Part 33 (1/2)
”Poor baby,” I say, meaning the cat, not him.
”I just hope she doesn't get out of my room. She might follow us all the way to Vegas.”
”She could do that?”
”She and I are bonded in a way. She can find me anywhere.”
”Who's Simon?” I ask. ”The person you're hiding her from?”
”My guardian, I guess you could say, and my father's emissary. As in, the person I'm going to be in deep kopros with if he gets wind of this trip before we get out of here.”
”Let's get this over with, then,” I say, gathering thatkopros is the Underlord slang for stuff that starts with an sh and ends with an it.
I'm in the process of buckling my seat belt and Haden is pulling out of the garage when he suddenly slams on the brakes. I look up and see that Haden's younger cousin-Garrick, I think-is standing in the driveway, blocking our exit.
Haden honks the horn and waves at him to get out of the way. Garrick doesn't move.
Haden puts the car in park and gets out. ”What are you doing, Lesser? Get out of my way.”
”I can't let you do this,” Garrick says.
”And how do you intend to stop me?”
”I'll tell Simon. I'll call him right now. You're not allowed to leave town. I heard Simon tell you so.”
”Simon doesn't need to know. He's gone to LA on business. He won't even be back until Monday.”
”So what, you're just going to run away the first chance you get? What about the rest of us? What about me? What happens when Simon finds out you're gone? What happens when I go back through the gate without you?”
”I'm not running away, Lesser. You think I'm a coward?”
”I don't believe you. I'm going inside to call Simon! I'm telling him you're going to this Vegas place.”
Haden grabs his cousin. Garrick tries to pull away. I get out of the car, thinking I can intervene. Talk some sense into Garrick, but I don't get the chance. Haden places his thumbs behind the boy's ears and his index fingers on his temples and presses until the Garrick's eyes roll into the back of his head and he crumples like a rag doll. Haden catches him up in his arms before he hits the ground. I cover my mouth, holding in a shriek.
”Open the door,” Haden says, dragging his cousin's limp body toward the car.
”What did you do?”
”I put him in a black sleep. It's an old Underlord negotiation technique.”
”Negotiation?”
”If a man refuses to negotiate, you render him unconscious.”
”That's crazy.”
”He would have told Simon. There was no other way to stop him without resorting to violence. Now open the door.”
I pull open the back door and Haden shoves Garrick into the backseat. The boy lies motionless on his side.
”Will he be okay?”
”He'll have a raging headache when he wakes up in a couple of hours, but by then we'll be halfway there.” Haden slams the door. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and tosses it into a bucket of rags in the garage. ”Simon is eventually going to figure out I'm gone, especially if I'm not back by Monday, but I want to make sure he can't track us. Give me yours.” He gestures for me to give him my phone.
”Mine, too?”
”I wouldn't put it past him.”
”How would he . . . ?”
”Trust me. He has his ways.”
I surrender my phone and watch Haden drop it into the bucket. He gets back in the car. ”You coming?”
I sit in the pa.s.senger seat again.
As we sail out of the driveway, I glance back at his unconscious cousin in the third row, and I wonder if I've made a grave mistake.
chapter forty-seven.
haden
Daphne is silent the whole first hour of our trip. She keeps glancing at Garrick, who still lies unconscious in the back row. Sometimes, I catch her gaze darting to me. Her eyes linger on my upper arm. The sleeve of my T-s.h.i.+rt covers my scars, but I know that's what she's thinking about. No wonder so much tension fills the s.p.a.ce between us.
”I didn't do that,” I say, breaking the silence.
She startles at the sound of my voice.
”I didn't cut those scars into my arm. My father did. So I wouldn't forget my quest. It was the most painful thing I've ever had to endure. And I've endured a lot. . . .”
”Oh,” she says. The tension in her relaxes ever so slightly.
Another half hour pa.s.ses.
”So what did you do?” she asks. ”To p.i.s.s your dad off so much? I got the gist a few weeks ago that you're kind of on the outs with him.”
”That's putting it lightly. My father disowned me.” I'm not sure I want to talk about it, but Daphne s.h.i.+fts in her seat, turning her body toward me. Maybe talking is the best thing for getting her to open up to me again. ”I cried,” I say. ”When my mother died, I cried.”
”What? Your father disowned you over that?”
”No. It's what I did after he punished me for crying. . . .” I realize I need to back up the story more for her to understand. ”I have a twin brother. His name is Rowan. But you have to understand that twins are very rare in my world. The first two sons of the Underrealm were created by our G.o.d, Hades.
They were the first twins-the eldest of whom became the father of our race, while the younger twin became the progenitor of our greatest enemies, the Skylords.