Stalked by Death

Chapter 29

I couldn’t breathe. My body was frozen in place as I looked at the first guy I ever loved—or could have loved if I hadn’t killed him. I’d never forgiven myself for killing Matt. I had known I was poisonous to him, yet I’d kissed him anyway. I’d given in to my emotions and kissed him, knowing what the consequences would be. Now, he here was. Alive.

He stared at his arms, hands, and legs. He patted his chest, trying to figure out if he was real. I knew the feeling. I wanted to do the same thing.

I shook my head, still in disbelief. “How?” I asked Hades.

“I’m god of the underworld. I can even bring your father back. If you give me what I want.”

“What do you want?”

Hades walked toward me, invading my personal space and making every hair on my body stand on end. “I want you to destroy the Ophi. Choose Matt and your father. You could be happy. The only thing I ask for in return is your promise never to have a child. I don’t want any loopholes left open. The Ophi line ends with you.”

Matt wrinkled his forehead and reached his hand toward me. “Jodi? Where are we? What’s going on? All I remember is being in your backyard, kissing you. Then things got fuzzy.”

Tears streamed down my cheeks. “Oh, Matt, I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I never meant for any of this to happen.”

“Don’t cry. I’m fine.” He took his thumbs and wiped the tears from my cheeks.

“Matt, no!” But I was too late. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he crumpled to the ground. I collapsed with him, my heart torn in two. I’d killed Matt again. Hades had brought him back alive, and I had killed him for the second time.

I looked up at Hades, my blood boiling. “You lied! It’s all a lie!”

Something landed with a loud thud next to me. Alex was clinging to the edge of the crack, trying to pull himself up. While I’d been wrapped up in Matt, he’d jumped over it to get to me.

“Alex!” I grabbed his arms and tried to pull him up, but he was too heavy.

Hades watched, clearly amused.

“Jodi, I can help.” Chase’s voice was weak from poison.

I held on to Alex and stared at Chase. I couldn’t trust him. He’d try to make me kill everyone. But I couldn’t save Alex on my own. I needed help, and Hades wasn’t about to lend me a hand.

“Alex, hold on. I have an idea.”

“He’ll throw me over, Jodi. He’s tricking you.”

“Trust me.” I locked my eyes on his, hoping he’d see how much I cared about him.

He nodded, and his face contorted in pain as I released my grip on his arms and he held on without my help. Leticia and McKenzie shrieked, obviously terrified for Alex. Tony moved like he was going to try to jump the crack and help Alex, but I held my hand up. I couldn’t risk him falling, too.

I went to Chase and gave him only enough power to allow him to stand. “Let me be clear. You’re going to help me, and if you try anything, I’ll dose you with more poison than your body can take. Do you understand me?”

Chase glared at me. He’d obviously been hoping I was dumb enough to believe he was going to help me.

I pushed him over to Alex. Keeping one hand on Chase, ready to transfer my poison if need be, I reached for Alex. Chase grabbed Alex’s other arm, and we pulled him up.

Hades clapped. “How touching.”

I glared at him, wishing more than anything that I could take him on, but I wasn’t stupid. He was a god, and he’d squash me in seconds, if it even took that long.

“This is what you’re protecting?” Hades scoffed in Alex’s direction. “You see, you really would be better off with Chase.”

“Why would I believe anything you say? You lied to me and said I could be with Matt again. You know I can’t be around humans.”

“No, but you can be around Chase.” He walked over to Chase, looking him up and down. “His power is almost as strong as yours. He’s Ophi, so you wouldn’t have to worry about killing him. He’s the closest thing to an equal you are going to find.”

“I’m not taking a consolation prize. I refuse to kill the Ophi.” I stood my ground, but inside, I was shaking.

“Very well. Have it your way. I can’t kill all the Ophi at once, but I can kill those who are right here.” Hades reached his arms out, and the others fell to the ground. All but Chase and me.

“No!” I reached for Alex. He didn’t have a pulse. His heart wasn’t beating. He was dead.

“I will hunt down every Ophi, Jodi Marshall. I will kill them all. Your only chance at saving yourself is to take my deal. It would save me a lot of time if you’d end the Ophi race for me.”

I looked at Chase. He was petrified. I was sure he thought Hades was going to kill him, too.

“Your answer?” Hades crossed his arms. “I don’t have all day, you know.”

Something inside me clicked. My emotions were out of control. I’d never hated someone so much. Hades had taken my father, made me kill Matt again, wiped out every Ophi in the school, and worst of all, he’d taken the guy I loved. I was done. My blood bubbled, and my skin looked like it was transforming. Hades stared at me, obviously surprised by the change in my appearance.

My hair whipped back as I stood. I must have looked insane. That’s how I felt. I reached my arms out and summoned the souls of the Ophi lying on the ground. They came to me willingly, recognizing my power. There were no screams, and I didn’t have to force them back into their bodies. They wanted to come with me. I heard them stirring on the ground, so I turned my attention elsewhere. Somewhere deeper. Tartarus.

Hades’ eyes locked on mine, but he didn’t stop me. He was measuring me. Seeing how much power I actually had. Not even I knew that, but I was going to find out. I didn’t call out to the souls this time. I took them. I ripped them out of there. Hades had said they were evil people when they were alive, so I didn’t feel bad about torturing them this way.

One by one, I forced them into the bodies lying in the graves below us. I hoped the giant crater Hades had created wouldn’t make them all go plummeting back to the underworld. I saw the first set of fingers reach through the ground, and I commanded the soul to go right for Hades. I kept going, ripping souls from Tartarus and turning them on the god who’d tortured them for who knew how many years.

Hades didn’t seem too worried. He stood there watching, mocking my attempt to stand up against him. I worked faster, making the cemetery crawl with zombies, and they all wanted one thing: Hades.

Still, Hades was toying with me instead of taking control of the situation. He wanted to make me suffer.

“Stop her!” Hades commanded Chase. “Destroy her with your power. Make her bend to my will.”

“She’s too strong. I’ve never seen her like this.” Chase kept his distance. Wind whipped around me like a hurricane.

Hades raised his arms, and I expected an attack, but instead he brought a woman from the crack in the ground. I knew instantly that it was Chase’s mother.

“Break through her powers and poison her, or your mother’s soul is mine forever. I’ll see that she suffers in Tartarus for all eternity.”

I kept my focus on controlling the souls. Hades was beating them down and sending them away, but I raised them again. It was an unending cycle, and he was getting pissed. I’d hoped it would make him leave—retreat to the underworld, even if it was out of annoyance rather than fear. But he stayed.

Chase got as close to me as he dared, and he lowered his voice as much as he could with all the wind howling around me. “Jodi, take my hand. Together you and I are strong enough to stop him.”

What? This had to be a trick. He didn’t want to help me defeat Hades. He wanted to get his hands on me so he could poison me.

“Nice try, Chase. Don’t get in my way, or I will take you down.”

“I’m not lying.” His eyes left me and went to his mom. She stood there, bound in place by Hades’ power. “I can’t let him take her again. I have to make it up to her. Please, let me help you.”

Maybe he was desperate to help his mom. Maybe he really did want to defeat Hades. He’d failed Hades, and if he made it through this fight, Hades would kill Chase anyway because he’d failed. I knew it, and Chase knew it. I couldn’t trust him. As much as I wanted to save all the Ophi, this wasn’t the way to do it. Even if Chase was serious about helping me, our combined powers still weren’t enough to defeat a god.

“I’m sorry, Chase. I feel bad about your mom, but I’ve made my choice, and it’s not you.” I reached my hand out and hit him with a dose of poison. I couldn’t risk him doing the same to me. I knew it was wrong, but it was a poison or be poisoned situation. I wasn’t dying at Chase’s hands. If I was going down, it would be Hades’ doing.

“Wrong choice, Jodi Marshall.” Hades let out a yell, and the ground opened wider, crumbling beneath our feet.

I couldn’t maintain focus on the souls. I stopped controlling them and tried to grab onto something, anything. Alex was next to me, and we reached for each other’s hands as we plummeted into the black abyss.

The fall went on for what seemed like forever. I caught glimpses of the others. The Ophi, the zombies. Everyone was falling. Everyone was screaming in terror. The only one I didn’t see was Hades. He was already where we were going to end up. The underworld.

I’d made my choice. According to Hades, it was the wrong choice. He couldn’t let me go after that. I was a threat to him, and he wasn’t having it. I clutched Alex, silently communicating an apology. I’d put him through hell these past few months. I didn’t deserve him. Even just in the past hour, he’d had to see me with my human ex-boyfriend, who I clearly had unresolved feelings for. He should’ve hated me, but the look in his eyes said he still loved me.

I looked around, trying to get my bearings and remember what we were passing on our way to the underworld, but Hades had us surrounded in a black cloud of smoke. It carried us over the River Styx, which was barely visible through the smoke, and finally we fell at the gate to the underworld.

The zombies were obviously back under Hades’ control because they got up and walked past the three-headed dog that guarded the gates and headed back to Tartartus. Leticia and McKenzie gasped and backed away from the dog as Hades appeared from behind him.

“Welcome to my world.” He gave us a malicious smile and patted one of the dog’s heads. “This is Cerberus. Normally, you’d be judged to determine if you belong in the Elysian Fields, the Fields of Asphodel, or Tartarus, but I already know where you’re all going.”

I guessed the Elysian Fields were where the good people went. Not people like us. Cerberus stepped aside so we could pass, but no one moved.

“We’re not going there with you,” I said.

Hades laughed. “How amusing that you think you have a choice.” He stepped forward and got in my face. “You’re on my turf now, Jodi Marshall. We play by my rules.”

Everyone looked at me, their leader. Only I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know much about the underworld. Tony did, but I couldn’t exactly ask Hades to hold on while I had a chat with Tony to figure out how to get us out of here.

I did the only thing I could. I closed my eyes and mixed my blood, trying to summon Medusa’s spirit. She’d been in the underworld before. She might be able to help us get out of it. I knew Hades wouldn’t just stand there and let me do this, so I pretended to faint. I fell to the ground.

Panicked voices were all around me, including Alex’s, but I tuned them out. I focused only on Medusa and calling her to me.

Her image appeared in my mind, but she looked lost. “Jodi, where are you?”

“In the underworld. Hades took us all.”

“I felt a shift in the Ophi power. I knew you were in trouble.”

“Is there anything you can do to help us?”

“That depends where you are. Did you cross the River Styx?”

“Yes. We’re at the gate to the underworld, and Hades is going to take us to Tartarus.”

Medusa hung her head, giving me a good view of her snakes. Right now they didn’t seem so bad. I was sure they were nothing compared to what I was going to see in Tartarus. “Jodi, I cannot help you.”

“Are you sure? There’s nothing at all you can do?”

“I’m bound to this statue. You’re lucky I can even access your mind in the underworld. If my blood was not in your veins, I wouldn’t be able to.”

It was over. I’d sentenced us all to eternity in the underworld. I’d failed. Hades was getting what he wanted.

“I’m sorry,” Medusa said before her image disappeared.

I opened my eyes. Alex sighed, relieved to see I was okay. But how could I be okay? We were trapped. Worse than dead.

“Enough stalling,” Hades said. “Follow me.”

It was like we didn’t have a will of our own anymore. Our legs moved, and we stared at them like they were completely foreign to us. This must be how the souls I forced into the wrong bodies felt. Hades had found the perfect punishment for a necromancer. Torture us the way we tortured souls.

“On your right, you’ll see the Fields of Asphodel,” Hades said in a “bad tour guide” kind of voice. He laughed at his joke. “This is all you will see of this place. The souls here walk around basically clueless. Not happy, not in pain. Just existing.” He turned and looked at me. “Not at all the right punishment for you.”

We walked on, helpless against the power that was moving our bodies for us. I tried to mix my blood and use my own power to regain control, but I couldn’t. My blood was no match for Hades. Like he’d said, I was in his world now.

I caught a glimpse of a few souls wandering through Asphodel. I never thought I’d envy someone doomed to an eternity like that, but right now I did. Alex reached for my hand and laced his fingers through mine. Hades either didn’t notice or didn’t care. He continued to march us on.

Hades stopped when we reached an iron gate with what looked like a black pit inside it. No, not a pit. It was a portal. I remembered Tony teaching us about it. The entrance to Tartarus was a portal. All around the entrance, it was pitch black, darker than anything I’d ever seen. It was like someone had taken the black of night and multiplied it. And beyond that was fire. Flames that seemed to flow like a river. Hades gave us a minute to take it all in before turning to us and smiling. “This is where you will stay. I consider it my own maximum-security prison. Only my true enemies, and people who’ve committed horrific crimes, wind up here.” He looked around the group, his eyes lingering when they reached me. “You all will fit in perfectly.”

I wanted to run, but we were surrounded by the flames.

Hades saw me staring at them. “Ah, yes, you are well guarded by Phlegethon, the river of fire. You wouldn’t get past the flames and clashing rocks, so don’t even try.”

He motioned us forward through the enormous portal. Tony’s eyes widened at the pillars surrounding us. “Not even the gods could break through these.”

Not what I needed to hear right now, Tony.

The darkness consumed us. I wasn’t sure how we’d even find our way into Tartarus, but Hades held out his hand and a flame flickered in his palm. The fire illuminated the path. The walls were bronze and cold-looking. I’d expected to see hellfire and souls being burned, but this place was cold, unfeeling. This was the level of Tartarus where I’d raised most of the souls from—the ones who were buried in the cemetery at the school. Not quite the depths or level of torture we were walking into. Considering how awful those zombies had been, I couldn’t even imagine what was waiting for us.

Gut-wrenching screams filled the air. Leticia and McKenzie were in tears. Neither one of them had an ounce of evil in them. They shouldn’t be here.

“Hades.” I tried to stop my legs from moving, but failed miserably.

He turned, and we all came to a halt.

“Oh, is this the part where you beg for forgiveness?” He smirked. “Go ahead then.”

He was enjoying this. Enjoying our pain. He really did hate us. There was no point in arguing or trying to convince him to let us go. I was going to have to find another way to get us all out of the underworld. According to Tony’s lessons about this place, it was nearly impossible to leave. My hopes weren’t high, but I had to try.

“No?” Hades asked. “Well, then, if you’ve had a change of heart, let’s proceed.” He looked between Alex and me and smiled. “I believe you’ll recognize a few faces here.”

Oh, God! I’d completely forgotten. I’d sentenced Alex’s parents and the other Ophi who’d turned evil to an eternity as Hades’ slaves. They were here. They were the ones punishing the souls for Hades, and now they would be punishing us.

We came to a place where the light was better and we could actually see more than two feet in front of us. Hellhounds gnawed on souls, tearing them to shreds only to have the souls put back together and be put through that torture again. Leticia bent over and threw up, which started a domino effect with the others. I was too terrified to join them. I stared at the most frightening thing I’d ever seen.

The Ophi I’d banished stood in a group. Victoria, Troy, and Abby were at the front, wearing wicked smiles. They would enjoy torturing all of us. Me especially. How was I going to get us out of here? These guys were going to cause me so much pain I wouldn’t even be able to think.

Abby put her hands on her hips. “Well, this should be fun.”