“Get Carson!” I yelled to anyone who would listen. Chase finally snapped out of his trance and went for Carson. I tuned out the room and focused on Randy’s soul. I reached out for it. But this time, instead of forcing it back inside Randy’s dying body, I faced it head on and pleaded. “Don’t go, Randy. Please. I’m getting help. Stay with me while Carson finds a way to stop the bleeding. Please!” I felt warm blood drip from my nose and ears. Holding Randy’s soul was killing me.

Hands were on my shoulders, pulling me away from Randy. I figured it was Carson, trying to move me so he could save Randy. I reached for Randy’s hands, not wanting to break the connection and lose his soul, but the person holding my shoulders continued to pull me back. Randy’s soul slipped away from me. I couldn’t hold on, not with someone tugging me away from him.

“Stop!” I yelled, commanding both the soul and the person pulling me away. Neither listened. Blood spilled down my cheeks as I fought against them, and then I felt an arm around my neck. Someone yanked me back, and Randy’s hands were torn from mine. His soul drifted away from me. He was gone. Dead. And I couldn’t bring him back.

Leticia was crying next to me. I couldn’t see her through all the blood blurring my vision, but I recognized her sobs. Arianna was shushing her, saying, “He’s at peace now, honey. He’s at peace.”

But he wasn’t. He was with Hades. I knew it. Hades didn’t let Ophi souls rest in peace. They had too much power. Power he wanted. I sat myself up, wobbling in the process.

“Take it easy,” Chase said. I was in his lap. He was the one who’d pulled me away from Randy.

“You? You stopped me?” I blinked the blood from my eyes and turned to face him. He looked horrified, and I realized it was because I was bleeding from all parts of my face.

“You need to lie down.” He reached out like he was going to carry me to my room.

“No!” I swatted at him and stumbled backward into the couch. I used it to help me to my feet.

“Jodi,” Arianna said. “Chase is only trying to help you.”

“Is everyone okay in here?” Tony came toward us, rubbing his head. No doubt because he had a massive headache from his tumble.

“Are you okay?” I asked. “I saw you fall down the stairs.”

“I’m not exactly up for a few rounds in the ring, but I’ll live. Thanks to you and Medusa.”

I swallowed hard. How did I tell him—and everyone else—I thought it was my powers that had killed them in the first place? I couldn’t. They’d hate me. They’d turn me over to Hades before I could wash the blood from my face.

“Randy,” I choked out, changing the subject. “I couldn’t—his soul wouldn’t hold on.”

Arianna let go of Leticia and came to me. “Carson did everything he could, but the corpse…his bite was too big to repair.”

Carson stepped closer to me. “One of Randy’s smaller arteries was severed. I didn’t have the medical equipment needed to save him.”

“Then get it!” Leticia yelled.

“It wouldn’t matter now,” Chase said, and it was the first time I saw him look sympathetic toward anyone here besides me.

“Why not? We can get the equipment Carson needs and bring Randy back,” Leticia said. “Jodi can do it, can’t she?” She sobbed when Carson shook his head.

I didn’t want to break down and cry like a baby in front of everyone. I was supposed to be the leader. The strong one. But the look on Leticia’s face when she realized I couldn’t help Randy was too much.

“Leticia, I—”

She turned and ran upstairs. I knew in that moment she hated me. I was the one who had gotten Randy hurt. If I had stopped that zombie, Randy wouldn’t have been bitten. This was all my fault.

Tony went over to the couch. “Chase, will you help me move Randy? We can bury him in the mausoleum. There are some empty caskets in there.”

“Sure, but can I help Jodi first? I’d like to take her to her room and help her get cleaned up.”

“No,” I said. “Randy should be our top priority. I’ll help you both.”

“No way, Jodi.” Chase grabbed me by my shoulders. “You need rest. You drained a lot of your powers.”

“Chase is right,” Arianna said. “Why don’t you go upstairs and take a nice warm bath? We can take care of Randy.”

“A warm bath sounds like Heaven right about now,” Lexi said. I’d forgotten she was even here.

“Your bathroom doesn’t have a tub,” I said to her.

“Yours does, and I’m sure my fearless leader would be more than happy to accommodate me.” She gave me a wicked smile and started to walk away, but Arianna grabbed her roughly by the arm.

“Lexi, you’re fine. Jodi is the one who needs the hot bath, so I suggest you go to your own room for the time being. I’ll be up to check on Jodi shortly, and if I find you anywhere near her bathroom, taking what she needs, I’ll have you back at Serpentarius before sundown.”

Lexi glared at Arianna and shook her arm free. “Whatever you say, Mother.”

My heart stopped. Mother? No way. Lexi couldn’t be Arianna’s daughter. That would mean Abby was Arianna’s daughter, too.

Lexi stomped upstairs as I stared at Arianna, waiting for her to tell me it wasn’t true. She looked at me and sighed.

“Not all Ophi are good, Jodi. Sometime we fall for the wrong ones.”

So Arianna had fallen for a bad Ophi? An evil guy who passed his evil qualities down to their twin daughters? I grabbed my head, putting my hands over my ears. My palms stuck to the partially dried blood trailing down the sides of my face. “You sent Abby away. It nearly killed her—made her evil.”

Arianna sighed. “She was obsessed with power and proving herself. I thought sending her to Troy and Victoria might scare her out of it. But when her letters arrived and all she talked about was how great it was not to hold back her power, I knew I’d lost her.”

“So, you stopped reading the letters and returned them unopened.” I remembered the drawer full of letters Abby had kept.

“I thought if she knew how upset I was…maybe she’d come home.” Arianna nodded to Chase, unable to continue talking about Abby. “On second thought, you take Jodi upstairs. Run her a bath and then wait for her in her room. Keep Lexi away from her.”

“Sure thing.” Chase took my arm, but this time my blood didn’t react. I stared at his hand on me, wondering why his touch was different now. He leaned down and whispered, “Don’t worry. I’m not using my powers.”

He’d been doing that on purpose?! I thought it was the way our blood naturally reacted to each other, but it had been Chase doing it all along.

Arianna put her hand on my shoulder as I walked by. “I’ll be up to check on you soon, and then we can talk.”

I knew she wanted to explain about Abby and Lexi. I had a lot of questions for her. Like why she never told me, and why she didn’t hate me for sending Abby to the underworld. I wasn’t sure I could handle that today, though. So much had already happened.

“Maybe our talk can wait until tomorrow? I think I could sleep until morning at this point.”

She nodded and gave me a weak smile.

Chase walked me upstairs. He kept his arm around my back and was being a gentleman for once. Not forcing his power on me or trying to bully me into choosing him. Now that Alex was gone, he didn’t feel the need to compete anymore. It was the first time I had thought about Alex since he left. Since he walked out on me and my world came crumbling down. This was more proof of how much I needed him. But what was I going to do about Chase?

We’d combined powers twice today, and both times, it had made me feel better than I’d ever felt in my life. My blood craved Chase, but look what I had done when I gave in to that craving. I’d taken out every Ophi under this roof. I knew I was responsible for their deaths. I’d felt my blood doing things it had never done before. It was like the night Leticia was choking in my room. The night she’d died. Chase had been touching me, combining our powers, and Leticia died because of it. I was convinced Chase and I could do both amazing and devastating things together. We were that powerful, and it scared the hell out of me.