The Eternity Key

HADEN

Lord Haden, prince of the Underrealm, has ceased to exist.
I have ceased to exist.
Since I was a nursling, I’d been taught that life is nothing but a thin golden string. It’s spun and entwined in a grand tapestry of the gods’ design, then pulled and severed at a predetermined length. Nothing can be done to change this, nothing can be said, and no bargain can be made. Once your thread has been measured—that’s it. No choice. It’s the will of the Fates.
I’d believed this myth every second of my existence, and yet, as I’d learned all too recently, if you clawed at the design hard enough, the tapestry would unravel just enough that you could grab on to another string. Follow another path.
Since that realization, I have burned the connection between myself and my realm, ruined what little standing I had reclaimed as a Champion chosen by the Oracle of Elysium, and destroyed all hope of becoming my father’s heir. I brought this upon myself with a single decision.
And I would do it all over again.
Because this is a fate of my own choosing.
I am rewriting my destiny.
Something I didn’t even know was an option until I met her.
Daphne Raines—the girl who was supposed to grant me the chance to win back my honor. I had been Chosen for a quest to the mortal realm to convince her to come back with me to the underworld. It quickly became clear that there was something special about her. She wasn’t a mere Boon to fill the harem of the Court.
Daphne is the fated Cypher—the only one who can find and retrieve the lost Kronolithe of my long-dead god: the Key of Hades.
I knew it was up to me to ensure that the Kronolithe was found, and use it to stop the Court of the Underrealm from breaking through the walls of the Pits and freeing the Keres. There would be terrible consequences if they were to take this action: all hell would break loose on the mortal world, spilling out from the schism created between the realms, and war with the Skylords would inevitably follow, not to mention the death toll and havoc the Keres would leave in their wake.
With the fate of the five realms hanging in the balance, I’d chosen

Don’t cut yourself off from her.

of the Underrealm, has ceased to exist.
I have ceased to exist.
Since I was a nursling, I’d been taught that life is nothing but a thin golden string. It’s spun and entwined in a grand tapestry of the gods’ design, then pulled and severed at a predetermined length. Nothing can be done to change this, nothing can be said, and no bargain can be made. Once your thread has been measured—that’s it. No choice. It’s the will of the Fates.
I’d believed this myth every second of my existence, and yet, as I’d learned all too recently, if you clawed at the design hard enough, the tapestry would unravel just enough that you could grab on to another string. Follow another path.
Since that realization, I have burned the connection between myself and my realm, ruined what little standing I had reclaimed as a Champion chosen by the Oracle of Elysium, and destroyed all hope of becoming my father’s heir. I brought this upon myself with a single decision.
And I would do it all over again.
Because this is a fate of my own choosing.
I am rewriting my destiny.
Something I didn’t even know was an option until I met her.
Daphne Raines—the girl who was supposed to grant me the chance to win back my honor. I had been Chosen for a quest to the mortal realm to convince her to come back with me to the underworld. It quickly became clear that there was something special about her. She wasn’t a mere Boon to fill the harem of the Court.
Daphne is the fated Cypher—the only one who can find and retrieve the lost Kronolithe of my long-dead god: the Key of Hades.
I knew it was up to me to ensure that the Kronolithe was found, and use it to stop the Court of the Underrealm from breaking through the walls of the Pits and freeing the Keres. There would be terrible consequences if they were to take this action: all hell would break loose on the mortal world, spilling out from the schism created between the realms, and war with the Skylords would inevitably follow, not to mention the death toll and havoc the Keres would leave in their wake.
With the fate of the five realms hanging in the balance, I’d chosen