“I can’t leave. I have a job to do. The Ophi from Serpentarius will be here tomorrow. It took months to get them here. How would it look if they came and I’d taken off?”
Alex started pacing. He was determined to find a way to save me. I didn’t say a word. Just let him think. Finally, he stopped. “Did you ever consider that Hades might want you to get all the Ophi under one roof so he can take us out in one shot?”
I was starting to wonder about that. We were sitting ducks here. Hades could kill us all in our sleep if he wanted to. But I had a feeling Hades was a god of his word. We’d made a deal. Sure, he was hoping I’d screw it up so he could kill me. But if I didn’t, we’d be okay. Hades would honor our deal—I hoped.
Except I was screwing up, and Chase was a big part of that.
Chapter 10
Breakfast was quick. We had bodies to bury, and I couldn’t exactly sit and enjoy my pancakes knowing Tony was digging graves on his own. I hurried the group along, giving Randy a long hard stare when he reached for a second helping of pancakes.
“I’ll take a few to go.” Grabbing a handful, he got up from the table.
“Fine. Everyone else good?”
Leticia stood up. “I’m ready. I can’t eat a thing after seeing Hades. He scared the appetite right out of me.” I was with her there.
Arianna shooed us out the door. “You all go help Tony. I can handle clean-up on my own today.”
“Ari, you’re a life saver.” I gave her a quick hug and followed the others out to the cemetery. Tony was dirty, sweaty, and dead tired. He’d managed to dig up seven graves already. I wasn’t sure how he’d done that many so quickly, but then again, he’d had a lot of practice.
“Take a break,” I told him. “Go shower, get something to eat, and put your feet up. We’ll take over from here.” Thanks to Hades, there weren’t that many bodies left. Most had fallen into the earth when he came out of it. And since we didn’t know which body belonged in which grave, we could simply dig them all up in a straight line. We’d be finished by lunchtime.
Tony stuck his shovel in the fresh dirt and wiped his brow. “Sounds good to me. Any of Arianna’s pancakes left?”
“Yeah, I stopped Randy from polishing them all off.”
“Thanks.”
“No, thank you. It was my mess, and you’ve been—” I didn’t know what to say. How did you apologize for raising an entire cemetery of corpses, drawing Hades’ attention, and nearly killing every Ophi in existence?
Tony put his hand on my shoulder. “No one blames you, Jodi. Whatever is going on here isn’t your fault.”
“Of course it is. It’s my powers that are screwing things up, and I have no idea how to fix it.”
“We’ll figure it out. I’m going to cancel lessons this afternoon. I want to do some research and make a few phone calls. Someone has to have some idea what’s happening to you. I can’t believe you’re the first Ophi this sort of thing has happened to.”
Why not? I was the only Ophi who was part human—or at least I used to be. The only Ophi who could raise our own kind without turning them into zombies. The only Ophi who was answering to Hades. Being the only anything was nothing new to me.
Tony must have taken my silence as a protest. “I mean, if that’s okay with you. You’re in charge, and if you don’t want me cancelling lessons, I can do my research this evening after dinner.”
“No. Cancelling lessons is a good idea. We’ll be digging graves and burying corpses all morning. I could use the afternoon to train these guys some more.”
Tony nodded. “We’ll figure this out. I promise.”
“Thanks, Tony.”
He gave me a small smile before walking away. Everyone else was busy digging already, so I grabbed a shovel and got to work helping Alex.
“He’s right, you know.” Alex didn’t look at me. He was focused on shoveling, and his tone was completely serious. “You have to stop blaming yourself. It’s not like you know what’s wrong with your powers.”
Sure. Except I did know what was wrong with them. I was conflicted. I liked Chase. As much as I wished I didn’t, I liked Chase. I didn’t know how long I could keep lying, especially to Alex.
He stopped digging and looked at me. “Hey, you don’t think it’s us, do you?”
“What do you mean?” Did he know something?
“Well,” he stepped closer and lowered his voice, “your powers keep going all crazy when we’re together or you’re thinking about me.”
I smiled at him. “No, I don’t think we’re the problem. You’re the only thing in my life that’s right.”
He wrapped one arm around my waist and pulled me to him. He kissed me as if we were the only two people in the cemetery, and in that moment, we were. I forgot about the others. This was how I wanted things to be. Why couldn’t it be this simple?
“Seriously you two.” Randy flung dirt at us.
“Hey!” I jumped back, trying to avoid the dirt.
“Hey, yourself. If you two don’t stop making out in front of me, I’m going to throw myself in this open grave just so I don’t have to see it anymore.”
“Funny.” I rolled my eyes.
Leticia leaned on her shovel and stared at Chase. “I think it’s romantic the way they can’t keep their hands off each other, don’t you?” But Chase wasn’t paying any attention to Leticia. His eyes were fixed on me.
Alex glared at him. “You got a problem, Chase?”
“I was just thinking.”
“About what?” Leticia was drooling a little.
“About how every time I see these two it’s something different. One minute they’re kissing, and the next minute they’re fighting. I’m waiting for their relationship to implode.”
“That’s it!” Alex lunged at Chase, and the two fell backward into an open grave.
“Alex!” I yelled.
“Chase, are you okay?” Leticia called down into the grave.
Luckily, it wasn’t deep, so they didn’t fall far. But there wasn’t a lot of wiggle room, and since they were intent on beating on each other, dirt was spilling from the sides of the grave right on top of them.
“Stop!” My blood was going crazy. My skin rippled, and my heart raced. Sweat poured down my face. I wanted it to stop. I begged my blood to stop mixing, but it wouldn’t.
Leticia screamed. “Guys! Stop! It’s Jodi. Something’s happening to her!”
Alex and Chase climbed out of the grave, clawing at each other in the process. Chase reached me first, and he placed his hand in mine.
“Don’t touch her!” Alex yelled, ripping Chase’s hand away from me. “Every time you touch her, you almost kill her.”
Randy grabbed Chase’s arm before he could take a swing at Alex. “He’s right, man. The last thing Jodi needs is an extra power boost from you right now.”
“Jodi, look at me.” Alex was holding my face in his hands. “Focus on me. Don’t worry about him or anyone else. Look at me.”
My body was on fire, and my blood wouldn’t stop bubbling. If I didn’t stop this soon, the power was going to consume me.
“Oh, God!” Leticia yelled. She pointed toward the school.
Alex let go of my face, and we both turned to see what had Leticia so scared. The corpses from my room were walking toward us. My blood had called them to me.
“Well, at least we don’t have to carry them all out here,” Chase said.
Alex squeezed his fists and turned toward Chase. “Alex.” I reached for him, but he wasn’t going to listen to reason. He was determined to pound on Chase. I did the only thing I knew would make him stop. I pretended to faint. I let myself collapse on the ground, which, considering how much energy my body was using to summon all those corpses, was more than easy to do.