“You came after me. You chose to follow Victoria. What was I supposed to do? She was going to kill me, and you volunteered to help.”
She lowered her head. “I thought Victoria was right. I thought we had to wage a war against Hades to avoid something like this.” She raised her eyes to mine. “Not all of us could be the Chosen One and instinctively know the right thing to do. I chose wrong.”
“Is that really how you feel?”
She glanced at Victoria about twenty feet away, torturing a soul and smiling wickedly. “I hate her. She’s pure evil.” Her gaze returned to me. “I’m sorry for trying to hurt you.”
I nodded. “I’ll make a deal with you.” Apparently, all I did anymore was make deals. “If you take care of Amber as best as you can without letting Hades get too suspicious, I’ll find a way to take you with me when I free my friends.”
She raised her brows. “You’d do that? Even after I—”
I held up my hand to stop her. “Consider it done. Just promise me you’ll take care of Amber for me.”
“I promise.” She fidgeted with her hands. “Should we shake on it or something?”
“No, that would look too suspicious. We can’t let anyone know we’re working together. It would be bad for both of us.”
“Got it. I’ll pretend I still hate you.”
“Good.”
“But, Jodi?”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t, and I really appreciate what you said. Even if you fail, and we don’t get out of here, the fact that you’re willing to forgive me and save me from this…well, it means a lot.”
I nodded, not wanting to smile since Bristol and I weren’t supposed to be friendly to each other. I turned to Amber and squeezed her hand. “You’ll be okay. Stick by Bristol.”
She managed to raise one corner of her mouth a fraction of an inch. I hugged her one last time and left Tartarus. I should’ve headed back to the palace and waited for my next soul, but instead I went straight for the Fields of Asphodel.
Alex and Arianna were at the gate. My mouth curved into a smile the second their faces came into focus. I rushed for them, and they wrapped me into a group hug.
“God, I missed you guys.”
Arianna kissed the side of my head. “Sweetheart, you have no idea.”
I stepped out of their arms and took them in from head to toe. They both looked worn out, and Arianna had several bruises and burn marks on her arms.
“Ari, what happened?” I gently took her hand to get a closer look.
“Don’t you worry about that. I can handle myself just fine. You have enough going on, so don’t give it another thought.”
I looked to Alex for an explanation. He sighed. “Hades has been going harder on some of us lately.”
“Because of me.” I let go of Arianna’s hand and inhaled as deeply as I could to stop myself from screaming my head off. If I alerted Hades to my whereabouts, he’d be here and forcing me back to the palace. He wouldn’t approve of my visits with Alex or any of the others.
Arianna gave Alex a reprimanding look. “Don’t you go listening to him. I mean it, Jodi. He had no right to tell you that. We’re fine.”
She was wrong about so many things. They weren’t fine, and Alex had to tell me that because I needed to know.
“Hades was really angry when he found out his plan to have me bring you back didn’t work.”
“I know.” I closed my eyes, trying to erase the image of Amber looking helpless and scared from my brain. “He killed Matt’s sister and had me escort her to Tartarus. That’s why I’m here. My Ophi soul called me back to save Amber.”
“Did you?” Alex asked.
“No, but I made a deal with Bristol.”
“Bristol?” Alex shook his head. “I don’t know if you can trust her. She—”
“I think she really feels like she made a mistake helping Victoria and Troy. She wants to get out of here just as much as we do, and she apologized for trying to hurt me.”
“You believe her?” Alex wasn’t buying it.
“I have to. She’s agreed to take care of Amber until I can find a way to get her out of here.”
“Jodi, if Hades took her, then all you can hope for is to raise her soul. She’d be—”
“Maybe not. If I can figure out how to stop Hades from messing with us for good, then maybe I can convince him to bring Amber back—human.”
Alex put his hands on his hips. “That’s asking for a lot.”
“I know.” I was resting all our hope on Medusa knowing the answer, knowing how to defeat Hades. If she didn’t…
Alex moved toward me and took both my hands. “There’s something else you need to know.”
Not more bad news. I couldn’t handle anything else.
“Hades is still trying to use me to get to you, so take this however you want, but I have to tell you.”
This was going to be awful. No, devastating.
“Tell me.”
“He told me where he’s been going.”
“Is he hunting down other Ophi?” That was what I’d assumed.
“He’s hunting you. He wants to kill you in human form. It’s his back-up plan since his other scare tactics to bring you back here aren’t working. The only problem is, he doesn’t know what body you’ve chosen to occupy.” He closed his eyes for a moment and swallowed before continuing. “But, Jodi, he said that, if he doesn’t find you in the next two days, he’s going to take your mom.”
Chapter 21
Mom. My legs shook, and my eyes rolled back into my head. I felt Alex’s arms around me as I slipped away. When my eyes opened again, I was in Mom’s bed. I stared at her sleeping peacefully beside me. Tears dotted my pillowcase. This wasn’t fair. I wasn’t supposed to be able to hurt her now that I was in human form, but she still wasn’t safe around me. I had to talk to Medusa and find a way out of this mess in two days, or Mom was going to die because of me.
Even though it was only just past three, I stayed awake, watching Mom sleep and wondering if Mason had found out anything yet. We were going to see him at six. That gave me the day to spend with Mom. Of course, I knew Matt was going to want to get in touch with his family or, at the very least, peek in at them to make sure they were okay. Only they weren’t. Amber was dead. They were probably complete wrecks and making funeral arrangements. How was I going to explain that to Matt?
I wasn’t going to have to worry about him loving me anymore. That was for sure. Once he found out I was the reason his sister was dead, he’d hate me forever. I wondered how Hades had done it. Did he take her in her sleep? That would mean her family didn’t even know she was dead yet. Or had he tortured her and made her death painful? A car accident, maybe? I had to know.
I slipped out of bed, careful not to wake Mom, and I sat down at the desk in the corner. Mom’s laptop was open, and luckily it was still on. I brought it out of sleep mode and immediately searched the Internet for Amber’s name. Chills ran across my arms as I clicked “search.” A few seconds later—our connection was slow—a list of results came up on the screen. The very first one was what I was looking for but hoping I wouldn’t find.
“Sixteen-year-old Amber Davenport dies of a brain aneurysm.”
Silent sobs burst out of me. I turned to Mom, wondering if Hades would take her the same way. I couldn’t let that happen. I’d go to Mason this evening, and from there I was going to the school to visit with Medusa. And if all else failed, I’d give Hades what he wanted. I’d throw in my white flag to save my mom. I knew how hypocritical that was. I’d told Amber I couldn’t save her at the expense of eight others, and here I was, ready to save my mom over them. But she was my mom.