Kelly Hashway: Stalked by Death

“My dad was buried here.” I felt tears in my eyes. “What did he do wrong? He deserved better. And none of this explains why you hate

Ophi.”

Hades smirked. “What is an Ophi’s power, Jodi?”

I rolled my eyes. He was treating me like a child. “Raising the dead.”

“When was the last time anyone with a shred of humanity considered that a good thing?” He reached up and touched my face. “You are as evil as the people in these graves. You torture souls.” He smacked my cheek, not hard but enough to show his disapproval. “The only reason why I didn’t come after this school sooner was because you were raising souls that deserved to be punished. Others weren’t doing the same, so I claimed them.”

“The group in Washington?”

“Yes. Still think I’m the bad guy?”

“Yes,” I said, being completely honest. “You killed Chase’s mother. Fine, she did some awful things. I get that. You did your job and punished her, but then you made a deal with Chase. You wanted him to use his powers to help me destroy all the Ophi.”

“Yes, yes, and yes.”

“What made you think your plan would work? You knew I was with Alex. You saw us together.”

Hades laughed and stared at Chase, still on the ground and suffering from the poison I’d given him. “Girls always go for the bad boys.”

Chase was the bad boy. He was everything Alex wasn’t. Sure, Alex had a little bad boy in him. I’d seen that side of him, but he was also really sweet once you got past the wall he put up. Medusa seemed to think Chase might have been different before his mom died. Before he made the deal with Hades.

I avoided Hades’ eyes and focused on Chase. “Why did you do it? Why did you agree to help him? Did he threaten you?”

Hades laughed again. “Always blaming me, aren’t you, Jodi Marshall?” He walked over to Chase, and the contempt he felt for him was written all over his face. “This one, he was evil from the start. He knew his powers were greater than other Ophi. With the exception of you.” He turned to me. “Chase was jealous of your power. It was all his parents ever talked about. Isn’t that right, Ethan?”

Ethan turned away.

“That’s why your son hated you. You pushed him, forced him to use more power than he should have. Tried to make him be more like Jodi. But that backfired, didn’t it?”

“Backfired how?” I asked, since Ethan wasn’t talking.

“It was Chase I came for that day, not Charlotte, but she begged me to give him a second chance. To let him prove he could be of use to me.” Hades bent down, getting in Chase’s face. “Your mother begged for your life, putting hers up in exchange, and you let her do it. You took my deal without hesitation.”

“No.” I couldn’t believe it. Chase had seemed tortured over losing his mother. How could he be the reason Hades took her? “Chase, what really happened?”

He was still too weak to move or talk, so I walked over and gave him a dose of my power to heal him.

“Talk!” I demanded.

Chase staggered to his feet, looking at Hades and ignoring me. “I did everything you told me to. You said you’d give her back to me.”

My stomach lurched. “You did all this to get your mom back?” I whipped my head toward Hades. “You only took her temporarily?”

“That depended on whether Chase succeeded. Which he did not.” He motioned to the others. “They are still alive.”

“They died. It worked. I did what you said.” Chase was desperate, grasping for a loophole.

That’s when I realized Hades never set up a deal he couldn’t win.

“We’ll do it again,” Chase said.

“Like hell we will!” I’d had it. Chase might be trying to save his mom, but I wasn’t going to let him kill everyone else to do it. I shoved him, letting a dose of poison knock him back to the ground. If it were my mom on the line, I wouldn’t have given up, either. I was sure that was something Chase and I had in common. I had to eliminate him as a threat, and poisoning him was the only way I knew how.

“Perhaps I can persuade you otherwise.” Hades raised his arms out to his sides and a figure rose from the crack in the earth.

Matt. I stared, nearly collapsing. He was himself again. Not a corpse. Not a zombie.

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.