Face of Death (29 page)

“You heard everything Chase and I said on the way here, didn’t you?” I stepped closer to Medusa, hoping to get close enough to call her soul to me without Hades noticing.

“Actually, no. I wasn’t watching. But when I felt Medusa’s soul enter the underworld, I tuned in. Convinced Chase to look for the both of you. What a happy coincidence he was still nearby.”

Alex let out a guttural cry and lunged at Chase. A whoosh of air left Chase’s lungs as Alex slammed him into the ground. The sickening sound of breaking bone followed.

“Alex!” I rushed for the gate, not caring about Hades or what he might do to me. “Stop! He isn’t worth it.”

Chase had blood running down his face, and his nose was bent to the left.

Alex shoved himself off Chase and started toward the gate. I reached my hand through and touched his cheek. “Don’t become like them.” I couldn’t help worrying that Alex would wind up like his parents—evil. He was a great guy, despite their terrible influence, but when situations like this came around, I worried he’d lose it and give in to that darkness that seemed to overtake so many Ophi.

He pressed his hand against mine. “What are we going to do? He’s been spying on us, Jodi. We have to get rid of him.”

“But not like that. Not by beating him to death.” I swallowed hard. “I won’t lose you just to get rid of him.”

His jaw clenched. “I’ll be okay. I won’t become either of my parents, and I definitely won’t stoop to
his
level.” He glanced back at Chase, who was holding the bridge of his nose and cringing.

“Good, because we have bigger problems right now.” I nodded back over my shoulder.

Alex peered around me, and his breath caught in his throat. I yanked my hand back through the gate and whipped around.

Hades was gone, and he’d taken Medusa with him.

I ran back through the fields to where they’d been standing. There was no sign of either of them or that they’d ever been here.

“Damn it! He used Chase as a distraction and took her.” I fell to my knees and pounded the asphodels. Twice my feelings for Alex had put us all at risk. Maybe I wasn’t meant to be in a relationship. Maybe as leader, I had to sever my personal connections and put the needs of the group first. Only I couldn’t. I wasn’t human anymore, but my emotions still felt human. I loved Alex. I couldn’t see how that could be a bad thing.

He banged on the gates until they finally opened. Hades wasn’t keeping them locked now that he’d gotten away with Medusa’s soul. Alex rushed to me and pulled me to my feet. “We have to find her. My guess is, once Hades has her under control, he’ll come back for us. We aren’t going to sit here and wait for him.”

I nodded and wiped my tears with the backs of my hands. “I can’t believe I suck this bad as a leader.”

He gripped my shoulders. “Don’t do that. Don’t sit there and feel sorry for yourself. Medusa wanted you to become like her. To take her place. She wouldn’t have asked you to do that if she didn’t believe in you. You’re her only hope right now. So push whatever feeling of helplessness you have aside, and do your job.”

That was another reason why I loved him. He called me out when I was acting stupid. Medusa believed in me. Alex believed in me. Out of the people I still had in my life, they mattered the most. I wasn’t going to stop until I fixed this—for them.

“I’m going to try to communicate with her. She used to be able to appear in my mind. We’re both here, so maybe we still can.” Unless Hades was torturing her. Then she wouldn’t have the strength to make the connection.

Alex let go of me, and I closed my eyes. “Medusa? Can you hear me?” I waited, listening for even the smallest sound. “I’m going to find you and join your soul with mine, but I need help. Can you give me any sign of where you are?” I wasn’t even sure she could hear me, let alone answer or give me a sign, but I had to try. Still nothing.

Alex gently grazed my arm with his hand. “Anything?”

I shook my head. “Wherever he has her, she can’t hear me. Either that, or she’s in so much pain that she can’t respond.”

“You think she’s in Tartarus?”

It was a good bet. I nodded.

“Let’s go.”

We had no plan other than finding her. If Victoria had her, I’d have to use my powers to knock out Victoria. My blood was already boiling under my skin. I had enough emotion running through me to wipe out every Ophi here with my poison. Chase was lucky he wasn’t around anymore.

Chase! “Alex.” I grabbed his arm, stopping him just outside the gate. “Chase might know where Medusa is. He must have seen something.”

“I don’t know. He was on the ground and in a lot of pain. Besides, Hades didn’t go by us, so how would Chase have seen him? Hades may have part of Chase’s soul, but that doesn’t mean Chase has access to it or that he knows what Hades is up to.”

That was true. Hades had hurt Chase in the palace, too. If Chase had any insight into what Hades was going to do, he might have avoided that.

“All right. We’ll check Tartarus and hope for the best.”

Finding strength in each other, we walked hand in hand, an army of two. We were almost to the entrance to Tartarus when Bristol came walking up behind us.

“Jodi!” Her voice was a loud whisper.

I turned to see the fear on her face. “What is it? Did something happen? Did you see Medusa?”

“Medusa?” Bristol’s head jerked back. “She’s here?” Even she knew that wasn’t good.

“Yes, and we have to find her soon.”

“She’s not in there.” There was more. “The others are. All of them. Hades said he wants us to torture them until there’s nothing left.”

“You don’t mean…”

“Until they’re dead.”

No. My hands shook. Alex yanked his hand from mine.

“Jodi, you’re on fire.”

My power was out of control.

“What’s going on? What are we going to do?” Bristol’s eyes pleaded with me. “I don’t want to kill anyone. I’ve been taking care of that girl Amber for you. I’ve been doing everything you asked. I just want to get out of here. I don’t belong here. I’m not evil.”

Now
she
was losing it. I reached for her but thought twice about it. I didn’t want to burn her with my touch. “Calm down. I’m going to figure this out.”

“You better do it soon. They can’t hold on much longer.”

“What is Hades having you do to them exactly?” They couldn’t have been in Tartarus for that long. Hades had only left us moments ago.

Her body shook as she took a deep breath. “He’s making them relive every death and raising they ever caused, all at once.”

That was how Hades killed an Ophi. It was supposedly the worst way you could die. He wanted to end this quickly. No savoring the moment this time. He was done playing around.

“Please, Bristol, do whatever you can to slow things down. I need to find Medusa. Once I do, I can save us all. I’ll get you out of here, but I need your help right now.”

Her eyes teared. “But how? I don’t know what to do.”

“Create some sort of distraction. Anything. Get the focus off the others. Pretend you’re hurt, in pain.”

I calmed my blood for a moment, focusing on the life-restoring power alone. I gently touched Bristol’s arm and sent a wave of the energy to her.

“What is that?” Her eyes widened, and she smiled. “That’s amazing.”

“Think you can handle this now? I gave you a power boost.”

She nodded. “Yeah. I can do it.”

“Good. Go!” I pushed her toward the entrance, and she ran in.

“Great,” Alex said, “but we still don’t know where Medusa is.”

“Yes, we do.” There was only one place she could be. “In the palace. She’s with Persephone.” I took off running toward the palace.

Alex easily kept up with me. The guy always had been fast. “Why do you think she’s there?”

“Because it’s the one place that has been off-limits to us. Hades keeps Persephone guarded from everyone and everything.”

“You’re right, but then how are we going to get to her?”

I pictured the look Persephone had on her face when we were all in the palace. She hated Hades. “Hades told me Persephone came here on her own, but I don’t believe it. Something is up. Persephone will help us because she’ll do anything to get back at Hades for imprisoning her here.”

Alex smiled. “That’s crazy enough to actually work.”

“Yeah, but we need to find Persephone’s chambers in the palace first. I think I know where to go. I saw her walk away during the argument earlier.”

We raced the rest of the way. The palace entrance was quiet. Hades was gone, which wasn’t good for us. That probably meant he was with Persephone, guarding Medusa.

“What now?” Alex asked, catching his breath.

I pulled him off to the side and out of view of the judges, not that they really cared that we were there. Their only concern was judging new souls. Still, we ducked behind a pillar. “We need to find Persephone and see if Hades is really with her. He might be somewhere else. We have to know for sure because we don’t have time to waste.”

“I know what you could do,” Chase said, walking around the pillar and facing us. His nose was still crooked, and he had dried blood caked on his face.

“Get out of here!” Alex yelled, shoving Chase in the chest and sending him slamming into the pillar.

“Would you two stop it?” I grabbed Alex’s arm. “We can’t afford to draw attention to ourselves right now.”

“He’s a spy. Hades can see everything he can.” Alex was fuming, and he jabbed his finger in Chase’s chest.

Chase held up his hands, showing he wasn’t going to fight back. That was different for him. “Hades can only see through my eyes when he’s tuned in. He’s not right now.”

“How do you know?” I asked him.

“I can feel it. It’s like he takes control of me.”

I wondered how many things Chase had done since we’d gotten here that weren’t actually his actions, that were Hades’.

Chase focused on me, pleading with me to listen. “You need a power boost. You didn’t fail last time just because you were worried about Alex. You were weak. Splitting your soul took a lot out of you, whether you feel it or not.”

That made sense. Still, this was Chase talking. I couldn’t exactly trust him.

“Take my power. All of it.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “That would kill you.”

“I know.” His voice was soft and low. “I can’t live this way. I was supposed to die a long time ago. If my mom hadn’t bargained for my life, I wouldn’t be alive. She’s dead because of me. Hades took her, and he isn’t going to give her back.” He shrugged. “Let me do this. I owe you all a lot for what I’ve put you through. Let me make up for it—at least some of it.”

This wasn’t just sacrificing himself for the good of the Ophi. He
wanted
to die. “You’d get to be with your mom again.” That was his real endgame.

He smiled. “I can’t fool you. Yes, I do get something out of this. You had to know I would.”

Yes, because he was Chase. He never did anything without getting something in return. “You’re really ready to die?”

“Can you call being Hades’ puppet living? I died a long time ago. I’m just not at peace.”

“What makes you think you will be after the judges get through with you?” Alex asked.

“I guess I don’t know for sure, but I think they might go easy on me, considering my actions weren’t all my own.”

Maybe. Maybe not. I knew the judges were fair. They’d know what to do with Chase. Still, could I go through with this? Could I kill Chase to save Medusa? If I didn’t save her, the rest of us would be dead in no time. I didn’t know how long Bristol could hold off the punishment that was killing my friends.

I looked to Alex, who shook his head. “I’m not making this decision for you. This is your call. I’ll support whatever decision you make.”

He didn’t have to tell me what he wanted me to do. I knew already. He wanted me to take Chase’s power. Alex didn’t care about Chase. No, that wasn’t entirely true. He had very strong feelings for Chase. They just weren’t good feelings.

“Come on, Jodi.” Chase tapped my elbow, which got him a stern look from Alex. “What’s there to think about?”

“A lot. You’re asking me to kill you.”

Chase shrugged. “No big loss, right? You hate me.”

“I don’t—” I stopped myself. Alex would never understand my crazy screwed-up feelings for Chase. Yes, I hated him, but I felt sorry for him, too. It was so screwed up
I
didn’t even understand it. “I don’t want to kill anyone.”

“Hades isn’t with Persephone,” Chase said. Either he had a really good poker face, or he was giving me the reason I needed to go through with this plan.

“Are you sure, or is this just a tactic to get me to end your life for you?”

“You can go check first if you want, but Hades was on his way to Tartarus last I saw him. He wanted to see your friends die.”

Damn it! Bristol would never be able to stall if Hades was overseeing things. I couldn’t go check Persephone’s room. I had to take Chase’s word for it.

Alex ran his hand down my arm. “This is our last chance.”

I nodded and walked over to Chase. “This is what you want? Really? Because there’s no coming back from this.”

“Trust me, you’ll be saving me along with everyone else—if you succeed, that is.” He smirked. Even moments from death, he was taking a little dig at me. Yes, I could still fail, even with Chase’s power. Unless…

“The prophecy.”

Chase and Alex both cocked their heads at me. “What about it?” they both asked, giving each other horrified looks for thinking the same thing.

“Chase, the prophecy about us, we thought it meant we were supposed to destroy the Ophi line, but we were wrong. Medusa told me that prophecies didn’t always mean what we thought they did. They’re tricky. I think this is the true meaning. We’re supposed to join powers to save everyone.”

Chase smiled. “Are you trying to make me go out a hero?”

Alex scoffed. “Not likely.”

No one could call Chase a hero after all he’d done, but he was definitely helping us. “Let’s just say you’re doing a good thing, going out on a high note.”

“Good enough for me.” He reached for my hands, but Alex stepped between us.