Leticia screamed and everyone else pushed their chairs back away from the table, ready to spring into action if the zombie tried to attack us.

“That’s the guy from the cemetery,” Leticia said. “The one Jodi raised and brought to her room.”

“I didn’t bring him to my room,” I said. “At least not on purpose.”

Tony stared at me. “What’s he doing back here?”

“I don’t know.” It wasn’t a complete lie. I didn’t know why the zombie had left my bathroom. I hadn’t called him.

Chase walked into the room. “What did I miss?” His gaze fell on the zombie, and he stopped. “Do you guys always invite the dead to eat with you? ‘Cause it’s a little gross, don’t you think?”

I shook my head. “No one invited him. He just showed up.”

Alex stared at me. He knew I was hiding something.

Tony walked over to the zombie but kept a safe distance. His face fell completely still and focused. He was calling on the power in his blood to control the corpse. “Who brought you here?”

The zombie looked past Tony at me. “Her.”

All eyes were on me. No way could I hide this anymore. “Okay, okay.” I put my hands up in defense. “I sort of summoned him this morning…in a dream.”

A chorus of “What?” rang through the room.

“I didn’t know I’d done it. I had this dream and—”

“About what?” Randy asked.

“I can’t remember.” I played dumb. I couldn’t admit I’d been dreaming about Chase. “I only remember I was dreaming, and then someone was knocking on my door. I forgot to set my alarm, and when I saw what time it was, I figured it was Alex knocking, trying to wake me up.” I paused, but everyone was silent, waiting for me to continue. “It wasn’t Alex. It was him.” I turned toward the corpse. “I didn’t know I’d summoned him.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Alex asked. “I came to get you when you were late for breakfast. Why didn’t you tell me then? And what did you do with the guy? He wasn’t in your room when I got there.”

“I told him to hide in the bathroom.” My voice was barely a whisper.

Alex threw his head back and ran his fingers through his hair.

“I was freaked out. You have to understand that. I’m raising souls in my sleep now. Do you know how dangerous that can be for us?”

“Exactly, Jodi,” Alex said. “That’s why you should have told me.”

“Lay off,” Chase said. “She panicked. Big deal.”

I looked at Chase, thankful for his support. I felt like I was up against a firing squad, so it was nice to have one person on my side.

Alex was seething at this point. He slammed his hand down, knocking over his meatball sub. “Don’t try to play the hero here. You have no idea what you’re talking about or what Jodi has been going through.”

“Alex, I think Chase was only trying to help everyone calm down.” Tony put a hand on Chase’s shoulder.

I lightly touched Alex’s arm. “I was going to tell you.”

“When?”

I shrugged. “I sort of forgot he was in my bathroom. I haven’t been to my room all day, and so much has happened since this morning. It slipped my mind, but honestly, the second I saw him again, I was going to come to you for help.”

Alex closed his eyes, processing everything. I wasn’t sure if he believed me or not. All I knew was he was mad.

The room fell silent. I was supposed to be the leader. The one to make the decisions and keep us safe. But instead I was clueless about how to do my job, and I was putting us all in danger. I wasn’t cut out for this, and somehow I had a feeling Hades knew that when he’d agreed to my deal.

Alex sighed. “Release his soul, and Tony and I will go bury him.”

“I’ll help you.” I stood up. I needed to get out of this room. Away from all the judgmental stares.

Alex put his hand on my shoulder, stopping me. “No. We got it. You eat.” There was a small hint of warmth in his voice. Yes, he was angry, but that didn’t change the fact that he cared about me.

I released the soul and watched Tony and Alex carry the body out of the room. The rest of the day was pretty much a blur. Tony lectured about Ophi history. Arianna made something for dinner. It wasn’t my turn to help with the dishes, so I headed to my room to lie down. I wasn’t up for interacting with everyone. Not that anyone really wanted to interact with me. They weren’t being mean or anything, but they weren’t going out of their way to talk to me either.

I flopped facedown on my bed and tried to let the awfulness of the day melt away. It might have helped a little if someone hadn’t knocked on my door.

I sighed and got up to answer it. Chase was standing in the hall with a big bowl of popcorn and a movie in his hands. Oh, this wasn’t going to be good.

“Um, what’s up?” I asked, fully aware of how dumb that sounded.

“Thought you could use a good horror movie to forget your troubles.” He shook the DVD, and I saw it was a zombie flick. How appropriate.

“You’re kidding, right? My life is pretty much a horror movie. How would this make me forget about it?” I couldn’t help it. I laughed. Chase smiled, and I realized that was his exact reason for choosing the horror movie. The sheer irony of it.

“So, what do you say?” His eyes were hopeful, and I didn’t want to crush him by saying no. After all, he was the only one talking to me right now. Still, being alone in my room with Chase could only add up to trouble. There was only one thing to do.

“Tell you what, let’s invite the others. I know Arianna and Tony won’t go for it, but Alex, Leticia, and Randy might want to watch.” So much for not wanting to interact with people tonight.

Chase’s face fell. It wasn’t what he was hoping for.

“Go on in.” I opened the door more. “I’ll go get the others.” I hurried down the hall before he could protest. Leticia’s room was the closest, so I started there.

“Leticia.” I lightly tapped on the door. “We’re all going to watch a movie in my room. Want to come?” I figured I’d have better luck if I made it seem like everyone else had already agreed to it.

She opened the door and shrugged. “I guess.”

“Great, go on in my room. Chase is setting it up now. I’ll be there in a second.” I continued down the hall to Randy’s room. It didn’t take much to convince him. The mention of popcorn was enough. I’d saved Alex for last because I knew he’d be the most difficult to convince.

“Alex?” I called through the door. “It’s Jodi.”

He opened the door. “You think I don’t know your voice by now?”

I smiled. He didn’t look angry with me anymore. “I missed you.”

“You saw me at lessons and dinner.”

“Yeah, but it’s not the same.” I leaned forward and kissed him.

“What was that for?”

“For understanding about the corpse and cleaning up my mess for me. I seem to be needing a lot of help lately, and you’re always there for me.”

“Want to come in?” he asked.

“Actually, I want you to come to my room.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Okay.” He didn’t hesitate. He closed his door and wrapped one arm around my waist as we headed to my room.

Okay, so I’d purposely misled him, but I had to get him to come with me. It was the only way I was going to make it through the group movie. The only way I’d be able to keep myself from staring at Chase. As we got to my open door, Alex heard and saw the group inside.

“What’s going on?” He stopped short, hooking his finger through my belt loop so I had to stop, too.

“Movie night.” I tried to sound all innocent. “Come on. Things have been tense lately. I think it would do everyone good to hang out and watch a zombie flick.”

“A zombie flick? What moron decided that would be a good movie choice for a bunch of stressed out necromancers?”

“I did.” Chase stepped into the doorway. “This was my idea, only I was hoping—”

“That everyone would think the zombie thing was funny,” I blurted out before Chase could tell Alex what his real plan had been. To get me alone.