Part 32 (1/2)
”If we could find one, what difference would that make? The Oracle of Elysium has spoken. Her words have been sealed.”
”Not all Oracles speak from the same source,” Dax says. ”Another one might be able to give you more information. Look at things from a different angle. Let you know what other options might be available to you. If any.”
”What are you doing?” I whisper.
”Helping.”
”How is this helping? You can't make her think there are other options when there aren't.”
”You don't know that unless you find out for yourself.”
”It isn't my place to find out for myself.”
”Yes, it is, Haden. You've been conditioned all your life to obey without questioning. To treat your father like he's the new Hades. Like he's a G.o.d. They tell you your impulsiveness is your weakness, but it's not. And I never should have encouraged you to restrain it. Your impulsiveness is your greatest strength-because it's the only time you think for yourself.” I shake my head at Dax. ”Thinking for myself is what got me into this mess. My most impulsive act was what caused my father to disown me in the first place. I can't do this-”
”Yes, you can. But you need to stop thinking like an outcast. Stop thinking like an Underlord. Or even a want-to-be prince. You're half human, Haden. Start thinking like one. Humans question. Humans think for themselves.”
I glare at Dax. ”This is what you wanted all along, isn't it? This is why you've encouraged me to open up to my emotions-to my humanness. I thought you were my friend. I thought you were on my side. But all you've wanted is for me to fail. From the very beginning.”
”What I want is for you to make your own path. To find love. To live. Just like me.”
”Like you?” How could Dax call anything about his life since he returned from his time as Champion living?
”Excuse me?” I hear Daphne say. ”Still here, remember?”
Both Dax and I snap our attention back to her.
”Yeah. Hi. I know you think you all are whispering but you might as well be shouting from the rooftops. I gather Mr. Drool here knows where to find one of these 'other Oracles.'” She steps out from around the armchair, no longer barricading herself behind it. ”I want to go see her.”
”I can get you a name and city,” Dax says. ”a.s.suming she hasn't moved to a new town in the last six years.”
”That'll do.” Daphne looks at me. ”You're coming with me.”
”I thought you didn't believe in all this 'fate mumbo jumbo,'” I say, quoting the way she put it when we were in the music shop.
”I don't, but I believe you believe it. And if I can convince this Oracle lady to tell you that you've got the wrong girl, then you'll believe her.”
”You can't change an Oracle's mind. It doesn't work that way.”
”We'll see,” she says, sounding far too confident.
”So what's it going to be?” Dax says. ”Are you going with her?”
”Before I agree,” I say to him, ”I want you to tell Daphne what happened to your Boon.” Dax's face goes ashen, confirming what I've suspected for some time now. Ever since I found out that Tobin's sister had gone missing. Ever since Simon had insinuated that Dax had tried to run away while he was here last-and how unpleasant it would be if he had to send someone after me.
”You know I can't say anything about that,” he says.
”Then I'll say it for you. She died, didn't she? You fell in love with her. You didn't want to take her back to the Underrealm, so you consulted this other Oracle for help. But you didn't like what she said, so you tried to run away with your Boon. . . . But something went wrong. And she died.”
”That's the basic gist of the story,” Dax says, his voice barely audible.
”Was her name Abbie?” Daphne asks.
He nods.
A small sound escapes her lips. It almost sounds like a sob.
”You still want to go find this other Oracle?” I ask her.
”Yes,” she says, sounding more determined than before.
”Then we can leave in the morning.”
”No,” she says.
”No? I thought you . . .”
”We don't know how long it's going to take to find this Oracle chick, and reviews for finals start on Monday,” she says. ”And I have rehearsals with Joe's band, and stuff for the music department. I can't just push pause on my life right now and go.”
”Then when?”
”The semester ends on December eighteenth. I wasn't going to head back to Ellis Fields until the twenty-first, but I'll tell Joe that I decided that I want to fly home early. That'll give me two days that I don't have to be accountable to anyone with my time. We'll go then.” I nod, trying to appease her in some way, but I wish I could get this over with right now. The sooner she realizes her destiny is to go with me, the better.
I insist on driving Daphne back to her house. She may not like it, but I plan on sticking close to her for the next three weeks because now that we've made our plan, I don't like the idea of letting her out of my sight. It feels like tempting fate. Or at least tempting Simon. If he were to get wind of how many rules I've broken or find out that I am planning on leaving town with my Boon, taking an unprecedented detour on my quest . . . I don't like to think about the endless possibilities of what he might do.
chapter forty-six.
daphne
The next three weeks pa.s.s too quickly and yet at the same time feel like they couldn't go any slower. I find myself avoiding Tobin and Joe as much as possible, and pour myself into studying for finals, as if my life depended on how well I do on those tests. It's too hard to be around people I have to pretend to be normal with. To pretend like everything is okay. But I don't talk to Haden, either, even though he always seems to be close by. Like he's afraid to take his eyes off me.
He probably thinks I am going to run.
If I were smart, I probably would.
My seventeenth birthday pa.s.ses with little fanfare. Joe offers to throw me a ”birthday party to end all birthday parties” but I can't muster the energy for such a thing, so instead I opt for eating a bowl of ice cream and a cupcake in front my MacBook while on a Skype call with my mom and Jonathan. I open the packages they sent in front of them. Mom's gift is a painting of the view of Ellis from the front windows of Paradise Plants that she'd done with oils on Masonite board.
”Hang it over your bed so you'll dream of home,” she says.
I smile even though Ellis has never been what I want my dreams to be made of.
Jonathan's gift is a collection of romance novels. ”You're lacking a mysterious man in your life,” he says. ”I was hoping we'd get a lot more juicy stories after s.h.i.+pping you off to that fancy-schmancy school. You haven't dated any celebrities or kissed any princes and neglected to tell us about it yet, have you?”
It takes all of my nerve not to tell them right then and there what is going on with Prince Haden, and our plans to sneak out of town to consult this Oracle lady. But I can't. Because when I get all this Cypher c.r.a.p straightened out, and send Haden packing to the underworld on his own, I'm going to go back to my life in Olympus Hills and following my plan to become a music star. But if my mom gets one whiff of any of this underworld business before I can squash it, any chance of me having a life outside Ellis will be over. She'd probably lock me up in our house until I'm old and gray. And I am not going to let that happen.