows.
Dax’s eyebrows arch when he realizes Brim is on my shoulder.
“A little stowaway,” I say.
“Naughty—”
“Don’t make her mad. She’s feeling a little touchy on the subject.”
“If Simon sees her …”
“I know. But I need to get her some breakfast before she decides to eat one of us.”
Brim hops off my shoulder onto the counter. She waits expectantly as I inspect the fridge for something to feed her. Either Simon or Dax has stocked the fridge, mostly with foods that I don’t recognize. I move aside Simon’s bottle of beet juice and find a package of something called cold cuts. I smell it and then hold it out to Brim for her inspection. She sniffs it and bites the corner of the package. I take that as approval and tear it open. She anxiously snatches bits of the meatlike substance from my hand, nipping my fingers in her overexcitement.
Dax pulls something from the paper bag that sits on the table. It looks like meat and cheese wrapped in a really thin, round piece of flatbread. He takes a bite and sighs. “You know I volunteered to be your guide because we’re friends, but honestly, I would have done it just for the late-night taco runs. Man, I missed Mexican food.”
Dax finishes his so-called taco and then turns his tablet back on. He swipes at the screen a couple of times, and then grunts with displeasure.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to catch up on things since I was here last.” He points at the tablet. “I’ve been researching local news, that sort of thing. They’ve already got a write-up on what happened to that girl they found near the grove. It says that doctors concluded that she had a massive heart attack, passed out, tumbled down the slope, and fell into the lake. If she hadn’t been found by some fellow students, she probably would have died of hypothermia or drowned. They say she’s in a coma.”
“Massive heart attack? That means her heart seized up, yes?”
“Yes.”
“How old is she?”
“Seventeen.”
“Is that normal?”
“No.”
“Were there any wounds? Was there blood?”
“It doesn’t say.”
Brim licks my fingers, greedily searching for more meat. I pull another slice from the package and give it to her whole, distracted by a suspicion that edges into my thoughts.
“What are you thinking?” Dax asks. “You’ve got that look.”
I pick up Brim, who is trying to chew her way into the package of cold cuts. “I noticed a weird smell at the lake. Like death lingering in the air.”
“But the girl didn’t die.”
“Exactly.” I look at Dax. My suspicion is going to sound crazy—even to him. “What if Brim wasn’t the only stowaway who passed with us through the gate?”
Dax laughs. “You’re kidding, right? That’s impossible.” He looks at me and his laughter dies. “How could it get out?”
“I don’t know.” I suddenly feel stupid for suggesting it. But if my suspicions are right …
“I’ll look into it,” he says. “Meanwhile, you rest up. You’re going to need your strength.”
I give him an inquisitive look.
“You’re starting school on Monday.”
“School?”
“Simon’s call. I was hoping you’d get to avoid it, but he thinks it’s best if you and Garrick enroll in school. He thinks, with everything that happened today with Daphne and this other girl, it’s important that we all act as much like normal humans as possible. He also says the added benefit is that you’ll have the chance to interact with your Boon on more common grounds.”
I nod. “That doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.”
Dax makes a scoffing noise. “You might be from Hades and all, but you haven’t experienced torment quite like high school before.” He swipes at his tablet. “But at least it means no more lurking in the shadows, trying to grab hapless females, and almost getting yourself fried.” There’s an edge to his voice that tells me I haven’t been forgiven completely for my mistake, after all.
Then again, I never actually apologized. It’s against my Underlord nature.
“I didn’t get very far with her, if that makes you feel better.”
“Did she scream or something?”
“No. She hit me.”
“She hit you?” Dax suppresses a smile—not very well. “Where?”
“In the face. Hard.”
He laughs. “Well, I’ll be harpied. I haven’t met her and I already like this Boon.”
“That’s the thing, Dax. This Daphne girl isn’t like any Boon I’ve ever met.…”
“Forget those other Boons. There’s a difference between the girls who go easily into the Underrealm and the majority of mortal women. You see, most Champions get the chance to choose their Boons—they’re usually not preselected for them as with you and me—which means most Champions go after easy prey. Girls who seem like they’re already standing halfway in the dark to start with. Maybe that’s why they don’t last very long. Their spirits were weak from the beginning. But it sounds to me this Daphne girl has got fire.”
“True. And a really mean right hook.”
Dax chuckles. “She reminds me of someone else I met here …,” he says, more to himself than to me.
“Your Boon?”
He doesn’t answer my question.
“What happened to her? Why did you come back alone?”
Dax shakes his head. He rarely talks about his time in the mortal world, and he never mentions the girl he was supposed to bring back. All I knew was that he’d returned alone.
“It’s not something I can talk about.”
“Why?”
“Some things just can’t be said.” Dax returns his attention to his tablet, his jaw clenched as he swipes at it with a forcefulness that seems unnecessary. He’s grown so quiet that I know no amount of pressing will get him to speak of her now.
But there’s a more important question I need answered, so I let the topic of his Boon remain where it stands for now. I sit on the counter next to Brim, and give her another slice of meat so she’ll stop trying to eat my fingers, and then bring up the subject I’ve been wanting to discuss since we were in the owl roost in the Underrealm. It is hard to believe that it has been fewer than twenty-four hours since then.