Face of Death (19 page)

Mom opened the front door as we pulled up in the driveway. For the first time since I’d known him, Matt didn’t open my car door for me. He went straight to the house and to the kitchen.

I threw my arms around Mom and rested my head on her shoulder.

“Oh, baby.” She kissed my hair. “I take it you didn’t find out what you needed to?”

I pulled away, and she motioned to the couch. I sat down while she went to the kitchen, returning with two steaming cups of tea and handing one to me. “Here you go. Matt said he’s having a quick snack and heading to bed.” More like he was avoiding me.

“Mom, can I ask you something?”

“Sure, sweetie. What is it?”

“Is it better this way? Getting to spend a little more time with me, even if you know I can’t stay?”

She held her teacup in her lap and sighed. “I know it’s going to hurt like hell when you leave, but I wouldn’t trade these few days for anything. I get to see my baby girl again.” Her eyes filled with tears. “When you left, I had no idea if you were okay. All I wanted was to see you again. And then you sent me that email saying you were safe, but when I tried to reply, the email account had been closed. I was devastated. When Melodie told me she saw you, I kind of fell apart.”

Hearing her recount all the awful things I’d done made me lose it all over again.

She reached for my hand and squeezed it. “But now you’re here. I can see you’re okay. You’re stronger than I ever imagined you’d be.”

Funny, because I didn’t feel strong at all.

“Even if this is the last time I get to be with you, I’m grateful for it.”

I put my cup on the coffee table and curled up in a ball with my head on her lap. She moved her tea to the table as well and stroked my hair.

“Maybe now that you know about me, we could see each other sometimes. We’d have to be really careful, but we could do it.”

“Sweetie, I would love that. I’ll even promise not to touch you if I have to.”

“Then it’s settled. Even after I go back to my Ophi body and soul, we’ll still get together. We could do holidays.”

“I do make a mean turkey.” Mom laughed.

“Yes, you do. And I promise to stay away from any knives. I’ll strictly be the stirrer or flipper or whatever else you can do to food while it cooks.”

“Taste tester?” Mom asked.

“No. Too risky. My saliva is poisonous too. I’ll have to be in charge of loading the dishwasher, too. Oh, and taking out the garbage after I use the napkins.”

“Now,
that
I’m not going to argue with.” Even though I was facing the coffee table, I could hear the smile in Mom’s voice. She was doing her best to make me feel better. To prove we could still be a family even though I was an Ophi.

“You’re the best. You know that?” I tilted my head to see her face.

“Yeah, well, it’s a tough job and the pay sucks, but I love you, so what can I say?” She smiled, and it felt so much like old times.

We hung out and talked about everything—Alex, the school, Alex, the underworld, Alex—until midnight. By then, we were both exhausted, and we dragged ourselves upstairs to bed. Mom took the side of the bed closest to the door. Even after all that talk about Alex, she was still worried about me and Matt. He’d gone to bed hours ago. It was strange to think about him sleeping in my bed. No guy had ever been in my bed before, and a week ago, I would’ve thought the only guy to occupy my bed would be Alex. But somehow, I was being magically transported back through time, to months ago when it was Matt who appeared in all my dreams.

I still wasn’t sure what to do about Matt, and because he wasn’t speaking to me right now, I had no idea if he even wanted to stay here anymore. If he asked me to release his soul and let him return to his afterlife, it might destroy me. I’d already sent him there twice, and each time it got worse. First he was in Heaven. Then he was in the Fields of Asphodel, totally oblivious to every emotion. If I sent him back to Hades a third time, would he end up in Tartarus?

That thought haunted me as my eyes finally closed, and it stuck with me all night—mostly because I was back in the underworld delivering another soul. My body suddenly stopped moving on autopilot as my focus came crashing back to my Ophi soul. I staggered for a moment before I felt the searing heat of the Phlegethon, the river of fire that surrounded Tartarus. Somehow, Hades had made it so we could pass through it. Of course that was only when we were delivering souls. If we tried to escape during torture time, we’d be burned alive.

My eyes came into focus as I got my bearings.

“Are you okay? You look like you freaked out for a second.” I knew that voice. But, no. That was impossible. It couldn’t be. I must not have adjusted from the switch, from returning to my Ophi soul.

I turned to face the soul I was escorting.

Amber! Matt’s sister. Immediately I knew what was going on. Hades had sent Alex to try to reason with me earlier. He’d even increased the torture for me and the group. When both of those didn’t get immediate results, he’d decided to play really dirty. He’d gone after Matt’s sister.

I couldn’t breathe as I stared at Amber’s innocent face. First Matt, and now Amber. Hades was avoiding me, not confronting me about what I’d done. He was making me suffer, forcing me to return to save the people I cared about.

Amber cocked her head to the side and stared into my eyes. “Jodi? Can you hear me now? You were so spacey before. I tried to talk to you, but you didn’t answer me. Where are you taking me? Is Matt here? Will I see him? Are you dead, too?”

Each one of her questions was like a stab in the heart. She had no idea what was going on. She thought she was going to see her brother again. That I was taking her to him.

I opened my mouth, but my throat closed up, only allowing a squeak to escape. This couldn’t be happening. I willed my blood to mix, to give me strength. I had to put an end to this now. Matt couldn’t lose Amber—and to Tartarus, of all places. Amber was a sweetheart. No way did she deserve this. The only reason she was here was because of me. My skin rippled as my power surged through my veins.

Amber stepped back, her eyes widening at the sight of my flesh moving as if snakes were crawling under it. “What’s happening to you?”

I found my strength and screamed at the top of my lungs, “Hades!” I yelled his name over and over, refusing to stop until he came. Until he undid what he’d done. Until he brought Amber back to life, and not as a zombie.

A swirl of black smoke approached from above. I stopped yelling and focused all my energy, my anger, into making my blood boil. If he didn’t listen, I’d start raising every soul in this place until he stopped me. That meant I was most likely going to die in a matter of minutes, but I didn’t care.

Hades appeared out of the smoke and smiled at me. Smiled. Of all things. He was enjoying my misery. “Nice to see you again, Jodi Marshall. You’ve been away for so long.”

How long had it been? I felt like the last slip into my Ophi soul hadn’t been long ago at all.

“Enough with the small talk. We both know what I’ve been doing, and I just discovered what you’ve been doing.” I motioned to Amber. “I’m not taking her to Tartarus.” I kept my voice firm, steady, masking my fear with the power in my blood.

“Oh, no?” He smiled again, looking amused.

“No. You’re going to bring her back to life. She didn’t deserve to die. You only took her to punish me. You knew it would destroy Matt, and that I’d come back here to stop you.”

Hades shrugged, playing innocent. “How do you know it wasn’t simply her time to die?”

“Don’t play games with me. We both know you’re trying whatever you can to get me back here,
fully
back. You’re desperate. You thought having Alex talk to me would be enough.”

Hades laughed. “It would’ve been if you weren’t so focused on your human side. Have you noticed your emotions have changed? Old feelings returning to you?”

Crap! He could read me like a freakin’ book.

“Matt seems to be very important to you again. I thought maybe taking his sister would get your attention, and here you are.”

“I didn’t know you took her. This just happens when I fall asleep. My mind strays back to my Ophi soul.”

Hades clasped his hands in front of him. “No. That’s not quite how it works. You come back here for a reason. Your Ophi soul calls you because it feels there’s something you need to see.”

Was that true? Was I trying to warn myself? “You’re saying I brought my focus back here because I wanted to save Amber?”

“Exactly.”

“Fine. Then that’s what I’m going to do. Now bring her back, and not as a zombie. I want her back the way she was.”

He smirked. “It’s so cute how you think you can make demands of me.” His eyes narrowed. “No, wait. It’s just annoying.” He stepped forward so his face was only inches from mine. The heat radiating off him burned my skin. I tried to back away, but my feet were planted firmly on the ground. He was holding me there. “Return your human soul to your body or Amber spends eternity in Tartarus. There will be no deal this time. If you don’t do as I say, she will burn, over and over and over again.” He stood up tall again, and the searing pain stopped. “Your decision, of course.” He brushed his sleeve as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

What was I supposed to do? If I saved Amber, I’d be sacrificing the Ophi. Alex’s face popped into my head. Arianna, Leticia, Tony, Jared, Carol, McKenzie, Lexi—even Ethan. I couldn’t let them all be trapped here until Hades decided to kill them. I’d given up on Chase. He belonged with Hades. But the others… And trying to raise all the souls in the underworld wasn’t going to work. Hades would kill me before I succeeded.

I turned to Amber. “I’m so sorry. You don’t deserve this, and if I could save you, I would.”

“You
can
save her.” Hades moved closer to Amber. “She has the power to save your soul. She’s just choosing not to. She wants you to suffer.”

“That’s not true!” I focused on Amber, pleading with her with my eyes. “Listen to me. He wants you to hate me, to think this is my fault, but
he
did this. If I save you, I’d be killing eight other people. I can’t do that. It’s awful, but losing one soul is better than losing eight.”

“Come now. Don’t lie to the poor girl. The people you are choosing to save aren’t really people at all. They’re monsters.”

“No, they’re not.” I faced him head-on. “I’m not. You can call us monsters, but what we do is nothing compared to what you do. You’re torturing Amber to get what you want.” I turned back to her. “That’s the truth, Amber.
He’s
doing this to you.”

Her eyes filled with tears as she stared at the gate to Tartarus. “Is it going to hurt?”

Hades smiled. “More than you could imagine.”

Amber began to sob. “But why? I’m not a bad person.”

I gently touched her arm. “No, you’re not.” I glared at Hades. “He is.” I hugged Amber and whispered in her ear, “I’ll try everything I can to get you out of here. I promise. Try to hold on. Try to shut off your mind until I can figure this out.”

“Matt…he isn’t in there too, is he?”

“No.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her he was alive again. That would only make things worse.

“Good.” Her body shook as she took a deep breath and tried to regain her composure.

“I’m so sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say.

“So, I guess you’ll be escorting her inside?” Hades asked.

I didn’t respond, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of admitting defeat.

Amber looked at me and reached for my hand. My eyes shut, futilely trying to hold back the tears.

“I don’t blame you, Jodi.”

Well, that did it. It was like a dam breaking. I stepped forward, leading Amber to the afterlife she didn’t deserve as Hades’ laughter bellowed behind us. Part of me wished I’d return to my human soul so I didn’t have to endure this. It was almost as much torture for me as it was for her, especially since I knew how painful the punishments were in this place.

Tony stepped toward me from the gates of Tartarus and wrapped me in a hug. Somehow he seemed to know that, no matter how strong I was supposed to be, I needed support. I smiled up at him as I pulled back and wiped my tears. He knew me well enough to know I didn’t want to discuss what had just happened, so he motioned for Ethan to step aside and let Amber and me pass.

I held her hand as I escorted her to Bristol, one of the Ophi from the school who had chosen to follow Victoria and Troy’s evil plan and landed herself in here.

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I approached her. “I want you to know that Hades is torturing this girl—Amber—because he is trying to hurt me. She didn’t do anything wrong. She’s innocent.”

Bristol stared at me completely unfeeling for a moment, but then her eyes flickered to Amber, who was trying to keep a brave face but was failing miserably.

“Bristol, please, I’m begging you to go easy on her. She doesn’t deserve this.”

“Oh, and
I
deserved this?” She held her arms out wide, gesturing to her own imprisonment. An imprisonment I’d doomed her to.

“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?”