The Eternity Key (15 page)

A calloused hand closes over my wrist, but all I can see of its owner is a small, bright, smoldering circle seemingly floating in the air in front of his face.

I shriek and reel back, ready to unleash one of my now-famous right hooks, when the hand lets go and raises in the air. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” someone says, stepping out of the shadows of the aspen trees. “It’s just me.” He pulls the cigarette from his lips and blows a puff of smoke away from my face.

“Garrick?” I say, not quite completely relieved. “What are you doing here? Did you follow me?”

He nods, taking a puff on his cigarette. The smell makes me want to gag. “I was out on the porch, having a smoke, and saw you leaving. It looked like you were in some sort of trance, or like you were sleepwalking, so I followed. Looked like you were having full-on hallucinations, so I thought I’d try to wake you up. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Oh.” I realize that he wouldn’t have seen or heard any of the things in the grove that I had and how I must have looked pretty bonkers, crouching over an imaginary baby who was invisible to anyone else. Garrick isn’t exactly my favorite person, but it still
surprises me that he cared enough to look out for me.

I rub my arms for warmth and find streaks of mud on my wrist where he’d grabbed me. I notice his hands look dirty, as if he’d been digging around or something.

“Fell over a root back there,” he says, seeming to anticipate my question. “Apparently, I can’t smoke and walk at the same time.”

“You shouldn’t be smoking at all. Rule number one of the mortal world: those things will kill you.”

“Whatever,
Master
Daphne. I’m not exactly into following rules these days.”

“I gathered that. You smell lovely, by the way.”

“Why, thank you very kindly,” he says, bowing deeply, his hand holding the cigarette sweeping up in the air.

I’m tempted to say something like
bite me
, but there’s a strange look in Garrick’s eyes that makes me think he might actually do it. Garrick sometimes reminds me of an angry little junkyard dog.

He takes a long drag on the cigarette and then flicks it on the ground. “So if you weren’t sleepwalking, what in Tartarus are you doing out here?”

I stamp out the cigarette butt. The last thing we need is for the grove to catch fire. Part of me doesn’t want to share the grove’s revelation with Garrick, but he’s going to know as soon as I call Haden anyway. Everyone needs to know.

“I found it,” I say, placing my hand on the bident-shaped laurel tree. It vibrates under my touch, almost as if greeting me. “The Key of Hades is hidden inside this tree.”

“Inside?” he says incredulously, but I can hear a slight, wavering tone of excitement coming off him. This pricks my curiosity, since Garrick is normally silent—no inner song to speak of. “How
do you know?” He circles the tree, inspecting it. I don’t know if he can feel the tree’s vibration or not.

“The grove told me,” I say. “It brought me here.”

I can hear a curious quirk in his tone, but I don’t care to elaborate any further about my new powers.

“Look at the shape,” I say. “This tree has grown up around the bident. It’s inside the core of the tree.”

I don’t listen for his reaction. I don’t care if he believes me or not; I know what I saw. “Now, how to get it out of there is a whole other mystery.”

I guess I could try asking? I lean my ear against the trunk of the tree, soaking in the resonating notes that ripple off it and then hum the same tone back at it. “Open,” I whisper into its bark. “Give me the Key.”

The tree quivers, but nothing else happens. I know I shouldn’t have thought it would be so easy.

“We should call Haden,” I say, realizing my phone is still in my jeans pocket. At least I’d fallen asleep in my clothes and am not standing out here in a silky white nightgown as if I’m in some gothic movie.

“Let me try,” Garrick says from behind me. “I’ve got an idea. Step back.”

I turn and see that he has a ball of crackling blue lightning in his raised hand.

“No!” I say, but he doesn’t listen. I barely have time to jump out of the way as he lobs it at the tree. The lightning hits the trunk and then explodes, sending both of us flying with a forceful shock wave. I land hard on my wrist about ten feet away from Garrick. He sits up, panting, inspecting himself for burns. I look back at the tree. It stands unharmed as far as I can tell, but I can’t hear its
tone anymore. It’s grown silent as if in shock. Or perhaps retribution.

“You idiot!” I yell at him. “You almost killed us both. And now the tree is pissed off.”

“The
tree
is pissed off?” he asks. “And I’m guessing you think your shoes have emotions, too?”

I give him a death glare, hoping he can see as well in the dark as Haden does.

“Maybe a second blow will work better.” Garrick raises his hand, preparing a second bolt.

“No,” I say, pulling out my phone. My wrist twinges with a sharp pain at the effort. “I’m calling Haden.”

I dial the number, excitement almost making it hard to press the right numbers. But the line rings and rings until it goes to voice mail. I know that’s not unexpected. It’s the middle of the night, after all, but when the recording picks up instead of Haden, dread fills my chest.

chapter twenty-one

“What’s the matter, little brother?” Rowan says. “Hydra’s got your tongue?”

He calls me
little
even though I am bigger than he is. He means to imply that I am the younger twin—something neither of us knows for sure—the
Lesser
brother.

“What are you doing here?”

That mocking smile of his grows thick with satisfaction. “You didn’t really think you were the only Champion, did you? I told you I’d be the one they’d send to clean up your mess.”

Lightning ricochets through my chest, down my arm, and into my hand. I want to lunge at him and shove my electrified fist down his throat, but it’s the empty bed separating us that stops me.

“Where is she?” I demand, energy surging in my voice. “What have you done with her?”

If he’s so much as touched Daphne, I’ll
—

“Tell me where it is, and I’ll tell you what I did to her.” Rowan speaks with confidence, but I know him well enough to know when he’s bluffing. Either he isn’t planning on telling me anything, or he doesn’t even know what I’m referring to.

“It?” I ask. “What do you want?”

Whatever
it
is, it must be valuable if Rowan wants it. Then I realize he must be after the Key, but he doesn’t know much if he thinks we’ve found it already.

“The communication talisman.”

The talisman? That’s … unexpected.

“Give it to me or you’ll never see her again,” he says.

That’s it. I start to lunge at him, my hands ablaze with lightning, but a sound catches my ear. My phone ringing from inside my bedroom. The ringtone is the one I assigned to Daphne’s number. “Falling Slowly.” Wherever she is, she’s calling me for help. I turn toward the sound, my cold relief extinguishing the bolts in my hands.

A sudden shove from behind sends me sailing into the doorjamb. I collide with it temple-first and sink to the ground.

“Haden? Haden?” Dax’s voice rings in my ears.

Someone shakes me back to my senses. My head is still hot from the impact; only a few minutes must have passed since I fell.

“Gah … Rowan,” I moan.

“Is he saying
growan
?” Tobin says. They’re both leaning over me like I’m some specimen to be examined. “Where’s Daphne?”

“Rowan,” I say as clearly as I can. My tongue feels thick and slow.

“Are you saying
Rowan
?” Dax says. “That’s his brother,” he tells Tobin. “He must be really out of it. Do you know where you are, Haden?”

I nod. “Rowan. He was here. He came out of the closet.” I look toward the open closet door where Rowan had been standing only moments before. He’s gone now. Probably out the balcony doors as soon as I hit the floor.

Tobin makes a snerking noise. “You mean your brother came all the way from the underworld to tell you he plays for the other team? Did you faint or something?”

“What?” I slur. “What other team?”

“Haden has difficulties with euphemisms,” Dax says. “But I think what he means is that Rowan came out of the literal closet.” He stands up and goes to the closet. “Look at this.” He holds up the helmet that Rowan left behind—it’s the kind with the full-face visor that our mysterious Motorcycle Man always wore.

“Does that mean what I think it means?” Tobin asks.

I nod, my head throbbing from the movement.

“But where’s Daphne?” he asks, springing up. “Did he take her?”

“He claimed he did, but I think he was bluffing.” I try to push myself up, using the wall for support. “I heard my phone ringing just before he hit me. I think it was her.” I point toward my room.

“I’ll get it,” Tobin says. He returns a few seconds later. “Missed call and a text.”

I take the phone from him and look at the screen.

Daphne:
Come to the grove ASAP!

“Can you even walk?” Dax asks, grabbing my elbow to steady me. “Maybe Tobin and I should go, and you stay here.”

“I’m going,” I say.

If Daphne needs me, nothing, not even my inability to stay upright, is going to stop me.

chapter twenty-two

A text from Haden finally comes in, saying that he’s on his way. Less than five minutes later, he, Dax, and Tobin show up in the grove. Dax and Tobin look as though they have only just returned from the mill—and I assume from the flat notes of disappointment coming off Tobin that the lead had been a bust—but Haden is dressed in pajama pants and a sweatshirt that is only half zipped up over his naked chest, as if it had been an afterthought. It would be impossible not to notice the taut olive skin of his bare chest and upper abs, but what is more arresting are the flowing, pulsing notes that coming rushing off him when he sees me.

I can’t tell if it’s the sound of relief or something else.

For half a moment, I think he’s going to catch me up in a hug, but then he stops himself. Had getting a text from me in the middle of the night, when I was supposed to be down the hall, freaked him out that much?

“What’s going on?” Haden asks, instead of embracing me. I note that his speech is slow and staggering, like he isn’t fully awake despite the waterfall of notes surrounding him.

“You won’t believe it,” I say, buzzing with excitement.

“We found the Key,” Garrick announces, totally stealing my thunder.

The others look completely dumbfounded.

“Truly?” Haden asks. I like that surprised look on his face.

“Well, where it’s hidden anyway.” I point out the tree and give them the same explanation I’d given Garrick. “It’s getting to it that’s the trick.”

Tobin shrugs. “Anybody got a chain saw?”

“Not a good idea. Mr. Genius over here,” I say, thumbing in the direction of Garrick, “already tried a lightning blast, and that almost resulted in us losing our teeth, but it didn’t even leave a scratch on the tree. It’s like it’s being guarded by some sort of force field or protection spell.”

“Sweet,” Tobin says.

“Not sweet,” I say. “Check this out.” I crouch down near the base of the tree. My right wrist is still tender from falling on it when Garrick’s lightning experiment went awry, so I can’t help wincing as I pull back the long grasses in front of the tree. I use my phone as a flashlight for those of us in the group who don’t have night vision, and point out my discovery. “See that knot near the base of the tree? Notice anything weird about it?”

I’d found the knot while trying to stop Garrick from using one of the shovels we’d left behind in the grove to try to dig up the tree’s roots. Not that he’d gotten anywhere with that plan—the roots were as impervious as the trunk—but I didn’t like the idea of him hurting something that had protected my ancestors’ secrets for so long. I’d thought the knot at the base of the tree had been just that, but then I’d noticed the strange markings inside of it. I’d almost dismissed them as just scratches.