Kelly Hashway - Face of Death

Leticia squeezed me even harder, terrified of Abby and the torture she could inflict upon us.

Arianna looked at her daughter with nothing but disappointment in her eyes. “Abigail, this doesn’t concern you.”

“Mother, didn’t you miss me? I asked Hades if I could spend a little extra time with you. You know, to make up for all the time we lost when you shipped me off to the school and dismissed me as Victoria and Troy’s problem.” Abby was trying to maintain her composure, but I could see her fingers trembling. I remembered how much it hurt her that her own family had abandoned her. But I also knew Arianna had been trying to scare Abby into changing. It was a tough-love kind of situation—a last effort to show her how dangerous it was for her to crave power the way she did. That was the difference between the Ophi at the school and the Ophi at Serpentarius. The ones at the school actively used their powers. The ones at the Serpentarius were Ophi more in theory. They didn’t believe in using their blood to raise the dead.

I pulled myself free from Leticia and stepped toward Abby, letting her know I wasn’t afraid of her. “What do you want?”

“Hades sent me to get all of you. It’s time to return to Tartarus.”

How long had we been in the Fields? It hadn’t seemed long at all. Definitely not as long as we’d been in Tartarus.

Leticia sobbed. “I can’t go back there.”

Abby grinned, enjoying this way too much. “You don’t have a choice.”

“Fine.” I crossed my arms in front of me. “We’ll go, but not with you.”

Abby cocked her head to the side. “I don’t think you understand how this works. I have control over you now. This isn’t your little school, Jodi.”

“No, it’s not. It’s the underworld, where you’re a prisoner, too.”

Abby laughed. “Really? Because the last time I checked, I wasn’t the one being tortured twenty hours a day.”

Twenty hours? That was how long we’d been in Tartarus? Hades was only giving us a four-hour break each day? It struck me for the first time that we hadn’t slept since we got here. Apparently, sleep didn’t matter in the underworld, because I wasn’t tired.

“You’re still a prisoner.” I managed to find my voice at last. “You aren’t free to do whatever you’d like. You’re following orders.”

“Do you really want to play ‘sucks to be you’? I mean, even a simpleton like Leticia can see that you got the short stick.”

Now I was really pissed. Leticia was definitely not dumb. She was one of the smartest Ophi I knew. She just didn’t like raising souls, and it interfered with her ability to control them. “For your information, Leticia was smarter as a toddler than you’ll ever be. And if you think for a second that you have a good thing going on here, you’re even stupider than I thought. You’re Hades’ servant.” I got right in her face, knowing she couldn’t hurt me right now. At least not the same way she’d tortured us in Tartarus. Not here in the Fields of Asphodel. This wasn’t a place of violence. It was a place of indifference. “If you disrupt Hades’ balance in this place, you’ll be joining us in Tartarus, and not as the one doing the punishing.” I had no idea if that was true. Nothing had happened when Alex attacked Chase, but Abby didn’t know that.

Leticia took a step toward Abby. “Yeah.” It was probably the worst attempt at sounding tough, but I was proud of her anyway. For once, she wasn’t cowering or shying away from Abby.

“Now, go find Hades. Tell him if he wants us back in the pit, he can come get us himself.” It was a gutsy move, making demands of Hades, but I wasn’t about to give Abby the satisfaction of leading us back to Tartarus.

The others stared at Abby, obviously agreeing with me. Tony even waved her on.

Abby glared at me. “Suit yourself, but I’ll be seeing you soon, and I will make you all pay for this little stunt.”

She turned and walked away, leaving us to count the minutes, maybe only seconds, until Hades descended on us and took us back to Tartarus.

Hades was a burning pit of rage. His black cloud of smoke swirled around us, scooping us into the air with him and spinning us around until we couldn’t breathe. As the smoke swirled faster, it got hotter, transforming into an abyss of fire. My skin bubbled and cracked. He was burning us alive.

After a while, I realized we weren’t spinning anymore. We weren’t moving at all. I opened my eyes and saw we were back in Tartarus.

Abby’s face stared down at me. “Told you I’d see you soon.”

I looked around, finding the others not far from me.

Alex stared at his hands and arms. “We were burning.”

“Yes.” Hades paced in front of us. “I took that one from a page in the Jodi Marshall death register. Can you guess which one?” He stopped in front of me.

I knew who he was talking about. The hiker who had tried to rescue me from Melodie’s car after I’d stolen it and crashed it into a tree on my way back to the school.

“He was only trying to help you. Save the poor young girl locked inside a car that was moments from bursting into flame.” Hades’ voice was overly dramatic as he played up the memory— my memory. “If only he knew what he was trying to help. A monster. An abomination. Do you think he would’ve helped you if he had known the truth? If he had known how many deaths you were responsible for? If he had known you’d soon be the death of him, too?”

“Stop!” Alex got to his feet, but Hades knocked him down again with a simple wave of his hand.

“Boy, don’t make me kill you. I have so much more torture planned for you, and if my emotions get the best of me and I get rid of you now, I’ll miss out on seeing you suffer.”

“Leave him out of this.” I stood up, waiting to see if Hades would knock me off my feet too, but he let me stand. “Why are you making them suffer through a death I caused?”

“Because, my dear,” he stepped closer, leaning toward me, “I can.” His hot breath on my face sent chills running down my body. Hades stepped back. “I think you all should know the kind of person your leader is. She could’ve sent that hiker away, found a way out of the car without his help.”

“I tried!” I screamed. “He wouldn’t listen. I made him back off, but I got stuck on the broken glass on the window. It cut my leg, and he rushed over to help me. I tried to tell him not to touch me, but he wouldn’t stop.” Tears streamed down my face as I recalled the incident in the woods.

“Ah, yes, but it didn’t end there, did it?” Hades’ voice bellowed through the abyss. “You left his body there to burn when the car exploded in flames. You didn’t even try to raise him.”

“I couldn’t! It happened so fast. He was burned before I could get to him.” I couldn’t fight off the tears. I sank to my knees.

“Let’s see if that was true.”

I opened my eyes at Hades’ words. What was he talking about?

“Let’s rewind. Go back to the moment your blood touched his hand. It was his right hand, if I’m remembering correctly.”

At the words, I felt a searing pain in my right hand. Cries of pain rang out all around me. The rest of the group felt it, too. The pain exploded up my arm, shooting through my bloodstream. My heart seized, and I collapsed on the floor. I heard everyone else fall to the ground as well.

“This is my favorite part,” Hades said. I felt him leaning over me. “He wasn’t dead yet when the car exploded in flames.” What? No! “He felt his flesh bubble and burn off him.” God, please no! “Tell me, how does it feel?”

I screamed as every inch of me burned. Invisible flames licked at my skin. I knew it wasn’t really happening, but the pain was unbearable. My eyes shut, blocking out the sight of my bubbled flesh.