“Bagel and vanilla milkshake?” he asked.
“You remember that’s what I had when we came here?”
“Of course. I wasn’t lying when I said I was in love with you.”
Was. So, he wasn’t anymore. That was good. I loved Alex. Things would be easier if Matt didn’t have those feelings for me. But then why did I feel bad about it?
“You had a foot-long sub and ate all of it.” I was suddenly feeling nostalgic.
“I’m surprised you remember.”
“Why? I cared about you a lot. Wasn’t it obvious?”
The waitress came to take our order. I recognized her from school. Wendy Something-or-Other.
“Hey, Wendy,” Matt said with a big smile.
She cocked her head to the side.
“Um, your nametag.” I pointed to the big block letters.
“Right!” She laughed. “You had me for a second.”
I forced a laughed and nudged Matt under the table with my foot.
“Just a little game I play when I go out to eat. It’s funny how many people think I’m psychic or something.” He placed our orders, and once Wendy was out of earshot, he said, “Sorry. I promise I’ll get used to this.”
“It’s okay.” After all my screw-ups, Matt’s were nothing major. “So, back to my question. Did I not make my feelings for you clear?”
“You did, but you were so distracted the day we came here. That guy—” He tapped his finger on his cast and avoided my eyes. “Alex was following you, and there was the whole thing with the school nurse.”
There had been a lot going on. I’d come into my Ophi powers and was suddenly dangerous to every living thing around me.
“I was thinking.” He raised his eyes to mine. “We’re going to see that Mason guy again tonight, and I’m guessing you’ll be going back to…” He swallowed hard and before he could continue, our food arrived.
“Anything else I can get for you?” Wendy asked.
“No, I think we’re good,” I said.
Matt took a sip of his milkshake before he continued. “I’ve only got a few hours to convince you that you’re better off here with me. I want you to allow me to do that. To give me four hours to prove I’m the best guy for you. That this is the life you should choose.” He reached his good hand across the table and laced his fingers through mine.
As much as I wanted to protest, to tell him I loved Alex, I couldn’t. I squeezed his hand.
Chapter 23
Thankfully, Alex had no clue what I was doing here. If he did, we’d be over before I got back to the underworld. If I went back. After everything that had happened, I was doubting my own existence. Maybe Hades was right. Maybe the Ophi didn’t deserve to be alive. We caused pain for the souls we raised. We were better suited for the underworld. At least there, we couldn’t hurt the living. I couldn’t help wondering if I’d been going about this all wrong. What if I should’ve been getting Hades to agree to let us stay in the underworld and help him with the souls in exchange for no more punishments for ourselves? He just might make that deal because it would mean there’d be no more Ophi in the world, assuming he took the remaining few to the underworld with us.
It was too much to think about. I’d promised Matt four hours, and I was going to give him that much. We finished our food and drove to the park. Since it was Saturday, it was pretty crowded, but we found a place on the other side of the lake where it was quiet. Matt grabbed two towels from the pavilion and laid them on the grass. We lay on our backs, staring up at the clouds. The sky couldn’t have been more beautiful.
Matt rolled onto his side, propping his head up in his good hand. “What’s it like?”
I turned my head, wishing it was Matt’s face I was seeing and not Brian’s. “Are you asking what it’s like to be an Ophi?”
“Yeah. I mean, why do you want to go back to that? You’re human again. I’d think you’d jump at the chance to be back with your mom.” He reached his hand with the cast toward my face, brushing my cheek lightly with his fingertips. “With me.”
Right now, that was what I wanted. “It’s complicated. I’m their leader. If I don’t go back, I’m damning them all.”
“Can’t someone else lead them? I mean, someone must have been in charge before you got there—to that school.”
Yeah, and she was a power-crazed bitch who liked torturing the souls in Tartarus. Who liked torturing me in particular.
“Let’s just say that didn’t work out so well.” Of course, Tony or Arianna could lead the others. They both knew everything there was to know about being an Ophi. There was just one problem. Neither had my power. “I’m the only one, Matt. I’m stronger than the others. I’m tied more closely to Medusa.”
“Can’t you raise Medusa? Get her to lead the Ophi?”
If only I could. “Medusa’s soul is trapped inside a statue. It took a bunch of Ophi to put her there, and most of them died in the process. No way could I raise her.”
“Why’d they want to trap her, anyway? Isn’t she like a mom to all of you?”
“That’s actually the reason they did it. Hades was going to take her power and her soul. He would’ve tortured her. What the Ophi did saved her from that. It protected her from Hades. He can’t touch her.”
Matt shimmied toward me, coming onto my towel. I turned sideways so we were only inches apart. “Okay, forget being Ophi. I know at least part of you wants to stay here. Tell me why. What do you miss about being human?”
“This.” I reached for his arm. “You.”
He leaned forward like he was going to kiss me, but I kept going. “Mom, Melodie, my old life—I miss all of it.”
He sighed, obviously hurt that I’d stopped him from kissing me.
“You could have all that again. You have it now. Well, not Melodie, but you could tell her the truth. She wouldn’t go blabbing to anyone.”
I shook my head. “No. We can’t tell anyone else. It’s too risky. Besides, Melodie is going off to college in a year, anyway.”
“All right, then forget about Melodie. I’m never going to age. If you don’t stay, I’ll outlive everyone I know and love. Immortality isn’t worth it if you’re alone.”
I was trying not to think about that part. Leaving Matt would mean sentencing him to a lonely existence. “I could always check in with you, and when you’re ready to move on, I could release your soul.”
“Back to that place? Those fields? I don’t want to just wander for all eternity, either. This is my best option, Jodi, but if you aren’t here with me, I don’t want it. Watching everyone I love die while I stay like this would be a living Hell.”
His words cut through me, making my throat sting with the unfairness of it all. “Do you wish I never brought you back?”
“No. I wish you’d love me like you love him.”
Alex. Matt wanted me to look at him the way I looked at Alex. If I was still connected to my Ophi soul, my conflicted emotions would be sending my blood bubbling and mixing under my skin. I’d be raising every dead body in a ten-mile radius. But I wasn’t Ophi. I was human.
I swallowed hard and leaned forward, pressing my lips to Matt’s. He gently tipped me onto my back, holding himself above me with his elbows. His body pressed against mine, our limbs tangling. This felt right. Matt and I were supposed to be together…if I was human. Which I was now. He deepened the kiss, and I struggled to breathe, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t get enough of Matt.