“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. Hades is going to be seriously pissed when Dad doesn’t return to Tartarus, so we need to move quickly.” I turned to Chase and put my hand on top of his. “You ready to do this?”
He sent a wave of power my way. “I know the quickest way to tap into our power and get those souls.”
I knew what he meant. The whole hand-holding to transfer power wasn’t enough. We’d almost failed last time. We needed a better connection. We were only going to get one chance to do this before Hades interfered. I took a deep breath and nodded.
“Everyone to the cemetery,” I said.
We all headed outside without another word. Everyone was scared, me most of all. This stand I was taking was either going to show Hades we had more power than he thought and he shouldn’t mess with us, or it was going to get us all killed.
I stopped in the middle of the cemetery where Chase had made the souls rebury themselves in a row. I’d been upset when I found out he did it, but now I was glad to have them all together. I motioned to the line of headstones. “Okay, everyone pick a grave.” I hated having to do this with an audience, but with this many souls coming our way, we needed enough of us to control them. “When the souls get here, command them to stay where they are. The woman Chase and I raised was angry and wanted to hurt us at first, but she calmed down. In the end, she preferred being here with us to being stuck in Tartarus. Hades is constantly forcing the souls into the wrong bodies. It’s awful. Chase can tell you just how awful, because he felt it too.”
“Got to say, I’m not looking forward to that part.” He shook his head like he was trying to forget how terrible it had been.
I put my hand on his shoulder. “I know. Me neither. But this is important.”
He leaned down to me. “You chose me. I can handle anything now.”
I smiled at him. At the version of him I liked.
“Everyone set?” I asked once everyone was lined up in front of a grave.
“There are a few graves left down here,” Jared said.
“Then everyone shift down.” I waved them on. “Chase and I will get these graves here.”
“If we can pull away from each other,” he said with a sly smile.
He probably had a point. The connection it was going to take to pull off a raising this huge was insane. We were going to practically have to—no, I couldn’t think about it. Especially since Alex would be witnessing the whole thing. I was kind of surprised he wasn’t bailing on the plan. He knew what this was going to entail. Could he really be so over me already that this wasn’t going to bother him?
Chase moved toward me and placed his hands on my waist. “Let’s do this.”
I took one last look at Alex. His eyes were glued to the grave in front of him. “Focus, everyone. Eyes on your graves and be ready to take control.”
“Jodi,” Leticia said. “I’ve never been able to control a soul someone else raised.”
The others were starting to be able to control the souls they didn’t raise, but it was still hit and miss, and we needed them all to hit.
“You can do this, Leticia.” I kept my expression serious. I had to make her believe me.
She wasn’t convinced. “How do you know?”
“Because we can’t fail. It’s not an option.”
“You can do it, Leticia,” Alex said. “I’m right here if you need help.”
Leticia nodded, looking very thankful to be next to Alex. I was grateful for his help.
“Do you want to get right to making out, or should we form a more conservative connection and let the power overtake us?” Chase asked.
Lexi scoffed. “This is going to be disgusting to watch, isn’t it?”
“You have no idea,” Alex mumbled.
Maybe he did still care after all. I turned back to Chase, but not before meeting my dad’s eyes—or at least the eyes in the body he was borrowing. “Dad, would you mind turning around? I’d rather you didn’t watch this.” I knew I didn’t need to command him. He was going to listen to me no matter how I asked.
He nodded and faced the mausoleum.
I took Chase’s hands, interlacing my fingers with his. “Let’s start here.”
“You know it’s going to take a lot more—”
“Chase, let’s start here,” I insisted.
He shrugged. “Whatever. I know where we’re going to end up.”
I hoped he wasn’t right. I closed my eyes and willed my blood to mix. I transferred my power to Chase, very slightly at first. My power was more intense than his. If I gave him too much to begin with, he’d be too consumed by it to transfer any power back to me. I waited for him to begin sharing his blood with me.
“Come on, Chase,” I said.
“Sorry, just enjoying the rush. Here you go.”
I felt his power flow through my fingers, up my arms, and to the rest of my body. Unlike me, he wasn’t holding back. A moan escaped my lips, and I increased my power flow to him. Our blood mixed and circled between us. I needed to wait for the connection to be strong before I tried reaching the souls.
“Jodi, why are you putting this off?” Chase yanked my hands so I was right up against him. Our hands were down at our sides, keeping the circle going, but I felt the power passing between our chests now, too. He leaned his head down, finding my lips with his. I kissed him back, and our emotions heightened our power. Chase wrapped my arms around him and cupped my face in his hands.
For a moment, I was lost in him. All I wanted was him. My nails dug into his back. He picked me up and wrapped my legs around his waist.
“Do I really need to be subjected to this?” Lexi yelled.
Her screechy voice broke through, and I remembered what I was supposed to be doing. I focused on the souls I wanted to raise. I reached out with my powers, all the way to the depths of Tartarus. I knew the woman I’d summoned earlier would be eager to come, and hopefully she’d convince the others so I didn’t have to work so hard to get them here. I knew I was close by the tormented screams that filled my head. Hades was torturing them, and if they didn’t understand what I was trying to do, they’d see my powers as more torture and shy away from me.
“Chase.” I pulled away from his lips. “Are you concentrating? I need help. They’re resisting, or Hades is clutching to them. Something isn’t right.”
Instead of answering, he pressed his lips to mine again. I had no idea if he was trying to make the connection stronger or if he was lost in the power. It was intoxicating. I had to fight to stay in control. I assumed he was trying to help, so I reached out further. My body shook, and I had trouble holding on to Chase. My legs slipped from his waist, but he had latched onto my hands again. He wasn’t letting me go.
Finally, I felt the first soul grab on. It was so much work raising them from Tartarus, and I needed a bunch more. I was losing hope that my plan was even possible. Hades was there. I could feel him, and he wasn’t going to make this easy on me. I tugged at the soul, and it screamed in pain. Its body was in Tartarus, too, so it knew it wasn’t returning to its home. That made me its enemy. I felt its pain, and it overwhelmed me. My blood shifted.
No, it wasn’t the soul’s pain I was feeling. It was my pain. My blood was being poisoned. I opened my eyes to look at Chase. He stared back at me, eyes filled with pure evil. What was he doing? The poison spread throughout my body. Chase stopped kissing me long enough to say, “Trust me, you’ll feel amazing once the poison takes over. It only hurts at first.”
His blood overtook mine; I was no longer transferring any of my power. The soul from Tartarus slipped from my grasp. Chase had tricked me! He was trying to turn me evil. He’d only pretended to go along with my plan to take back the souls Hades had stolen from us. I tried to pry my hands from Chase’s, but he was too strong, and the poison was weakening me. I heard the others choking and saw McKenzie fall to the ground. She was shaking uncontrollably, so I knew she was still alive, but this connection was killing her. It was k
illing all of them.
Then, the pain stopped. For me at least. The poison was taking over, and it didn’t hurt anymore. I felt different, but strong.
“See, I told you,” Chase said. “Now kiss me, and let’s finish what we started.”
I stared at him, totally understanding he meant killing the others. Even his dad. We were still connected and that craving for his blood, his power, took over. I leaned in and kissed him.
Chapter 28
“Jodi,” Alex said, coughing up blood. “Fight him. What you’re feeling for him isn’t real. You know that. I know you do.”
He was right. My brain was telling me to listen to Alex. To fight Chase. But my blood was screaming for Chase, wanting to consume him and his power. Unfortunately, my blood was proving to be stronger than my brain. Chase was playing dirty. He was making me want him, and even though I was fully aware of it, I didn’t care. I did want him.
“Jodi, if you give in to him, you’ll lose me forever. That’s what he wants. It’s him or me. Hell, it’s him or you—because this isn’t you. Don’t let him take over. Find yourself in your blood. Find Medusa.”
I didn’t know where Alex was getting his strength from. The others were seconds from death.
Medusa’s image flooded my brain. “My child, prophecy is never what it seems. You’ve connected with Chase. You’ve chosen him. Now, you can undo it.”
“I can’t. This is what I’m supposed to become.”
“The prophecy said you and Chase were destined to destroy the Ophi line. You’re doing that right now. It’s begun. Now, end it before it’s too late. Before their souls leave their bodies.”
I listened for sounds in the cemetery, but there were none. Everyone was dead, but their souls hadn’t left their bodies yet, which meant I had a chance to save them.
“Medusa, help me, please. I’m weakened by the poison.”
“No, you’re stronger because of it. Use it.”
“You mean on Chase?”
“Yes, you must stop him. He’s trying to hold you off so you can’t bring them back.”
I couldn’t believe this. I’d given in. I’d killed them all. Medusa was right. I had to stop Chase. He was controlling me. I gathered my power and pushed it back into him, dosing him with concentrated poison. He faltered, staggering backward and breaking our connection. I hit him with the poison again, making him go down, too weak to fight me.
I commanded my blood to mix, but there wasn’t enough life-restoring power left in me. I’d given too much to Chase when I thought we were raising the souls in Tartarus, and that had only made room for him to fill me with poison. I bent down to him and grabbed his hands. Then, I did something I had never done before. I took what I wanted. I took his life-restoring power, calling it to me like I’d call a soul. It flowed into me, and my skin rippled with the power. My hair flew up behind me, and I was sure I looked like I had snakes wriggling on my head instead of long, dark hair. I took what I needed and focused on raising the Ophi in the cemetery. Even Ethan. I brought them all back. I let go of Chase, leaving him powerless on the ground. Without a visit to Medusa, he was down for the count.
Alex opened his eyes, and I rushed over to him. He spit up blood that must have still been in his throat from before he died.
“You did it,” he said.
“Not really. I let you all die before Medusa convinced me I was strong enough to overpower Chase.”
“You’ve always been strong enough, Jodi.”
“You should hate me right now. You know that, don’t you?”
He sat up. “Yeah, but what can I say—once a stalker, always a stalker.”
I smiled, remembering how scared I’d been of Alex when we’d first met. When I thought he was stalking me. Of course, he’d been trying to help me, in his own messed up way.
The others got to their feet and stared at me. They looked like they’d all seen ghosts, but I’d brought them back before their souls had had the chance to visit the land of the dead and see any.
“Was I—were we—” McKenzie was still in shock.
“Great,” Leticia said. “How many times do I have to die? I think I’ve had my share of death.”
Jared got to his feet. “Me too. I’ve only been here a few days, and I’ve died twice.”
“What’s his deal?” Lexi pointed at Chase, who was breathing heavily and unable to move.
“He’ll be fine. I had to borrow some power to bring you all back.”
“What exactly happened to us?” Carol asked. “I thought you were raising souls.”
“I was. Chase wasn’t.” I walked over to him and kicked his shoe. “He lied to me. Tricked me into thinking we were taking back the souls Hades stole, but really he had a different plan all along.” I moved to Ethan. “A plan I thought you were in on with him, but he wanted you dead, too.”
“I should’ve known.” Ethan practically spat in frustration. “Ever since his mother was taken by Hades, he’s been different. He was supposed to follow the plan. But instead, he took me down like I was one of you.”
“Wait, what?” He was speaking as if I knew the whole plan. As if I knew Hades had taken Chase’s mother. “Back up. What happened to Chase’s mom? I knew something happened to her and that it changed him, but Hades took her? Alive?”
“No, he killed her. Rather brutally.”
When Hades took an Ophi, the Ophi relived the deaths of every person they’d killed or brought back from the dead. If Chase’s mom had died brutally, she must have raised some pretty awful souls in her life.
“Why did he take her? What did she do to anger him?”
Ethan scoffed. “She was Ophi. That’s enough for Hades.”
“Why did you two,” I motioned to Chase, “team up with Hades?”
“What?” Leticia shrieked. “They’re working for Hades?”
“More like doing his dirty work, I think.” I got in Ethan’s face. “Am I right?”
The ground shook, and we all scrambled to avoid the enormous crack that was creeping up the cemetery, splitting it in two. Alex and I were on separate sides, getting farther apart by the second. I fell backward to avoid being pulled into the abyss. I’d seen this trick before. It was Hades’ grand entrance.
I wanted to tell everyone to run. I couldn’t protect them from Hades. He was too powerful, and I couldn’t even reach everyone right now thanks to the crack in the ground. Not that it would help. This was it. Everything I’d tried to do over the past two and a half months was worthless. I was going to die, and so was everyone else.
A swirl of black smoke rose from the darkness in the chasm. I braced myself to see Hades. Would he come out swinging or would he make me suffer? My money was on making me suffer. I willed my blood to mix. I didn’t think it would really help, but it was the only weapon I had.
The smoke stilled and disappeared, leaving me face to face with Hades. He was still majorly hot. He made Chase look like the dweeby guy who sat right in front of the teacher’s desk and took enough notes to fill a textbook. My blood rippled through me at the sight of him. If he wasn’t completely terrifying and didn’t want me dead, I probably would’ve been kissing his feet.
“Well, this isn’t exactly what I expected to see.” He looked at the others. “So many Ophi still alive, or should I say alive again?” He whipped his head around at me. “We had a deal that you would return every soul you took from me.”
“You never had their souls. I brought them back before they lost their souls to you. I didn’t break our deal.” My voice shook, but I stood my ground.
“Hmm.” He tapped his finger on his chin, mocking me with his questioning look. “I think you may have forgotten someone.” He walked over to the mausoleum, where my dad was still facing away from the group like I’d asked him to.
“Dad,” I mumbled. “No, Hades, wait!”
He turned to me. “Are you ordering me around, Jodi Marshall?”
“No.” I frantically shook my head. “It’s just that�
��”
“What, you were hoping that, since he’s your father, I’d let this one slide?” He reached a hand out to the corpse my dad was borrowing. “Turn around and face your daughter,” he commanded.
My dad turned, and the terror in his eyes was intense. He couldn’t talk without being invited to. It was one of the drawbacks of being a zombie. One of the many drawbacks.
“I’m sorry.” I locked eyes with my dad, but Hades thought I was talking to him.
“Sorry? What an interesting thing to say. Do you really think an apology is enough to make me forget you broke our agreement?”
What could I say? I wasn’t planning on returning my father’s soul. I’d been planning to take a whole bunch more.
“Funny thing.” Hades walked around my dad so he was directly behind him. “I was in Tartarus today, checking up on a few things, when some of my souls started disappearing. One minute they were there taking their punishments and the next…” He touched my dad’s shoulder with one finger, and the corpse collapsed on the ground. I saw my dad’s soul release. “They were gone. Just like that.”
“No!” My blood boiled. Hades was toying with me. It reminded me of Chase and the way he’d controlled me. I’d had enough of guys pushing me around. I stepped toward Hades.
“Uh-uh, Jodi Marshall.” His voice was laced with mockery. “You wouldn’t want to make me any angrier with you right now.”
“You’re angry?” I threw my arms out. “What about me? You sent Chase here, didn’t you? You struck some kind of sick deal with him. It had to do with his mom, right?”
Hades raised his eyebrows. “When did you figure that out? Before or after you fulfilled the prophecy and killed your friends?” He laughed, a real belly laugh to show how much he was enjoying my misery.
“Why do you hate us so much?”
“Do you know what my role is in the underworld?” He stepped over my father’s body and walked toward me. I resisted the urge to back away. “I see that the afterlife suits the life the soul lived.”
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