Текст книги "Stalked by Death"
Автор книги: Kelly Hashway
сообщить о нарушении
Текущая страница: 6 (всего у книги 16 страниц)
Chapter 11
Since I’d come to the school, I’d had almost no contact with my mom. I’d emailed her once to tell her I wasn’t coming home but that I was okay. I deleted the email account immediately after I sent the message, because I knew if I got any emails back from her—which I definitely would have—I would’ve broken down and called her. I couldn’t let myself do that. This whole situation was too crazy to ask her to understand. She thought my dad had been some teenage jerk who didn’t want to take responsibility for getting his girlfriend pregnant. That was awful, but the truth would’ve been more painful to hear. How did you tell your mom that the guy she loved and had a child with wasn’t really human? That he was a Gorgon necromancer who was killed by his own kind barely a month after their baby was born?
Except now, my mom was the woman whose boyfriend and daughter walked out on her. I’d destroyed her life and mine. I had no parents left. At least knowing my dad’s body was nearby had given me a false sense of comfort. I’d never planned on raising him again, but I marked his grave and kept flowers on it. It was my way of letting him know I didn’t blame him for what had happened. Now, he was lost to me too. Hades had taken the one last piece of family I had.
I crumbled to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. Alex bent down and wrapped his arms around me. He rocked me like a baby and whispered in my ear, but nothing registered. I was tuned out. All I could do was cry because the emotions inside of me were spilling over. Finally, the tears stopped coming. Alex took my head in his hands and raised it so I was looking at him.
“Hey, we’ll find a way to get him back, okay? I’ll strike a deal with Hades myself if I have to. I won’t let him take your dad away from you.”
“He already has, and it’s my fault. Everything is my fault.”
He shook his head. “No. Don’t say that. You never asked for this to happen.”
“I might not have asked for any of this to happen, but I gave in to it. No, I didn’t just give in to it. I became the freaking leader of the Ophi. I ruined my mom’s life, and I sentenced my father to be Hades’ slave in the underworld.” Somehow, I managed to find more tears, and they spilled over my cheeks.
“Jodi, I’m so sorry. I’m the one who came to get you. I’m the one who brought you here.”
I wiped my face and looked at him. “If you hadn’t come for me, my mother would be dead. Don’t you dare blame yourself. I killed her. You saved her. I owe you everything for that.”
He kissed my cheek and picked me up off the floor. Leticia stood there, trying not to stare at us. “Um, I’m going to wash up before lunch. I’m sorry, Jodi. About everything.”
I nodded. “Thanks, Leticia.”
The front door opened, and Chase and Randy walked in.
“Jodi, are you okay?” Chase asked.
Alex put his arm around me and started walking me toward the stairs. “She’ll be fine. I’ll take care of her.”
I didn’t even fight him. I couldn’t handle Chase right now. I didn’t have the energy. Alex waited in my room while I washed my face and tried to make myself look somewhat normal. The puffiness under my eyes wouldn’t go away, but at least I’d stopped crying. I took two aspirin for my headache, and several deep breaths, before I walked back to my room.
“All set?” Alex asked, getting up from the bed.
“I guess. Thanks for taking care of me.”
He reached for my hand. “Always.”
Everyone was already eating when we got to the dining room. I stopped in the doorway. I wasn’t the least bit hungry, and I didn’t feel like sitting through a meal with everyone talking about Hades, my dad, and my out-of-control powers.
“What is it?” Alex asked.
“You know, I think I need some fresh air,” I said. “I’m not really in the mood to eat. I’d rather go for a walk.”
“I’ll go with you.” His stomach growled in protest.
I smiled and patted his stomach. “No, go eat. I’ll be fine. I can use the time alone to clear my head.”
“Are you sure? I could grab a sandwich to bring with me.”
“I’m sure. Sit and relax. We have a long afternoon of training ahead of us. I want to look like we actually know what we’re doing when the others arrive tomorrow. The last thing I need is for them to turn right around and go back to Serpentarius.”
“Okay.” He lightly kissed my lips. “I have my cell, so call me if you get lonely or if you just can’t stand being away from me anymore.”
I smiled. That was my Alex, cocky in a cute way.
“See you later.” Chase caught my eye before I left, but I quickly turned away. No need to invite trouble. I walked down the hall and past the Medusa statue. Part of me wanted to stop and talk to her. Get her advice about my dad and Hades, but I really did want to clear my head and forget about everything for a while. I decided I’d talk to her later.
The air had a slight chill to it, the way I liked it. I didn’t want to go anywhere near the cemetery or my dad’s empty grave, so I headed around back and went into the woods. When I was younger, I loved walking in the woods, but I hadn’t really done it since I came into my powers. I hadn’t done a lot of things I loved to do before I stopped being human. When I’d drunk Medusa’s blood, I thought I was doing the right thing. Saving the Ophi and becoming what I was meant to be. Now… well, I wasn’t so sure.
I missed being human. I missed my best friend Melodie, my mom, Matt. I tried not to think about Matt. Poor Matt, who died for kissing me. Poor Matt, who I brought back as a zombie. He was my biggest regret. Alex had been able to save my mom. He’d gotten to her before I could bring her back wrong. But Matt—Alex hadn’t been in time to save him from me.
Sometimes, I wondered what my life would have been like if I hadn’t come into my powers. If I’d stayed human. I’d probably be in the cafeteria with Matt and Melodie complaining about how boring life was. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for a little boring in my life now.
I completely lost track of time, and before I knew it I was out of the woods and on a road. I had no idea how far I’d walked or how long I’d been out here. I reached for the cell in my back pocket. 1:10. I’d walked for over an hour. Everyone was probably wondering where I was. I saw I had a missed call from Alex. I forgot I’d silenced my phone. I dialed him back as a car came down the road. A car I’d know anywhere. Melodie’s car!
Without even thinking, I waved my arms in the air. The car went past me, but the brake lights came on and it slowed to a stop.
I heard a faint voice and remembered I’d called Alex. I put the phone up to my ear. “Jodi? Are you there? Where are you?”
“I have to call you back.” I ended the call as Melodie stepped out of the car. I smiled. Seeing her was like seeing a room full of presents on Christmas morning. I wanted to rush up to her and give her the biggest hug, but I felt the wetness on my cheeks and stopped.
“Oh, my God! Jodi! It is you!” Melodie’s shrieky voice sounded amazing. Like home. She rushed over to me, but I backed away. I couldn’t let her touch me, not while I was crying.
“Stay back, Mel. Please.” I held my hands in front of me to stop her.
“What? Why? Jodi, what’s wrong? Are you hurt? Where have you been? Your mom’s been worried sick. We all have.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“You just left. You didn’t say a word to anyone. Your mom said you emailed her, but when she tried to email you back, she got a message saying the account had been deleted.”
I nodded and continued to back up. Melodie wouldn’t stop coming toward me. “Please, Mel. You have to stay away from me. Don’t come any closer, okay? Please. If anything happened to you, I’d—”
“What are you talking about? You’re acting crazy.”
“Look, can we go somewhere and talk? Your car, maybe?”
“Do you need a ride home?”
Home. There was nowhere I’d rather go, but I couldn’t. If I went back, I wouldn’t be able to leave again.
“No. I want to park somewhere and talk. Can we do that?”
Melodie laughed, breaking the tension. “I don’t usually park with girls, but hey, why not?”
I laughed. Good old Melodie. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed her. We walked to the car, and I got in the back passenger seat, as far from Melodie as possible.
“What do I look like, a cab driver? Get in the front.”
“No, I can’t. Mel, trust me, okay?”
“Trust you? You haven’t explained a single thing to me, and you’re asking me to trust you?”
“I know, but you’re my best friend.”
“Am I? ‘Cause last time I checked, you skipped town without telling me, your best friend.”
I didn’t have a response to that. I wasn’t even sure why I was in the car with her or why I’d flagged her down. This was all so stupid of me.
Melodie drove down the road and turned into a park. I looked out the window and did a double take. “This is Emory Park.”
“Yeah.” Melodie cut the engine and turned to look at me. She wrinkled her forehead. “What’s with you? You’re acting like you don’t know where you are.”
I thought I didn’t. When Alex had taken me to the school, we’d driven for hours. He’d encouraged me to take a nap because the drive was going to take so long and it was late. Yet here I was, only a little over an hour’s walk from the school, and I was in my hometown. How was this possible?
“He lied to me.” I got out of the car and looked around.
Melodie got out and walked over to me. “Jodi, what’s going on? Please, talk to me. Or at least let me take you home.”
“No. I can’t go home.”
“Why not? Where have you been, anyway?”
I shook my head. This was all so unbelievable. Alex had lied. He’d tricked me. I could understand not telling me in the beginning, when it was the hardest to be away from home and before he really got to know me. But why hadn’t he told me the truth after we got together?
“I can’t believe he did this to me!” I was angry. Really angry. I’d been feeling so bad about the whole Chase situation, which I didn’t really have much control over. Now that I knew Alex had lied to me, that he was still lying to me, I was furious.
“Who?” Melodie’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God! You ran away with him, didn’t you?” She grabbed my arm, but I yanked it away. “The strange guy from school? The one who was stalking you?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t let her know the truth, or anything close to it. It was too dangerous. Especially now that I knew the school was so close to home. “No.” I wracked my brain for a believable excuse. “It’s my dad. I found my dad.” Technically it wasn’t a lie.
“Your dad? I didn’t even think you knew who your dad was.”
“I didn’t, but I found him. It was something I had to do. I’m staying with him.” The lies rolled off my tongue a little too easily. I hated this. I hated not being able to tell my best friend the truth about who I really was.
“I don’t get it. Why would you just leave your mom?”
“Believe me, I didn’t want to. I miss her so much. It’s killing me that I’m not with her.” My eyes burned with the threat of more tears. I had to keep them in. I breathed deeply and squeezed my eyes shut until I felt the tears subside.
“Do you know Mr. Quimby went to see her?” Melodie sat down on a bench. “He told her you were mentally unstable. I heard him. I went to your house and saw his car in the driveway. Your mom and Mr. Quimby were talking in the kitchen. I heard your name and had to know what they were saying, so I listened in through the back window.”
“What else did he say?” I sat down at a wooden table, no longer able to stand.
“He said he’d been teaching for a while and had seen this sort of thing before. Kids taking off because they weren’t thinking clearly. He said that’s what probably happened with you.”
“I’m not crazy. Please, tell my mom I’m not crazy.” I reached for her hand but stopped myself. Physical contact was too risky.
“Tell her yourself. She’s really hurting right now. Let her know you found your dad. Even if you want to live with him—though I don’t know why you’d do that—you have to at least tell her. She deserves that.”
“I can’t. I can’t see her. It’s too hard. Please, Mel, just tell her I’m staying with my dad because I need to get to know him. Tell her I’m okay and that I love her.” I stood up. I couldn’t stay any longer. This had been a mistake. A huge mistake. I ran.
“Jodi!” Melodie’s footsteps pounded the ground behind me.
She wasn’t going to let me go, and I’d never outrun her if she got in her car. I made a split-second decision. I ran around the car and got in the driver’s seat, locking the doors so she couldn’t jump in. I turned the key, which was still in the ignition, and floored the gas. The tires screeched as I pulled a U-turn in the middle of the road. Melodie ran after me, screaming my name. I rolled down the window just enough to yell out, “I’m sorry, Mel!”
I sped away, unable to believe what I’d done. I stole my best friend’s car. I left her stranded. Her cell and purse were lying on the passenger seat. Crap! She couldn’t even call someone to pick her up. She was going to have to walk home. Some best friend I was. Now she was definitely going to think I’d lost my mind. Like it wasn’t bad enough I’d killed the one guy she had feelings for. Sure, Matt had been my almost boyfriend, but Melodie was the one in love with him. I’d broken her heart and stolen her car. Yeah, I was best friend of the year.
I thought about turning around and throwing her purse and cell out the window. It was the least I could do for her now, but at this point did it really matter? She was going to hate me either way, and I deserved it. No, I couldn’t turn back. Seeing Mel had been a mistake, and I wasn’t going to make that mistake twice. I kept driving.
I didn’t really know the way back to the school. I’d walked through the woods, not taken the roads. I did my best to keep heading in the direction I thought the school was in. Turns out none of the roads actually led to the school. That was when I remembered the road to the school wasn’t really a road. It was a beat-up old driveway that looked more like an overgrown trail. I slowed down and scanned the woods for any clearings big enough to fit a car through. Nothing. Why was this place so difficult to find? Maybe because all the residents were deadly to humans? That was a pretty good reason.
I spotted an area barely big enough for a car and pulled off the road. The car bounced and jostled more than a car should. I felt like I was rocketing off the ground every few feet. This couldn’t be right. The road Alex had taken was bumpy, but it wasn’t this bad. I didn’t have my seatbelt on. I’d been in too much of a hurry to get out of there before Melodie could stop me, and now I was being thrown around the front seat like a bag of groceries. I tried to hit the brakes, but with all the bouncing around, I wound up slamming on the accelerator instead. I turned the steering wheel hard to the left, trying to follow what I thought was a path, but a huge tree blocked my way. I slammed on the brakes, making the tires skid on the dirt and grass. I screamed as the car slammed into the tree. I lurched forward, and the last thing I felt was my forehead smack against the steering wheel.
Chapter 12
The sound of a voice made my eyelids flutter opened. My head rested on the steering wheel. I raised it slightly, afraid to move too much before I knew how badly I was hurt. Blood was smeared across the steering wheel and dashboard. My blood. I wasn’t dead, but I was definitely banged up.
“Are you all right?”
I looked to my left. A man, a hiker judging by his clothes and walking stick, was leaning in the broken window. He reached for me.
“Stay back!” I yelled. He was human, and my poisonous Gorgon blood was everywhere.
“I’m here to help you. Try to relax. I promise I won’t hurt you.”
That wasn’t what I was afraid of. He had no idea how dangerous I was to him.
“Please.” I held a bloody hand up to keep him back. I quickly lowered it before I came in contact with him. “You don’t understand. You can’t touch me. It isn’t safe.”
“I know you’re not supposed to move an unconscious person in case they injured their neck or spine, but you seem like you’re moving okay, so why don’t you let me help you out of the car?” He pointed to the front end. “I don’t like the way the hood is smoking. I don’t know much about cars, but I’m not willing to risk this thing catching fire with you inside it.”
My eyes shot to the smoke pouring out of the hood. It didn’t look good. I had to move. Fast. Still, I couldn’t let this guy touch me.
“Okay, I’m going to get out, but you have to back up. I mean it. Don’t touch me. No matter what.” I stared him in the eyes, keeping my face serious. He had to listen to me.
“Whatever you say, but I promise I won’t hurt you. I only want to help.”
I believed him. He seemed nice enough, and I wasn’t really scared for my safety. If he turned out to be a serial killer on the run, I’d just bleed on him. I waited for him to step away from the car, and I reached for the door. I pulled on the handle, but it was jammed.
“It won’t open.” I tugged harder.
“Here, let me try.” I backed up in the seat as he reached for the door. “It’s locked. I have to reach in and open it from the inside.”
“No!” I leaned farther toward the passenger seat as his arm came into the car. “Stop! Please, stop!”
“Listen, I’m only opening the door. I won’t touch you.” He fumbled with the door handle. “Is there a trick to this? Has it ever gotten stuck like this before?”
How would I know? I’d been in the car numerous times, but that was months ago. Melodie could’ve been having problems with it.
I shook my head. A sizzling sound came from the hood of the car and a puff of smoke burst into the air. “Ah!” I couldn’t help screaming. The car was going to go up in flames, and I was locked inside it.
“Try the passenger door.” His voice was steady, but the terror in his eyes showed his true feelings.
I reached over and opened the door—right into a tree. “There’s not enough room to squeeze out.”
“Then, you’re going to have to come out through the window. I’ll help you.”
“No! I mean, I can do it myself.”
“Do you have any idea how banged up you are? You might get dizzy the second you lean out this window, and you’re running out of time.”
Something crackled under the hood. He was right. I couldn’t stay here any longer.
“Back up again. I’m doing this on my own.”
He started to protest, but I cut him off. “Look, if you don’t back up, this car is going to explode with me inside it. Do you really want that on your conscience?”
He backed up.
I twisted, bringing my legs up onto the seat. I pulled my sleeves down over my hands to protect myself from the jagged glass that was still attached to the bottom of the window. I went out headfirst. It was a dumb idea since it meant I was definitely going to fall on the ground, but the thought of keeping my head inside a car that was about to go up in flames was too much to handle. The crackling got louder. I leaned forward, committing to face-planting, but my jeans got caught on the broken window.
“Ah!” I yelled as the glass tore into my skin.
The guy rushed forward and lifted my torso. I felt the glass come out of my leg and the warm blood pour onto his hands.
“No!” I cried.
His eyes rolled back in his head as my blood poisoned him. Choking, he fell to the ground. I went with him, landing half on top of his lifeless body.
“Jodi!” Alex’s voice shot through the air. He ran to me as I lifted myself off the hiker’s body. “Oh, my God, Jodi!” Alex took one look at the car and scooped me into his arms. “We have to get out of here.” He went as fast as he could, carrying my weight, but we were barely twenty feet away when the car burst into flames. We dropped to the ground, and Alex shielded me from the car parts that flew through the air.
I peeked around his arms and found the hiker on the ground. His clothes were on fire. I turned away, as bile rose up from my stomach. He’d only wanted to help me, and now he was dead. Dead because of me and my blood. I’d poisoned him, and the fire from the car I’d stolen and crashed into a tree was burning his body so I couldn’t even raise him. I couldn’t fight it. I threw up until my stomach and chest ached. Alex held my hair and rubbed my back. When I was finished, I sat up and wiped my mouth on my sleeve. There was a time when I would’ve worried about looking unladylike, but I wasn’t a lady. I was a monster. A poisonous monster who had killed again.
Alex stood up. “Someone’s going to see the smoke and call the cops. We have to get out of here.”
Cops. Maybe I needed to be locked up. I was a killer. I should’ve been put away where I couldn’t hurt anyone. It’s not like I was helping the Ophi anymore either, so what good was I to anybody?
“Let them come. Let them take me away.”
Alex grabbed both of my arms and yanked me to my feet. I winced from all the cuts and bruises I’d gotten in the accident. “Great idea. Let the cops touch you while you’re covered in your own blood. How many more do you want to die?”
He was the other Alex again. The one who could turn off his emotions and act stone cold. The one that reminded me so much of his parents. Still, what he said was true. I’d kill every human who came near me right now. I couldn’t stay. I had to go back to the school.
“Let’s go.” I shook his hands from my arms and walked off in the direction Alex had come from.
“It’s this way.” He pointed to the right. “I’ve been out here for hours searching for you. I wasn’t coming from the school when I found you.”
I walked past him, glaring at the face I thought I knew so well. “Funny thing about the school,” I said. “It’s not far from my home.”
“The school is your home.”
He was avoiding the real issue here.
“You lied to me. You completely took me for a fool. You drove me around for hours, in the dark, when I was too tired to stay awake and see where we really were. You encouraged me to go to sleep.” I stopped walking and turned around to face him. “How far did you drive in the wrong direction just to throw me off?”
“I did what I had to do.”
“No. You did what you were told to do.”
He stepped past me, continuing to walk back to the school. “You’re right. I did what I was told to do. For your own good. I had to get you here. To convince you to give up your old life.” He stopped when he realized I wasn’t following him. He stormed back over to me. “How hard would it have been for you to stay away from your mom if you knew she wasn’t far away?” His face was bright red, and his voice was shaking with anger. “It took killing her to get you to come with me. Tell me you wouldn’t have checked on her. Tell me you wouldn’t have made contact with her. Spied on her. Something! Until you did something stupid again and killed her for the second time!”
“You don’t get to be angry!” I shouted back at him. “You don’t get to decide what’s best for me. You lied to me. Even after everything we’ve been through together, you kept this from me. What does that say about us, Alex?”
“It says that I’m willing to do anything to protect you.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. I believed he thought that was true and that made it okay in his mind, but it wasn’t okay with me. I couldn’t be okay with this. With him. Not right now.
“Take me back to the school. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I don’t want think about what happened today.”
“Jodi.” His voice softened, but there was still anger in his eyes.
“No.” I shook my head. “I’m done for now.”
He looked at me, but I turned away. I was hurt. Betrayed. Even if he didn’t see it that way, it was how I felt. He led us back to the school, and without a word I went up to my room and locked the door behind me. I heard Leticia in the hallway. She knocked and called my name, but I didn’t answer. I buried my head in my pillow and cried. I didn’t even care that I was bleeding all over the covers. I cried for the hiker who hadn’t deserved to die for trying to help a girl in trouble. Even if the girl was Gorgon. I cried for Melodie who was carless, best-friendless, and stranded at the park. I cried for my mom, who was undoubtedly going out of her mind, not knowing her lost daughter was only one town over. And I cried for Alex and me. Our relationship was deteriorating faster than it had begun.
I skipped dinner to change the sheets on my bed and take a long hot shower. So long, I ran out of hot water. Even the warm water felt good on my aching body. I washed out all my cuts, noticing they weren’t as bad as I’d thought. I wrapped a towel around me and sat on the edge of the tub, letting the steam wash over me. I couldn’t help thinking my life had become a living hell. I had dead bodies stalking me in my sleep. Death was everywhere I turned, mostly because I was causing it. I thought about turning myself over to Hades. I didn’t have any fight left in me. At least in the underworld, I wouldn’t be able to hurt the living anymore.
Finally, the steam evaporated, and I started to shiver in my towel. I got up and went to my room, eager to get dressed and warm up, but the second I stepped into my room, I jumped back in shock. Chase was standing next to my dresser, holding Medusa’s locket, which had been buried in my top drawer since I’d drunk the blood inside the bloodstone.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I stormed over to him, holding my towel up in one hand and reaching for the locket with the other. “And what are you doing going through my stuff?”
He wrapped his fingers around the locket before I could grab it.
“Do you mind? That belongs to me. Medusa made it appear to me when I came to this school.”
“I know. I heard the story. Uncle Mason kept up with everything that went on here. He still does.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You mean, you’re keeping him informed.”
“You should be happy I am. If it wasn’t for me, he and the others from Serpentarius wouldn’t be coming in the morning.”
I held my hand out. “My locket.”
“Turn around.” He held the locket up by the chain. “I’ll put it on you.”
“It’s broken. I broke the clasp when I yanked the locket from Victoria’s neck. That’s why it’s been sitting in my dresser drawer. That, and the locket doesn’t hold Medusa’s blood anymore.”
“No, it doesn’t. You do.” He eyed me like I was the last piece of devil’s food cake in a room of starving people. I had no doubt he wanted my blood. He held the locket out to me, showing me the clasp. “I fixed it.”
“Oh. Well, thanks, I guess.”
“Turn around.”
I didn’t want to let him put the locket on me. I didn’t want him touching me at all. Things always got complicated when Chase touched me. But, he obviously wasn’t going to leave until I let him put the locket on me, so I turned around.
He slipped it over my head and fastened the clasp. “There. I know it doesn’t have Medusa’s blood anymore, but it seems to me you should still wear it.”
I faced him, reaching my fingers up to touch the empty bloodstone. “I guess you’re right.”
“In fact, you should consider putting some of your blood in the stone.”
“What? Why? I’m not Medusa.”
“I know, but you are the most powerful Gorgon, like she once was.”
“Yeah, and then I’d have to worry about some power-crazed Ophi, like Victoria, stealing the locket to tap into my powers. No, thank you. I’ll keep my blood in my veins.”
He shrugged. “That’s fine. It was just a thought.”
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten you somehow broke into my room and went through my stuff. Care to explain?”
“I came looking for you. Leticia said she saw you come home but you wouldn’t let her in here. She said you were pretty banged up. I wanted to make sure you weren’t going to bleed to death.”
“How did you get in? I locked the door.”
He smiled. “I found a set of keys in the bedroom across the hall from yours.”
“Why were you in Abby’s old room?” I knew she had keys to my room. Unfortunately, she’d used them after I moved in.
“I was exploring. Call it boredom. Things weren’t exactly exciting without you around.” He looked down at me, and I realized I was still only in a towel.
I opened a dresser drawer and pulled out a pair of yoga pants and a tank top. “I’ll be right back. Then, you can tell me what made you think you had the right to use those keys to get into my locked room.”
Someone knocked on the door.
“I’ll get that.”
“It’s probably Leticia.” I headed back to the bathroom.
“What the hell?” Alex said when Chase opened the door.
I turned as Alex pushed his way into the room. Chase smirked when Alex’s eyes fell on me.
I looked down at my towel and the clothes in my hand. This didn’t look good at all. Especially after the fight we’d had in the woods.
“Alex, it’s not what you think. I came out of the shower and Chase was in my room. I didn’t know he was here.”
Alex narrowed his eyes, his gaze falling on my neck. “You just got out of the shower wearing Medusa’s locket?”
“No, I—I mean, Chase—”
“Yeah, I think I can piece this together myself.” He turned toward the door.
“Alex, wait.”
He paused, and for a split second I thought he was actually going to hear me out. But he pulled his arm back and punched Chase square in the face. Chase stumbled backward. Alex looked at me. There was nothing soft or caring in his expression. He looked like a younger version of Troy. Then he stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
