Face of Death

Chapter 18

We had two options. Bolt out of here, looking totally guilty and drawing suspicion, which meant I wouldn’t get to talk to Mason, or make this guy into the bad guy by accusing him of trying to freak us out. I was going with option two.

I twisted my face into a horrified expression. “Do you think this is funny? How dare you come up to us and say these things? We’re just trying to have a good time here.”

Matt suddenly found the ability to speak again. “Yeah, go away, before I get your ass tossed out of here.”

The guy glared at us with such contempt. “I don’t know how you did it. Did you stage the accident? Was it because your parents objected to you guys getting married?” He wasn’t letting this go.

“I don’t know who you think we are, but I’m Jodi and he’s Tyler. I’m telling you, you’ve got the wrong people. I’m sorry if you’re confused.”

“I’m not confused. We were in the same business classes at Eastern University. I heard all about your accident before I got home for summer break. You guys died in a car crash.”

Crap. He’d gone to school with Brian and Liz, and just our luck, he lived nearby. “Obviously, you lost two people you knew, but we aren’t them.” Since going on the offensive wasn’t working, I figured appealing to his emotions might.

He stared at us for several seconds, not saying a word.

“Look, we need to go. We have an appointment with the owner.” I took Matt’s hand and pulled him toward the back office, leaving the guy gaping after us.

“Wow, I didn’t see that one coming,” Matt said. “Does this mean I can’t stay here, in this town?”

“I don’t know yet. Let’s not jump to any conclusions. You could always dye your hair or something. We’ll figure it out.”

The bar was crazy now, littered with people shouting drink orders over the music. The bartender must not have been able to find me in the crowd after I ran off to help Matt. Maybe that was a good thing. Sneaking back to the office was probably the better way to go. I waited until the bartender had his back to us, and then we ducked down the hallway that led to Mason’s office. I silently thanked Alex for telling me where it was. I’d never actually been in it before.

The door was shut and locked, so I had to knock.

“What?” Mason called from the other side, and by the sound of it, he wasn’t happy about the interruption.

“It’s Jodi, Mason.”

A chair screeched across the floor and hard footsteps followed. The door swung open and Mason glared at me. “This isn’t funny, little girl.”

“Wait.” I held my hands out so he couldn’t slam the door in my face. “Mason, it’s really me. I raised my human soul, and I needed a new body.”

He looked past me at Matt. “Alex?”

Matt lowered his head.

“No. This is my friend Matt. I raised him, too. Look, it’s a long story. Can we please come inside and sit down? I need to talk to you about something. About Carol.” I hoped the mention of his wife would get him to let us in.

He stepped aside without saying a word. I walked past him, taking a seat in front of his desk, and Matt followed, standing next to me.

Mason walked around the desk and sat in his chair. He folded his hands, resting them on the accounting records sprawled out in front of him. He’d kept right on working while his family suffered in Tartarus. I wasn’t sure how he’d managed it. “Tell me. How bad is it?”

“What have you heard?” I needed to know what he knew before I got into the gory details.

He let out an extra-long and loud breath that smelled strongly of coffee. “You raised a bunch of souls from the depths of Tartarus, and Hades came to claim what you had promised him according to the deal you’d made.”

He blamed me for all of this. No wonder he wasn’t happy to see me.

I swallowed hard. “You have to understand that I was set up. Chase was sent to the school by Hades to try to get me to end the Ophi race. Ethan, your own twin brother, helped him do it. They were trying to save Chase’s mom.”

“Charlotte.” The name was barely a whisper on Mason’s lips.

“Yes. I was set up. Hades made that deal with me, the one where I thought I was saving the Ophi, knowing he was going to send Chase after me. Knowing Chase was going to overpower me.”

“You take no responsibility?” Mason raised an accusing eyebrow at me.

“Of course I take responsibility. I’m the Ophi leader. I should’ve figured it out sooner.”

He leaned back in his chair. “I suppose I didn’t help any, agreeing to let Ethan take my place. I should’ve at least told Carol what was going on.”

Yes, he should have, but I wasn’t about to agree to that. I couldn’t risk making him angry when I needed his help.

“Look, we all made mistakes, and now the others are trapped in the underworld. My body’s still there with the Ophi half of my soul.”

“You split your soul.” He nodded. “I didn’t think that was even possible.”

Not what I wanted to hear. He was supposed to know more than me, not less.

“Tony and Arianna talked me through it. Believe me, it wasn’t easy. I have to tune out one part of my soul, and still I see glimpses of the underworld when I fall asleep or when—” Was he ready to hear about how we were being tortured?

“When what?” He leaned forward, almost halfway across his desk. “Is Hades…is he torturing you all?”

I nodded.

“My God. I thought he took your souls to strip your powers, but this is worse.”

“Wait, he can do that? Take our powers?”

“If he takes your souls.”

“But we’re all alive down there.”

He sat back again. “I’d assumed you were dead.”

He thought Carol was dead. That was why he’d moved on. Because he’d thought there was no hope.

“No. We’re all alive. I worked out a deal with Hades to get him to let us work for him in the underworld in exchange for being punished less.”

“Another deal?” He shook his head. “Jodi, when will you learn? Hades doesn’t make deals that don’t benefit him.”

“We’re giving him more time with Persephone. He loves her.”

Mason laughed, not a joyful laugh. More like a “God, Jodi’s an idiot” laugh. “Persephone hates Hades. He’s not using the time to be with her. She’s not even in the underworld right now. This is her allotted time with Demeter. You’ve been played.”

“What do you mean? What do you think he’s doing?”

“I don’t know, but you can be sure it’s not good for the Ophi. You may have cut down on the torture, but you’ve put the rest of us, those of us still here,” he tapped his finger on his desk, “in great danger.”

No. Could I really have walked right into another one of Hades’ traps? My throat closed, and I couldn’t speak. I’d come here for help, but all I’d gotten was more bad news. I was in over my head.

“You think Hades is coming after the Ophi here?” Matt asked.

Mason looked at him, studying him hard. “Who are you, anyway?”

“He’s human. I knew him before all this happened.”

Mason scoffed. “Tell me you’re kidding. Tell me you didn’t bring a human along for the ride.”

“Look.” I stood up. “I came here because I promised the Ophi in the underworld that I’d find a way to free them. I promised Carol. So, you can either decide to keep bashing me for the crappy job I’ve done leading the Ophi, or you can help me save them. Make up your mind fast because you’re wasting my time, and you’re putting Carol through more torture in the process.”

Matt stared at me. “I’ve never seen you like this. When did you get so strong?”

Strong? I was terrified.

“She has to be stronger,” Mason said. “But at least this is a start.” He looked down at his desk. “I need some time to look into this.”

“I want to talk to Medusa, but I don’t know if I can connect with the statue at the school while I’m human. While I look like this. She won’t recognize me.”

“She might kill you is what you mean.” Well, if he wanted to be blunt about it, yes.

“Whoa, you could die?” Matt reached for my arm. “I don’t like this.”

Mason’s eyes traveled back and forth between Matt and me. “Well, this is interesting. Does Alex know about this?”

“Yes, he does. Alex knows Matt.” I left it at that. Mason didn’t need to know the details of my screwed-up love life.

“Like I said, I’ll need some time to look into this. Contact a few people and see if this sort of thing has ever been done before.”

“How much time?” I couldn’t sit around doing nothing while the others suffered, and who knew how badly I was suffering, too? I couldn’t hold off the double vision forever. I might be in agonizing pain when it hit me again.

Mason put his hands on his hips and bit his lip. “A few days at least.”

“We don’t have that long. I can give you twenty-four hours, tops.”

“Jodi—”

“It’s for Carol, Mason. Carol.” I had to make him understand. “You don’t know what Hades is doing to us. She can’t hold on much longer. Can you really make her wait another few days?”

His eyes closed as he took in a deep breath. “Twenty-four hours. I’ll have your answer.”

“Thank you.” I turned and started for the door.

“Jodi,” Mason called after me.

I looked back at him, noticing the worry lines creasing his forehead. “Be careful. The longer you’re human, the more you’ll distance yourself from being Ophi and from the people who care about you.” He glanced at Matt, and I knew exactly what he meant.

I nodded and left the office before he could judge me any more.

Matt rolled his eyes. “He’s a fun guy.”

“He’s under a lot of pressure. We all are.”

“What now? We have twenty-four hours to wait.” He looked toward the dance floor and playfully nudged my elbow.

“I can’t. With everything going on, I can’t dance my cares away. I’m sorry.”

“I understand.” He couldn’t keep the hurt tone from his voice.

Suddenly the lights dimmed, and I felt weak in the knees. My breathing was labored. “Matt.”

He grabbed me as I stumbled forward. Scooping me into his arms, he carried me to the ladies’ room, locked the door behind us, and placed me on the counter by the sink.

“What is it? What’s happening?”

“Tartarus,” I said, before slumping forward on him.

Pain surged through every part of my body. I heard Victoria’s laugh, but the searing heat that was attacking me kept me from seeing anything.

“Time is up!” Hades yelled.

My body slumped to the ground, motionless. Relief washed over me. At least I’d only checked in for the end of the torture session. A dark figured loomed over me as my vision returned. Hades. He stared into my eyes.

“Interesting.” He turned to Victoria and the others who administered our punishment. “Increase their punishment by two hours each day.”

What? We had a deal. “Why?” I managed to choke out.

“Come, come, Jodi Marshall. What kind of fool do you take me for?” Hades laced his fingers in front of him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He leaned down toward me, and the heat coming from his body made me flinch. “You’re a smart girl. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” He disappeared in a swirling cloud of black smoke.

We all got to our feet and walked out of Tartarus. Alex stayed close to me, looking at me like he hadn’t seen me in days, which, considering how time moved down here, was probably true.

“Jodi?”

“It’s me.”

“When did you get back?”

“It happened during the torture. I was pulled out of Serpentarius. I was just talking to Mason, trying to get answers about the statue and connecting to Medusa.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Mason’s going to work on finding out if I can see Medusa without dying.”

“That wasn’t what I meant.”

I knew that. He was worried about me, not how I was doing with the plan. “I’m fine, but what was with Hades just now? Did I miss something?”

Alex lowered his head. “He knows. He knows you’ve split your soul, and he’s increasing the torture until you come back. We’ll all die, Jodi. He’s looked into your eyes a few times, and he saw you weren’t fully here. I’m the only one who knows. He came to me. He’s only letting me talk to you now so I can tell you this. So I can convince you to return.” He stopped walking and kissed my lips. The emotion behind the kiss was overpowering. It ripped my soul apart…again. “Don’t come back. Stay where you are. Be happy. Live the life you could’ve had if you hadn’t come into your powers.”

What? He couldn’t mean that. “Alex, you don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Yes, I do. I love you, Jodi. If this will save you,” he spread his arms out wide, “from all of this, then I want you to do it.”