“I can’t believe we pulled that off,” Matt said.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and took Matt’s hands in mine. Yeah, Alex wouldn’t like this either. Still, I owed it to Matt to be gentle. He’d been nothing but good to me. “Matt, there’s something you don’t know about me. I’m not who you think I am.”

He raised his hand to my head. “Did you hurt yourself? Were we knocked out? You’re not making sense. I know you. I knew you the day I met you. When Melodie introduced us, I could tell you were an amazing person. You’re sweet and caring. Not to mention you’re smoking hot. I have to admit I don’t like this blonde look on you, though. It’s all wrong.”

I couldn’t have this conversation right now. “We need to get out of here.” I didn’t want to stick around the cemetery. It was too close to the hospital, and someone might see us.

“Where do you want to go?”

“We should find some other clothes so we don’t stick out in a crowd.”

“Where are we?” Matt looked around. “This doesn’t look like the cemetery at home.”

“I don’t really know. We’ll have to figure that out.” I scouted out the road. “For now, let’s just get out of here. We can talk on the way.”

He took my hand, lacing his fingers through mine as we walked. “I think someone did some sort of spell on us. You know, like witches or something. I never thought they were real, but how else do you explain this?”

A nervous laugh escaped my lips. “How about a group of necromancers called the Ophi raised our souls and put us in the bodies of two recently killed teenagers?”

He cocked his head at me. “Is this some prank? Are you in on it? Should I be looking for Melodie lurking in the shadows?”

“No.” I squeezed his hand. “Do you trust me? Really trust me?”

The smile left his face. “Jodi, look. There’s something I want to say. I know it’s early, we’ve only been dating for a little while, but I meant what I said about when we first met. I felt like I knew you. The whole time we were friends, before we started dating, I kept wishing you’d look at me the way I looked at you.”

Oh, God, where was he going with this? Please, don’t let him say the L-word. I couldn’t handle it right now.

“I don’t want to scare you away, but I can’t hold this in any longer. Jodi—”

“Matt, don’t.”

“I love you.”

My insides felt like they’d turned to stone. My heart wasn’t able to pump blood to the rest of my body. I felt too heavy to hold myself up. Thankfully, we were at the gate at the other end of the cemetery, so I used it for support as we kept moving.

“It’s okay if you don’t love me back. I know it’s soon.” He brushed my hair off my shoulder. “But I do love you, Jodi. So, if you want to know if I trust you, the answer is yes. With all my heart.”

I lost it. I cried, big heaping sobs. This would’ve been easier if Matt remembered me killing him. If he remembered being a zombie and killing that bunny. If he remembered that I’d been the one responsible for his death, not once but twice. Instead, he loved me.

“Please, don’t cry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” He tugged my hand, making me stop, and raised my chin. Leaning forward, he pressed his lips to mine.

Damn it! Why wasn’t I stopping him?

“You died,” I blurted out.

Matt pulled away, looking shocked. “I don’t know what’s going on, why we were in that morgue or these bodies, but we aren’t dead.” He reached for my hand, taking it in both of his.

“Not anymore, but we were.” I started walking again, preparing to let it all out. Everything from start to finish. “You remember being at my house and kissing me, right?”

“Yeah.” He dragged the word out, not sure where I was going with this. I wasn’t so sure either. How did I explain the next part?

“All right, well, something happened when we kissed.” The way he was staring at me was tearing me up inside. Here I was telling him unbelievable things, and he was just looking at me like he wanted to kiss me again. “You died that day, Matt. It was my fault. My blood isn’t like yours. It’s poisonous. I didn’t know it when we got together. Things started happening to people and animals around me. I was killing people with my tears and my blood, and I brought a deer, a squirrel, and a rat back to life with it, too.”

“Oh, Jodi, what happened to you?” He thought I’d lost my mind.

“I was born this way, but my powers didn’t kick in until just recently. I’m not human, Matt. I’m a necromancer.”

“A necromancer? Isn’t that someone who can raise the dead?” He was honestly trying to follow along with me, which just proved what a great guy he was. He should’ve been cursing and telling me I was crazy. But Matt was amazing. I’d forgotten how much I cared about him.

“Yes. I was born under the thirteenth sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus. People like me have Gorgon blood in our veins. It’s poisonous to humans.”

“Whoa, this is sounding a lot like a lecture Mr. Quimby gave in lit class. Did he put you up to this?”

I sighed. “It’s not a joke, Matt. I’m being completely serious.”

Just like that he nodded, taking my word for it and waiting for me to continue.

“I’m a descendent of Medusa. When you kissed me, my blood poisoned you and stopped your heart.” The warmth running down my face was the only indication that I was crying. “I didn’t mean to kiss you. When I found out what I was—what I am—I was going to end it, stop seeing you. I didn’t want to hurt you. I cared about you so much. But before I could explain, you kissed me, and I couldn’t even think because I’d wanted to kiss you for weeks. I think I might have been falling in love with you, and I got so wrapped up in the moment that—”

He pulled me to him and kissed me again. My God, why wouldn’t he stop doing that? I pulled back, and he smiled. Not at all the reaction I was expecting. “If I wasn’t trapped in someone else’s body, I’d tell you you’re crazy.”

“Sometimes, I think I am.”

He brushed the tears from my cheek. It wasn’t fair. I could touch him now without hurting him. Now that I could be with him, I wasn’t available.

“What changed? Why can I kiss you now? And how am I alive and in this body?”

I started walking again. I had to keep us moving, no matter how much Matt wanted to stop and talk about all this. “I raised you…and myself. This isn’t really me, not all of me anyway. I sort of pissed off Hades, and he took me and the other Ophi to the underworld. I raised the human half of my soul. It sort of died a couple months back when I drank Medusa’s blood.”

“You drank blood?” His voice cracked. Finally, I’d freaked him out.

“It sounds worse than it was. I had to do it. I would’ve died if I didn’t. Alex would’ve died.”

“Alex?” He stiffened. “You mean that guy—”

“I-I’m with him.”

Matt’s eyes widened, and his jaw clenched. “That’s not funny, Jodi. I’m sorry if I freaked you out when I said ‘I love you,’ but don’t you think you’re going a little too far? I mean, that’s the guy who stalked you, who assaulted me.”

“I know, but there’s an explanation for all that.”

Matt’s face twisted in disgust. I reached for him, but he pulled away.

“Alex was only trying to help me. I just didn’t know it. He’s like me. He saved my mom. I killed her, Matt. It was an accident. We were cooking, and I cut my hand. I tried to stay away, to tell her the truth about me, but she grabbed my hand and then… If Alex hadn’t been there, she’d be dead. He saved her, and then I left. I went with him to a school to study with other Ophi. He’s really sweet.”

“How soon?”

“How soon what?”

“How soon after I died did you take off with him?”

I closed my eyes, feeling the threat of tears again. “Matt.”

“I have to know. I’m trying to be really patient and understanding right now, but I need to know this.”

“I don’t want you to hate me. I was crushed when you died.”