Face of Death (7 page)

Instead of answering, he turned and wandered away. We all followed, making sure to stay far enough away so he wouldn’t bump into us if he changed directions.

“Hey.” Alex reached for my elbow. “What if he finds the Elysian Fields? Will you still take him back with you? Raise his soul?”

Let him stay in his own personal Heaven or give him a second chance at life in a different body? It was a tough decision. “I’ll let him decide.” He deserved to make that choice for himself.

Alex let go of my arm and continued walking alongside me. I couldn’t tell if he was upset or just processing everything. As we walked, I kept an eye out for Hades. It seemed like a lot of time had passed since we got here. I hoped Hades wouldn’t show up before we were able to follow Matt to wherever it was he was going.

“This is crazy,” Lexi said, as Matt curved to the right. “He’s not going anywhere. I mean, how can he even know where he’s heading? This place looks the same no matter where you are.”

“Faith, Lexi,” Arianna said. “Sometimes you just have to have faith.”

“Faith in a mindless soul? Great.”

I couldn’t even argue with her.

Matt led us in a spiraling pattern that had us backtracking almost as much as we moved forward. We were all losing hope until I saw a gate up ahead.

“Look!” I ran toward it, not waiting for the others. This had to be the way out of the Fields. Matt had done it. He’d found the exit.

“Yes!” McKenzie cheered, running up behind me. “Now, maybe we can find a way out of the underworld all together.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Tony said as we slowed down. The gate was only a few feet in front of us, and we all stared at it like it was the most beautiful sight. “There are very few ways to get out of here. I’m sure Hades has them all well guarded. He’s not going to let us walk out.”

“Check it out. Three-Heads is watching us.” Lexi pointed to the three-headed dog, Cerberus, standing on the other side of the gate.

“He must have smelled us coming,” Tony said.

“That means we aren’t going to get past this gate.” I looked around. I had no idea how to distract a hellhound.

Matt had finally caught up with us. His spiral pattern had led him to the gate. He looked down at it with his head cocked to the side. Cerberus growled as Matt reached for the latch on the gate.

“Matt, no!” I rushed to him and grabbed his hand. He stared past me at something beyond the gate. I couldn’t see it, but I had a feeling the Elysian Fields were in that direction.

Lexi kicked the gate, getting more snarls from Cerberus. “We’re stuck. All this way just to get trapped by that thing.”

“I’m not giving up.” I reached for the gate, slowly releasing the latch.

“Jodi.” Alex stopped me. “You aren’t going out there. That dog will tear you to shreds.”

“I think he guards the souls. Makes sure they stay where they belong. But we don’t belong here, and neither does Matt.”

“Did someone spike her fruit punch?” Lexi asked. “She’s talking crazy again.”

“Look, Matt belongs in the Elysian Fields. I think Cerberus knows that.”

“Fine, so let him go. See what happens.” Lexi raised one shoulder, making it all too clear that she didn’t value Matt’s soul.

“We don’t belong here, either. Hades brought us to Tartarus. That’s where Cerberus thinks we should be.”

Tony stepped between me and the gate. “What if he tries to bring us back there? He could corner us and make us return to Tartarus. We wouldn’t be able to scout out new souls from there. Your plan would—pardon the expression—go to hell.”

Alex sighed. “He’s right, Jodi. Besides, Matt wouldn’t be with us anymore, and you’d have to raise your soul and figure out how to save us on your own. I’m not crazy about you and Matt getting close again, but I’d feel better knowing you had someone to protect you. You won’t have your Ophi powers anymore while you’re human.”

I’d kind of forgotten about that part. I was so focused on not being able to hurt anyone anymore that I hadn’t stopped to think about how powerless I’d actually be. Matt was a strong guy. I could use his protection. Especially since we were most likely going to be staying in sleazy motels and riding buses on our way back home.

I stared at Alex, hoping he could see I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t know how to get us out of here without running into Cerberus.

“What if we strike another deal with Hades?” he said.

I squinted at him, wondering what he was thinking. “Go on.”

Lexi scoffed and threw her arms out. “Haven’t we had enough deals? I mean, that’s what got us all in here in the first place. Jodi making a deal with Hades that she couldn’t keep.”

“The kind of deal I’m talking about doesn’t have consequences,” Alex said.

“Then Hades will never go for it,” Tony chimed in. “He likes big payouts for winning.”

Alex smiled. “That’s the beauty of this deal. He’s going to win from the start.”

“Alex—” Before I could ask him what he meant, I figured it out. The deal I’d made with Hades earlier, when he’d taken Victoria and the others…he’d liked that because it gave him Ophi servants. People to do his dirty work and free up some of his time. “We could offer our services. Help Hades run this place and make his life easier.”

Alex nodded. “Exactly. Victoria and the others have Tartarus under control, but Cerberus is left to guard the rest of this place. We never see Hades unless he’s making us suffer, so what is he doing?”

“Judging souls, making sure no one escapes, going back to the land of the living.” I listed off things I remembered Tony teaching us. “What if he’s going after the other Ophi while we’re down here?”

“Mason.” Carol’s voice was small and shaky.

I bit my lip, thinking of how I could approach this. “Okay, Hades obviously needs help down here. We can offer him that. We can help judge the souls. That way we’d know who was coming into the underworld. And when the next couple comes…” I paused, realizing that was a poor word choice on my part. Alex wasn’t going to want Matt and me to use the bodies of a couple. It would only make his mind focus on how Matt and I used to be together. “Well, when the next two souls whose bodies Matt and I could use arrive, we can get my plan going.”

Arianna and Tony smiled, obviously happy with this idea. Carson, Ethan, and Carol weren’t as enthusiastic, but they were willing to try it. Lexi shrugged and gave me a “What the hell? Why not?” Coming from her, that was good. I knew the others wouldn’t challenge me. They never had. And since we’d broken off from Chase, it looked like we all could agree on something as a group.

Leticia looked petrified. “Does this mean we have to get Hades’ attention? Bring him here to make the deal?”

I took a deep breath before saying, “Yes, it does.”

“Any idea how to do that?” Alex asked.

I looked at the gate in front of me. “I’m pretty sure trying to break out of here will get his attention.”

Lexi rolled her eyes. “And royally piss him off. He won’t make a deal with us if he wants to cause us pain.”

“Then I won’t let him get angry with all of us.” I turned to Alex. “Keep everyone else back. Guard Matt. Don’t let him wander off or try to follow me.”

He grabbed my arm. “No. You aren’t going out there alone.”

“I’m not putting anyone else in danger.”

“I’m going with you. End of story.” He met Tony’s eyes. “Watch Matt and the others.”

Tony nodded.

This was the best I was going to get. There was no arguing with Alex when he was like this. I kissed him lightly on the lips, just in case my plan backfired and Hades decided to burn me in hellfire instead of making a deal with me. I wanted to make sure I got one last kiss. Then, I unlatched the gate and pushed it open.

Cerberus growled, sending spit flying out of his mouths from the vibration.

“Easy.” I held my hand out in front of me. Alex tried to pull me behind him to shield me, but I wasn’t having it. I stood my ground. “Can you call Hades?” I asked Cerberus, keeping my voice as steady and non-threatening as possible. “Call your master here. Tell him I need to talk to him.”

“Our fearless leader, everyone,” Lexi said. “Talking to a three-headed dog from Hell. We’re all screwed.”

“Can it, Lexi,” Alex yelled, and Cerberus snarled at the outburst. He charged at us, and Alex and I lunged to the side. Cerberus rammed into the gate. While he was stunned, I reached for him and shot him with a dose of poisoned blood from the left side of my body. He whimpered and went down.

I removed my hand from his fur and stared at it, unable to believe that had worked.

“You dosed him?” Alex was breathing heavily and staring wide-eyed at Cerberus’ still form on the ground.

“I didn’t think I could hurt him like that. I just wanted to stun him a little.”

“My dog!” Hades’ voice boomed from above us as he came swirling down in his black cloud.

Alex rushed to me, ready to face Hades.

“I didn’t mean to hurt him,” I said. “He attacked us. I just reacted.”

Hades’ eyes burned into me, but not enough to kill me. He wanted to make me suffer. My eyes watered from the flames, but I wasn’t about to cower before him.

“You tried to escape. Of course Cerberus attacked you. He was doing his job.”

“No.” I held my hands up. “You don’t understand. We weren’t trying to escape. We were trying to find you. We need to talk to you.”

“It’s true,” Alex said. “Look for yourself.” He pointed at the others beyond the gate. “Would we have left them behind if we were looking for a way out of the underworld?”

Of course, my plan
was
to leave everyone behind while I found a way out, but Hades couldn’t know that.

Hades looked at the group. Once his eyes were off me, the burning stopped. I stepped closer to him. “We have a deal for you.”

He turned back to me and laughed. “What could you possibly have to make a deal with? I have you. You’re in my world now. You have nothing to bargain with.”

“That’s not true. You’re swamped down here. We almost never see you because you’re too busy running this place. And I’m willing to bet Persephone is around here somewhere, right?” I looked to Tony for confirmation that my mythology was correct. He nodded.

“Leave her out of this.” Hades’ voice shook the ground, and I grabbed Alex to keep from falling.

“Fine. She’s your wife, and actually the deal has nothing to do with her. Not directly, at least. Though it might give you more time to spend with her, if you wanted.”

Hades narrowed his eyes at me. “Two minutes. Talk fast.”

So, Persephone was his weakness. Good to know. “The other Ophi have a handle on Tartarus for you, but what about everything else you have to do here? You must be going crazy trying to handle it all on your own. Let us help. We could…” I paused, pretending I didn’t have this all planned out already. “I don’t know…maybe help you judge the souls, place them in the proper afterlives.”

“I suppose you want to do this to avoid your own punishments?”

“No. We understand that you won’t allow that. We aren’t asking to avoid punishment. We are asking to simply cut down on the amount of time we spend in Tartarus each day.” I knew the others were cringing at this, but Hades would never entirely release us from punishment. This was the best offer I was going to get us.

“I don’t need all of you,” Hades said. “I already have three judges.”

“Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus,” Tony said.

Damn it, Tony! Couldn’t he have told me this earlier? My mind scrambled to find a new job for us, one that would still keep us in contact with the new souls arriving each day.

“They must be very busy, too busy to judge
and
take the souls to the proper places. We could do that. Usher the souls into their afterlives.” I looked to Tony, seeing if that sounded reasonable. He nodded.

“That still wouldn’t require the services of your entire group,” Hades said. “I think your two minutes are up as well. Time to return to Tartarus.”

“Wait!” I was desperate. “Just today we found some souls wandering to this gate.” I pointed to the gate guarding the Fields of Asphodel. “That’s how we found it. The souls remember where it is. They might seem mindless and lost in themselves, but deep down that knowledge is there. We stopped some souls from escaping. I think that proves you could use some of us as guards. Here, as well as at the entrances to the Elysian Fields, and Tartarus even.”

Alex raised the corner of his mouth in the tiniest of smiles. I might have just saved us all.

“Who were these souls who tried to escape? Show them to me. They need to be punished.” Hades advanced on the gate. Advanced on Matt.

Crap! Matt! “No!” I ran to Hades and nodded my head to the side, hoping Arianna would read that as
get Matt away from the gate
. “It’s not their fault. The souls don’t know they aren’t supposed to leave. They aren’t sure of anything here.”

Hades stopped and faced me again. “You think you know my souls better than I do?” His glare was filled with hatred and the threat of more hellfire coming my way.

“That’s not what I’m saying, but you can’t deny that necromancers know souls really well. I can see what they’re doing, what they’re thinking even.” Totally not true, but he couldn’t prove I was lying. “We could help you control them. They aren’t trying to disobey you, and if we can show them how they are supposed to exist here, things would be easier for everyone, especially you.”

“I can’t help but wonder why this is so important to you.” He walked around me, eying me up and down. “Are you trying to save your friends and yourself from torture, or do you have some other endgame, Jodi Marshall?”

I had to be careful what I said next. The wrong thing could blow this plan entirely. “I want something we all can live with. I’ve seen how Victoria and the others help you. You’re more lenient with them, and I can’t help wondering why, since they caused you so much trouble. Remember the reason you brought them here?”

“Yes, because you made a deal with me: them for your safety. Only you broke our deal, which made your souls fair game.”

“Fine. Well, if we’re talking about what’s fair, then why aren’t you punishing them?”