Touch of Death (23 page)

“Listen, you maggot-ridden corpse, that is my room, and I’ll go in it whenever I—”

“Abigail!” Victoria’s voice boomed. “What is going on here?”

“This thing won’t let me in my room. I came upstairs to get something before my lesson, and he was standing here like a guard dog or something. When I told him to move, he said he couldn’t allow me to go inside.”

No one said anything for a moment, but I knew it wouldn’t take long for Victoria to figure things out. I had to hide. There wasn’t enough room under the bed, so I was going to have to be cliché and hide in the closet. I turned toward the nightstand to turn off the lamp, when I saw something peeking out from underneath. I ran over, feeling under the surface. My locket! Abby had it taped to the underside of her nightstand, but the chain was dangling down just enough to see. I yanked it free as Victoria said, “Someone’s controlling him.”

“They’re all under someone’s control,” Abby said.

“No!” Victoria snapped. “Someone else is controlling him. Someone who isn’t me or Troy.”

I ran for the closet and ducked inside. I squeezed into the corner behind some dresses and dragged the duffel bag on top of my feet. Then I shut the door. Victoria and Abby’s voices were muffled now, but I heard Victoria command the servant to step aside. She said something about him not following orders from anyone but her. Great! I made a mental note that this particular servant wasn’t going to do me any good from here on out. I hoped Victoria wasn’t planning on going back to the other servants and telling them the same thing. If she was smart, she would’ve, but I was hoping against it.

I heard a key in the lock and then Abby’s voice. “It’s about time. I’m going to be late for my lesson now thanks to that—” She stopped talking, and I realized why. I’d been so excited to find my locket that I’d forgotten to turn off the lamp.

“Is something wrong, Abby?” Victoria asked.

“N-no, nothing. I guess I left this light on.” The lamp clicked off. Through the slatted groves in the closet door, I could see Abby reach a hand under the nightstand. She was making sure to block Victoria’s view. Her nostrils flared, and she gritted her teeth when her hand came back up empty.

“Get whatever it is you need, Abigail. You’re late enough as it is.”

“Yes, Victoria.” Abby went over to her desk and grabbed a book. Victoria motioned for Abby to follow her, but Abby stopped and stared right at the closet. She knew, but there was nothing she could do about it with Victoria ushering her out of her own room. After she left, I waited ten seconds before coming out of my hiding place. I had to make sure they would be down the hall, but if I waited too long, Abby might lose Victoria and double back, trying to trap me. I put the locket around my neck, shoving it beneath my shirt, and rushed out of there.

I headed straight upstairs and to the last classroom on the left. I spotted Abby in the room right before mine. I paused. She was telling a woman that she got held up by one of the servants. “Victoria can vouch for me,” she said, as if she and Victoria were close. She turned on her heels and headed to her seat, but saw me in the process and glared. I simply smiled and waved before entering my own classroom.

“Jodi,” Mr. Quim—Tony—said, “always late.”

“Sorry.” I took an empty seat. There were only two other people in the class, a boy and a girl. “I haven’t been here long, and I keep getting confused. All the hallways look the same to me.”

“Perhaps when you get to training today, you can ask Troy to teach you how to command the servants to draw you a map.”

“Troy?” I was more than a little surprised to hear his name. “Troy teaches?”

“Of course. He’s very powerful. What better Ophi to teach you to use your powers?”

I smiled, trying to act like Troy didn’t scare me. There was something eerie about him. He didn’t say much. In fact, he sort of watched while Victoria took the reins. Then, I remembered the story Alex had told me about his field trip to the park. Somehow, I knew Troy had been the instructor who’d gone with Alex.

“Now,” Mr. Quim—Tony—said, “let’s get moving with today’s lesson.” He went to the laptop at the back of the room, and in seconds an image was projected onto the screen in front of me. I gasped. Really loudly. It was an image of my locket.

“Jodi, are you okay?” Tony asked.

“Um, yeah. I think a bug flew in my mouth.” The girl sitting next to me scrunched up her face in disgust. “I know, right?” I said, trying to act normal.

“All right then,” Tony continued. “Does anyone know what this is?”

There was a knock on the door, and I looked up to see Abby. “Selena told me to join your class today since I was late to my own lesson.” She turned and glared at me. “Apparently, I missed important instructions that she couldn’t be bothered to repeat. So, here I am.”

“Take a seat, Abby. We were just getting started.”

Abby walked past me, knocking her book into the side of my head. “Oh, Jodi!” She put her hand to her mouth in mock horror. “I’m so sorry. I hope that didn’t hurt too much.”

I gritted my teeth against the pain. “Not at all.” I could deal with Abby’s little stunt because the second she saw the image on the screen, she’d be the one in pain. She smirked and sat down. I continued to watch her. Her eyes flickered toward the screen, and her hands clenched the edges of her desk.

“That’s—”

“Yes, Abby?” Tony said. “Do you know what this is?”

She looked at me, and I smiled. “Please, tell us, Abby.”

“I-I don’t know.” She shook her hair behind her shoulders, and I could actually see her confidence returning. “I was just surprised at how hideous it is. I mean who would wear something so ugly? Only a complete loser.” Her eyes burned into me.

Tony cleared his throat. “Actually, Abby, what you’re seeing is the bloodstone locket worn by Medusa herself.”

I was glad Abby and I were still locked in a stare-down because I got to see the look of horror on her face.

“Medusa?” she croaked.

“That’s right,” Tony said. “Um, Jodi, eyes on the screen, please.” I nodded and turned my attention back to the front of the room. “The bloodstone locket is the only one of its kind. It’s rumored to hold a concentrated combination of Medusa’s blood. Both the poison and the blood used for restoration of the dead are blended inside this locket. As you are all aware, Ophi must shed their blood, tears, saliva, or sweat to tap into these powers that Medusa bestowed upon us. But Medusa herself did not need to do any of these things. She could simply call upon both sides of her blood to become one and perform any number of miraculous feats.”

“You mean she could mix her blood right inside her body?” I turned in my seat so I could see Tony.

“Yes. She described it once as feeling like her blood bubbled throughout her body, combining the powers of both sides.” My jaw nearly hit the floor. Bubbling throughout her body? That was exactly how I’d felt ever since I joined my hands with the Medusa statue.

“Is this what we’ll learn to do?” I didn’t want to mention that I’d already dabbled in this.

Tony laughed. “No, no, no. Ophi can’t perform this feat. It was reserved for Medusa alone.” More like Medusa and her bloodline. She’d passed this gift on to me.

“What else could she do?” I needed to know more.

“She could release souls from their bodies, which you all will learn to do when you come of age. Most of you know that skill doesn’t set in until you turn eighteen.”

“But Jodi can already do that,” the girl next to me said.

I whipped my head in her direction. I’d almost forgotten Victoria’s little speech at dinner. She’d told everyone about what I did in the cemetery.

“Yeah,” the guy behind her said. “Leticia and I heard Troy command the servants to bury the body lying in the graveyard before lessons this morning.”

Tony stared at me. “Jodi, is this true?”

I nodded. “But Alex told me how to do it.”

“Still, you shouldn’t have that kind of power at your age.”

“She has something else she shouldn’t have,” Abby said. “She has Medusa’s locket.”

I nearly fell out of my chair. Why would Abby out me like that? I knew she hated me, but why would she draw attention to the fact that I had Medusa’s locket? Unless she knew they’d take it away from me. That couldn’t happen.

I shook my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Instinctively, I lowered my chin, hoping no one could see the gold chain around my neck. My shirt came up pretty high, and I hoped it was enough to conceal the locket.

“Really?” Abby said. “It wasn’t you who snuck into my room and stole the locket from under my nightstand? It wasn’t you who commanded that disgusting servant to keep me from going into my own room and made me late for class? Cause I could’ve sworn that was you hiding in my closet to avoid getting caught by Victoria.”

I stood up, not sure what I was going to do. I never expected Abby to blurt everything out like that, and she’d done it in a way that made me look like the bad guy.

“Why don’t you show us what you have stuffed under your shirt, Jodi?” Abby continued. “Oh, and I don’t mean the toilet paper you use to stuff your bra.”

“I don’t stuff my—oh, forget it! This is ridiculous!”

“Jodi,” Tony said, “that locket disappeared when Medusa died. According to prophecy, it would reappear to one in Medusa’s bloodline. One who would have the power to mix their blood like Medusa did. One who would be more powerful than all the Ophi.” He stepped forward, stopping only feet in front of me. “Did the locket appear to you?”

Abby jumped to her feet. “No, it appeared to me, and she stole it!”

“Whatever, Abby,” the guy sitting behind Leticia said. I really had to learn everyone’s names. “Like anyone would believe Medusa would pass her locket down to you.”

“And why not?” Abby snarled.

“Because you’re no better than the rest of us,” Leticia said.

“You wish, Leticia!” Abby stuck her foot out, showing off her designer boots. “Where’d you get your shoes? Wal-Mart?”

“Okay, girls, that’s enough,” Tony said. “Abby, there’s no need to insult anyone. I’m sure Leticia didn’t mean anything bad by her comment. She was simply pointing out that we are all equals here.”

“Not all of us,” the other guy said.

“Well, Randy, I guess you’re right.” Tony looked at me again. “Jodi, do you have the bloodstone locket on you right now?”

What could I do? I reached inside my shirt and pulled the locket out. “It appeared to me on my first night here. But then
someone,”
I paused to glare at Abby, “stole it from my bathroom while I was showering.”

“Ah,” Tony said, suddenly understanding everything. “Abby, I think we need to have a little talk about personal privacy soon.”

But no one was really paying much attention to Tony. They were all focused on the bloodstone locket around my neck. All including Abby, and for once, I was glad I wasn’t like everyone else.

Chapter 22

Tony spent the rest of the lesson talking about how special the locket was and what this meant for Ophi everywhere. It quickly got a little overwhelming. Suddenly, Leticia and Randy were treating me like I was royalty. They offered to help me train and even write my papers. Which, hello, papers? This was a little too much like real school. After Abby got over the initial intrigue of the necklace, she sulked in her seat until Tony dismissed us for lunch. I couldn’t believe I’d been there for hours. Everyone had been so focused on the locket and how special I was. They’d asked me questions about my powers and wanted to know everything about me. I’d gone from the new girl to Little Miss Popular in two seconds flat.

By the time I got downstairs for lunch, everyone was talking about me. Victoria rushed over and put her hands on my cheeks. “Oh, Jodi, darling, why didn’t you tell me? This is wonderful news. Even better than we could’ve hoped for. I mean we all knew you were special, being the one in the prophecy and all, but this! This is simply fantastic.” I didn’t know what to say, so I smiled and took my seat next to Alex.

“So, busy morning, huh?” His eyes lowered. “Nice necklace. I thought you put that back in your dresser where you found it.” I detected a hurt tone in his voice, like he thought I’d purposely kept this from him, which I had.

“Sorry, it was just so bizarre. I felt like the locket belonged to me, and that didn’t make any sense at all. I wasn’t sure you’d understand.”

“Oh.” He shoveled mac and cheese into his mouth.

“And then Abby stole the necklace from me while I was in the shower. She used that little key of hers and helped herself. Can you believe that?” I hoped by changing the subject to Abby, he’d forget I’d hidden this from him. I looked around for Abby. She wasn’t in her usual seat next to Alex; in fact, she wasn’t in the dining room at all. For a moment, I worried she was in my room stealing something as payback for taking my locket back, but I didn’t have anything else worth stealing. Unless she wanted my push-up bra.

“Is that what was wrong? You seemed so riled up and angry at Abby when I brought you your food. I thought you were kind of stuck up or something. Like you thought you were better than her.”

“What? No! I was upset about my locket.”