“I could ask you the same thing.” I rubbed the front of my head, which felt like it was the size of a basketball.

“Here.” Chase got to his feet and extended his hand to me. I stared at his hand and then his eyes, noticing the way they sparkled with confidence. Now, it was too much like my dream.

“I’m good.” I used the doorway to help me up.

Chase lowered his hand, shoving it in his pocket. Just great. He was the new guy who didn’t know anyone, and I was making him feel unwelcome by not even taking his hand.

“Did you find your room okay? I’m sorry Alex didn’t give you a real tour. He was eager to get back to the training, I guess.”

Chase smirked. “Yeah, I’m sure that was it.”

“He’s a good guy. He just—”

“Doesn’t want to let you out of his sight.”

I was hoping Alex’s behavior wasn’t as obvious to everyone else as it was to me. Apparently I was wrong.

“Anyway, I found my room and my bag’s unpacked. I was coming back out to join you guys when I ran into you. Or should I say you ran into me?”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I needed a break.”

“And in a hurry. Something wrong?”

I felt like someone was always asking me that. “Nothing to worry about. Tell me about you. How long have you been training?”

“Mason’s been teaching me basic stuff. You know—raising, releasing, being careful around humans. Nothing major. You know how the Serpentarius Ophi feel about using their powers to raise souls.” He leaned against the Medusa statue.

“Uh, could you not do that?” I tugged him away from Medusa.

“Oh, sorry. Is it valuable?”

“More than you know, but we’ll get to that later. Did you spend a lot of time around humans?”

Chase nodded. “Yeah, I was usually in charge of helping the bands set up every Friday when they let humans into the club. Never had a problem being around humans.” He lowered his eyes. “Until three weeks ago.”

I stepped closer to him. “What happened?”

“The bass player wasn’t happy with the sound quality on his amp, so he took out a knife and tried to adjust the wire. I should’ve gotten out of there as soon as the knife came out of his pocket—that’s what I was taught to do, but I was sure I could handle it. I mean, I wasn’t the one using the knife.”

“Did he slip and get you with the blade?” My eyes flew to the scar above his eye.

“No, he didn’t slip. He started going off about this show he played and how the crowd wasn’t that into it because the sound wasn’t right. I made a comment about how maybe the sound quality wasn’t the problem. He didn’t like that very much.”

My eyes widened. “He attacked you?”

“Nah, he wasn’t tough enough to actually pick a fight with me. He yelled at me. Told me I was tone-deaf, and he was flailing his arms. The knife nicked me.” He raised his hand to his scar. “It really wasn’t bad, but instead of getting out of there, I yelled back at the guy and took a swing. Only I’d touched the wound first.”

“So, your punch was deadly.”

“You got it.” He frowned. “I didn’t mean to do it. I got careless.”

“I’m starting to think Ophi don’t belong around humans. I know my experiences with humans were awful after I came into my powers.”

“Should I pull up a chair? Are we going to compare horror stories?” He said it with a smile, and I realized he was trying to break the tension. All this talk about killing wasn’t exactly uplifting.

“You’re right. That’s enough reminiscing.” I pointed to the statue. “You want to meet Medusa?”

“I think the statue and I have already met. Remember? You told me to stop leaning on her.”

“I did. Because she’s not just a statue.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You guys don’t join hands around it and chant, do you?”

I laughed. “You know I kind of thought the same thing when I first got here. But no. We’re not a cult. We don’t worship the statue.” I tugged his arm. “Come stand here, facing her.”

He listened, but he kept looking at me like I was crazy.

“Okay, take Medusa’s right hand in yours.”

“You want me to hold hands with a statue? Really? I mean, if I’m going to hold someone’s hand, I’d rather hold yours.”

I felt my face flush. “Just do it.”

“Okay.” He took my hand in his.

“That’s not what I meant,” I said.

He squeezed my hand. “I don’t see you letting go.”

“Am I interrupting anything?” Alex asked, walking through the door behind us. His eyes immediately flew to our hands.

My entire body felt like it was on fire. I took my hand away and walked toward Alex. “I was about to introduce Chase to Medusa, but he misunderstood me when I told him to take her hand.”

“Misunderstood you? Yeah, I’m sure that’s all it was.” Alex took my hand in his, and we walked back to the statue.

“Go ahead,” Alex said. “Take Medusa’s hand.” He said Medusa’s name slowly, like Chase might get confused. “In fact, why don’t you take both her hands?”

“No!” I reached for Chase, our fingers touching.

“What?” Chase asked.

“The last person who held both Medusa’s hands at once ended up dead on the floor.” I realized I was still touching Chase. I lowered my hand and turned away.

“They died?”

“For a little while, but I was able to bring her back.”

“Wow, you brought back an Ophi? You really are something, aren’t you?”

Alex reached for my hand, clearly not liking the way Chase was looking at me.

“Only one hand at a time, okay?” I said.

“What’s this about, anyway?” Chase asked.

“You’ll see. It’s something every Ophi who comes here does. Believe me, you’ll like it.”

He smiled at me and took Medusa’s right hand in his. His eyes closed, and I knew he was feeling Medusa’s power breathing life into every inch of him. While he enjoyed the connection, I turned back to Alex.

“What were you trying to do, kill him?” I kept my voice a whisper, hoping Chase would be too involved in the connection with Medusa to hear me.

“I wouldn’t have really let him do it,” Alex said. “But the guy needs to be put in his place.”

“Yeah, well, killing him isn’t the way to do it.” I stepped closer to him. “When you do stuff like that, you make me think you’re—I don’t want you to end up like Victoria and Troy.” I’d never held it against Alex that his parents were evil Ophi who had tried to kill me. Alex wasn’t like them, but he was their son, and it made me wonder if he had that same evil buried somewhere inside him. If he did, I was determined not to let it come out. I owed him that for helping me face his parents and for saving my life.

Alex was silent, and I had no clue what was going on in his head. “You think I’m going to turn into them? Do you really have such little faith in me?”

“No. I’m worried about you. That’s all.” I wished he would look at me, but he was staring past me at Chase. I leaned forward, resting my hands against his chest. “Alex, I care about you. A lot. I don’t want to lose you.”

The coldness evaporated from his face, and he lowered his eyes to meet mine. “You won’t lose me.” He gave one last look at Chase before taking my face in his hands and kissing me.

Chase cleared his throat, making me jump. “Sorry, was I supposed to stay connected to the statue until you two were through making out?”

I spun around, but Alex didn’t let me step away from him. He put his hands down heavily on my shoulders, grounding me in my spot. If I wasn’t so embarrassed, I would’ve been annoyed by Alex’s little attempt to claim his territory.

“You can try holding her left hand now.” I pointed to the statue, trying to get Chase’s attention off me.

Chase’s eyes lingered on me for a few more seconds before he reached for Medusa’s left hand. His face twisted in a worried expression.

“It’s okay,” I said. “The blood in the left side of her body is only poisonous to humans. What you’re feeling is the power of that blood flowing through your veins. It can’t hurt you, though.”