“Alex—where was he when I killed everyone? Was he affected by my power?”
“I reached out to every Ophi who was affected. He was not among them. He was safe.”
I breathed a long sigh of relief. I hadn’t harmed Alex. He was okay. He was still gone, but at least he was alive.
“Thank you, Medusa.”
“Jodi?” Chase pulled my hand from Medusa’s.
I looked at him. “Why did you do that?”
“I wanted to make sure you were okay. You looked upset.”
“I’m fine. I needed to talk to Medusa.”
“You should be careful how much time you spend connected to her. All that power could wear you out.” He brushed his finger against my cheeks, making my face tingle from his touch.
“Please, don’t do that.”
“Sorry. I have to remember to hold back my power when I’m around you. Your blood screams to mine, and what can I say? I tend to give in to it.”
I looked down at my bare legs. “I should go get dressed.”
“Why? I like the look.”
“It’s Alex’s shirt.” I wasn’t sure why I wanted Chase to know that.
His face went cold. “On second thought, take it off.”
“I don’t get it. Why do you hate him? I mean, he should hate you. You came here and openly tried to take me away from him.”
“I didn’t have to try very hard.” He smiled and wrapped one arm around my waist.
“Stop it.” I smacked his arm away and started for my room.
“I can make you forget about him, Jodi.”
I stopped at the top of the stairs, but I didn’t turn toward him. “No, you can’t, and I don’t want to anyway.” I turned and ran to my room, locking the door behind me. I didn’t want him following me. If he caught up to me, he could use his power on me. Make me give in to him. I leaned against the door and sank to the floor. I was losing control of everything. I’d been reduced to hiding in my room. Some leader I was.
It took me a minute to realize the shower was running in my bathroom. I got up and walked in there. Steam hit me in the face. Someone was using up all my hot water. A pair of leather knee-high boots rested on the bench outside the shower. I only knew one person who dressed in knee-high boots. Lexi.
My blood was boiling, but not in a Gorgon sort of way. I was mad. I marched over to the shower, reached my arm in, and turned the water to freezing cold. Lexi screamed and jumped back, bumping against the back of the shower by the sound of it.
“What the hell!” She shut off the water and peeked her head out.
“My thoughts exactly. How did you get into my bathroom?”
She reached for her towel and disappeared behind the curtain again. A moment later she came out wrapped like a burrito. “I have my ways.”
“Found spare keys in Abby’s room?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Think you know everything, don’t you?”
“I know you’re just as big a bitch as Abby was.”
“What do you mean was?”
I shrugged. “Being trapped in the underworld as Hades’ slave is as good as dead.” I had no idea where this burst of self-confidence was coming from. It wasn’t like me to act this way.
“You wish,” Lexi said.
“I don’t believe in wishing. I wished you to the underworld the second I found out you were Abby’s sister, but that didn’t do me any good.”
“No, it didn’t, but don’t worry. You’ll be wishing again soon.” She grabbed her clothes and boots off the bench. “You’ll be wishing you were dead.”
I matched her glare. “Don’t count on it.”
“Abby will be kicking your sorry soul around the underworld soon enough. Just like that pathetic kid you killed earlier. What was his name, Ricky?”
“Randy. And believe me, she wouldn’t dare.”
Lexi laughed. “Honey, you obviously don’t know my sister.” She walked out, leaving me imagining all the awful things Abby was probably doing to Randy’s soul right now.
Breakfast was quiet. Even though there were so many new faces at the table, I could only focus on the ones who weren’t there—Randy and Alex. I’d trade all the Ophi from Serpentarius to have them both back. I couldn’t even remember why I’d pushed so hard to get these guys here.
Arianna came up behind me with a tray of eggs. “I’ve arranged for a small ceremony tonight. We’ll meet at the mausoleum at eight.”
I felt my orange juice coming back up, but I fought it. The acidic taste burned the back of my throat. “Thanks,” I choked out.
“Hi,” said a brunette sitting next to me. “I’m McKenzie. We didn’t really get a chance to meet yesterday.”
“Hi.” I put on the best fake smile I could manage. “Thanks for coming, McKenzie.”
She smiled back. “That’s Lucas across from us. He’s the same age as me. We both just came into our powers.”
I nodded, pretending to follow along.
“Have you met Mason’s wife, Carol? She’s a sweetheart. She sort of takes care of me since my mom and dad aren’t around anymore.”
“Oh,” I said, suddenly being brought back to the conversation. “Do you mind me asking what happened?”
She pushed her eggs around on her plate. “They died. They were part of the group in Washington. Hades came after them.”
My fork missed my eggs and screeched across the plate. Oh, God! Another person whose parents I’d sent to the underworld? I couldn’t take much more of this.
“I know what happened,” she said. “And just so you know, I don’t blame you.”
“Thanks.” It was a stupid thing to say, but nothing else seemed right either.
“Where are your parents?” McKenzie asked.
“My mom’s human, so I’m not allowed to see her anymore, and my dad is in the underworld like your parents. Hades took him from me a few days ago.” It felt like a lifetime ago.
“Oh, sorry.” She took a sip of juice and continued telling me who everyone was. “You know Lexi. She needs no introduction.”
She could say that again.
“That guy with the goatee, he’s Thayer. Jared, the dirty blond sitting next to him, is his son. They’re both nice. You know Carson already,” she said, moving right along. “Then there’s Asher. He’s one of my favorites. After Carol, of course. Asher is really strong, and he’s not afraid of anything.”
“What about Mason? What’s he like?” I’d only talked to him a couple times on the phone. He seemed nice enough, but not overly helpful.
McKenzie shrugged. “He’s cool. He’s been weird lately, though. Not his usual self. I guess that’s because he’s away from home. You wouldn’t believe how much he loves Serpentarius. I never thought he’d leave it to come here. Not even with all of us begging him.”
“Well, I’m glad he changed his mind. We all need to stick together if we’re going to stand up to Hades.”
McKenzie dropped her fork and stared at me. “We’re going to fight Hades?”
“Well, not ‘fight him’ fight him, but we are stronger in numbers. He won’t come attack a group this big. It’s too risky.”
McKenzie nodded. “Oh, okay.” She looked scared, and I couldn’t help thinking I had a younger version of Leticia on my hands.
“Hey,” McKenzie said, “where’s Chase?”
I looked around the table. How hadn’t I noticed he was missing? “I don’t know. I saw him earlier.”
“Weird. He never missed a meal back at Serpentarius. I forgot what a great cook Arianna is. The food’s gone downhill since she left.”
McKenzie kept talking, but I wasn’t listening. I couldn’t help wondering where Chase was. For some reason, I didn’t like not knowing.
After breakfast, Mason, Carol, Thayer, Carson, and Asher said they wanted to meet with Tony and Arianna to discuss the situation some more, so they all headed to the conference room for some adult Ophi conversation, while the rest of us went outside. I split the group up into training teams as soon as we got to the row of graves that still had bodies in them.