She smiled back. “That’s Lucas across from us. He’s the same age as me. We both just came into our powers.”
I nodded, pretending to follow along.
“Have you met Mason’s wife, Carol? She’s a sweetheart. She sort of takes care of me since my mom and dad aren’t around anymore.”
“Oh,” I said, suddenly being brought back to the conversation. “Do you mind me asking what happened?”
She pushed her eggs around on her plate. “They died. They were part of the group in Washington. Hades came after them.”
My fork missed my eggs and screeched across the plate. Oh, God! Another person whose parents I’d sent to the underworld? I couldn’t take much more of this.
“I know what happened,” she said. “And just so you know, I don’t blame you.”
“Thanks.” It was a stupid thing to say, but nothing else seemed right either.
“Where are your parents?” McKenzie asked.
“My mom’s human, so I’m not allowed to see her anymore, and my dad is in the underworld like your parents. Hades took him from me a few days ago.” It felt like a lifetime ago.
“Oh, sorry.” She took a sip of juice and continued telling me who everyone was. “You know Lexi. She needs no introduction.”
She could say that again.
“That guy with the goatee, he’s Thayer. Jared, the dirty blond sitting next to him, is his son. They’re both nice. You know Carson already,” she said, moving right along. “Then there’s Asher. He’s one of my favorites. After Carol, of course. Asher is really strong, and he’s not afraid of anything.”
“What about Mason? What’s he like?” I’d only talked to him a couple times on the phone. He seemed nice enough, but not overly helpful.
McKenzie shrugged. “He’s cool. He’s been weird lately, though. Not his usual self. I guess that’s because he’s away from home. You wouldn’t believe how much he loves Serpentarius. I never thought he’d leave it to come here. Not even with all of us begging him.”
“Well, I’m glad he changed his mind. We all need to stick together if we’re going to stand up to Hades.”
McKenzie dropped her fork and stared at me. “We’re going to fight Hades?”
“Well, not ‘fight him’ fight him, but we are stronger in numbers. He won’t come attack a group this big. It’s too risky.”
McKenzie nodded. “Oh, okay.” She looked scared, and I couldn’t help thinking I had a younger version of Leticia on my hands.
“Hey,” McKenzie said, “where’s Chase?”
I looked around the table. How hadn’t I noticed he was missing? “I don’t know. I saw him earlier.”
“Weird. He never missed a meal back at Serpentarius. I forgot what a great cook Arianna is. The food’s gone downhill since she left.”
McKenzie kept talking, but I wasn’t listening. I couldn’t help wondering where Chase was. For some reason, I didn’t like not knowing.
After breakfast, Mason, Carol, Thayer, Carson, and Asher said they wanted to meet with Tony and Arianna to discuss the situation some more, so they all headed to the conference room for some adult Ophi conversation, while the rest of us went outside. I split the group up into training teams as soon as we got to the row of graves that still had bodies in them.
“Okay, those of you with more experience will come with me. We’ll work on commanding multiple souls at once. That will be Jared, Lexi—” I looked at the others, realizing I had more newbies than anything else. Plus, I really didn’t want to spend the morning with Lexi. “On second thought. I’ll take the less experienced ones, Leticia, McKenzie, and Lucas. We’ll work on maintaining control over souls once they’re raised.”
“What about us?” Lexi said. “Do we watch the youngsters screw up, or do we actually get to have a little fun?”
“Raising souls isn’t fun,” I snapped.
“Then you’re not doing it right.” Lexi whipped a nail file out of her back pocket. I thought she was going to mock me further by giving herself a manicure in the middle of my lesson, but instead she pricked Jared’s finger.
“Ow!” he said. “What was that for?”
“I can’t wear a Band-Aid on my finger for the rest of the day,” she said. “I just did my nails.” She flicked his finger, getting drops of his blood on one of the graves.
“Lexi, how do you expect to control that soul if you didn’t raise it?” I could do it, but I knew she couldn’t. She wasn’t that far along in her training.
“I don’t. I want to see how Jared does.” She smiled at him.
“Thanks a lot. I wasn’t even ready for this.” Jared looked about twenty-one, but like most Serpentarius Ophi he wasn’t used to using his powers.
Lexi laughed and turned to me. “He gets stage fright sometimes.”
“Shut up. I do not. I just need time to get my blood to do what I want it to.”
“Well, then you better hurry.” Lexi pointed to the hand coming up out of the grave. “Your zombie slave is here.”
“Crap!” Jared closed his eyes and threw his head back. I wondered who’d taught him that technique. He looked possessed.
The zombie was almost completely out of the grave, and Jared still wasn’t ready. Images of Randy getting bitten by the zombie flew into my head. That was not going to happen again.
“Stop!” I commanded the soul. “Turn to me. I’m in charge here.”
The zombie turned and faced me.
“Hey,” Jared complained. “I was almost ready.”
Lexi laughed. “Ready to what? Run away when that thing attacked you?”
Jared looked at me. His eyes were full of hate. I didn’t care if he was mad at me. I was doing what I had to.
“I lost a friend to a zombie because he wasn’t ready. I’m not taking any chances.”
“So, how exactly do you expect us to train?” Jared asked.
“When you’re ready to take over, I’ll be more than happy to hand this guy to you.” I stared at Jared. “What do you say? Now that you’re ready and not being ambushed by Lexi, do you want to give it a try?”
Jared nodded and closed his eyes again.
“Stop,” I said. “Closing your eyes when a zombie is coming for you is a sure way to get yourself killed. Never take your eyes off them. Use your mind’s eye to focus yourself and get control of your powers.”
Jared shrugged. “Guess that makes sense.”
“Good. Now focus on this guy and nothing else. Reach out to him with the power of your blood.”
Jared fell silent, concentrating as hard as he could. “Got it.”
“It’s him you want,” I said to the zombie, releasing him from my control. The corpse turned to Jared again and reached for him.
“Stay where you are.” Jared’s voice shook.
“You have the control, Jared. Don’t let him think otherwise,” I said.
Jared focused on the soul, staring him in the eyes. “Lower your arm.”
The zombie lowered his arm but kept advancing.
“Stop!” Jared’s voice was strong, confident.
The zombie stopped short.
“Great!” I said. Jared had real potential. He was already an adult Ophi, so he’d be a quick learner. “Think you can release him?”
Chase came up behind me. “Why not have a little fun first?”
“Where have you been?” I asked.
“Why? Did you miss me?” He brushed his hand against my back, and chills ran through me. “I bet these guys would love another demonstration of our combined powers.”
