My Date From Hell (26 page)

“I want to tell you something,” I said, taking a seat on my bed. I wanted to let him know that I loved him.

Kai pushed me back so that he fell on top of me. “Eight minutes.” The hunger and heat in his eyes sent all thoughts of talking out the window.

Kai’s kisses were a great way to spend eight minutes.

“Tell me again why you love me,” I said, between long, slow kisses. I was splayed on my back, Kai’s weight pressing into me.

Growing up with Felicia, “I love you” wasn’t something I’d ever heard. And I’d definitely never had it said by someone who sent scorching, crackling electricity down to my toes when he put his lips to mine.

What a scandalicious novelty. “You know,” I murmured, “what a delight I am.”

“Oh, the delight,” he mugged.

I punched him.

Kai propped himself up on an elbow. I loved when he looked down at me like that, his hair flopping over one brow. “There was a lot of drama with Persephone.”

“Whereas my Sophie self is drama free.” I brushed the lock out of the way and arched up for another kiss.

“No, sweetheart, you have your own brand of drama,” he said as we broke apart, both of us breathing raggedly. His eyes glinted with smug satisfaction. I couldn’t begrudge him because I bet I looked pretty damn pleased myself.

Kai grinned and kissed the tip of my nose. “But you’re smart, and beautiful, and you challenge me
—
”

“Which clearly no other girl has ever done,” I added.

“And you piss off my father. What’s not to love?”

“So that’s all it takes?”

He thought about it. “Pretty much.”

“Hmm. You had a weird way of showing it when you first found me.”

“I was in shock. Not only were you alive; you’d been downgraded to human. Don’t freak out.”

“I’m not freaking out. This is my calm, ‘I’m listening,’ face.”

Kai rolled us over so I laid on top of him, his arm a steel band welding our bodies together. “Yeah? ‘Cause you’re trying to destroy my leg.”

I pulled my vines back in. “Whoops.”

He released my hands and met my gaze. “I had no idea what to do with a human. You definitely weren’t like all the others who just fell at my feet.”

I mock frowned. “See, you were doing so well. Gotta learn when to quit.”

“Terribly sorry.”

“You should kiss me to make it better.”

He leaned in, his lips against mine. “I really should.”

I smiled against his mouth. “You figured out how to handle me just fine in the end.” I arched an eyebrow at him, radiating blatant come-on.

Kai shook his head in bafflement, which was not at all the
bring it, baby
response my body desired.

My smile fell flat and he grinned in self-mockery. “Nope. Still no clue.”

The next few minutes of wow! proved what a liar he was.

Luckily (sadly) I caught sight of the clock, pushed Kai off me, and scrambled to my feet. “Meeting. Ack! But don’t go anywhere, okay? Because we’re staying together until the equinox. And beyond.”

He smiled at me. “If you insist.”

I really liked the sight of Kai, flushed and tousled, all lazily splayed on my bed. I had to blink hard to tear my eyes away from the sight. I leaned over and kissed him hard. “Yeah. I insist.”

I so badly wanted to stay with him, but it was time to face the music.

I raced to the door and grasped the knob.

“Sophie?”

I paused and glanced back at Kai. He was propped on one elbow, an inscrutable expression on his face. “The date? Was it memorable? In a good way?”

I thought about its many and varied low points
—
seeing Kai’s reaction to Persephone’s image, thinking I’d found Demeter, believing Hannah’s life was on the line. That had all been a massive pile of suck.

But then again, that had been Jack’s doing. Been the mission.

The date had been Kai laughing and talking with me. Chasing after me and showing me the stars.

Telling me he loved me.

I blushed. “Yeah.”

Kai shooed me off. “Hurry. You can’t be late.”

My heart dropped. Damn! I really wanted to tell him that I loved him. I mean, I’m sure he knew, but it was important for him to hear it.

But I had to go. “You’ll wait?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he assured me, stretching back and making himself comfortable.

Okay. I’d tell him after the meeting. We had all the time in the world, right?

Famous last words.

Twenty-two

I raced down the stairs, noting with interest that people had begun to vandalize Bethany’s posters. Some had been tagged, some ripped down with only a corner left, and others were defaced in the classic mustache style.

Yay for teens being normal teens.

Thumping music from the Winter Formal drifted down the hallway as I sprinted to Doucette’s office. How surreal to think the dance was still going on as if nothing had happened. I felt like I’d lived a lifetime since I’d won the crown.

I made it to Principal Doucette’s office as everyone was settling in.

I took my seat and glanced around the room. There was Doucette, some harried woman who introduced herself as the psychologist for the school district, and Mr. Locke.

But no Felicia.

I didn’t know whether to feel relieved or angry.

Doucette waited five minutes but finally he stood and moved to shut the door.

Just as Felicia breezed through it. “Sorry, I’m late,” she said, in the same bored tone she said everything.

I hadn’t seen her in months. She looked exactly as she always did, impeccably dressed in tailored pants and a silky blouse, with understated makeup and not a honey-blonde hair out of place. She tossed her designer coat carelessly over the back of a chair.

While I knew she was really in her early forties, no one ever believed it.

She was a beautiful women. On the outside.

On the inside, she was a grade “A” bitch. She barely acknowledged my presence, nevermind showing concern that her only child had been missing for months.

The meeting began.

It was pretty much what you would have expected. The psychologist dove in with a lot of general psych questions, like “did I want to harm myself and others?”

Want? No. Need? Often due to extenuating circumstances of the Greek variety. But I didn’t share that.

And loads more random stuff that I’m sure was supposed to test if I hated my mother and wanted to marry my dad.

Yes, if they meant Felicia and ew! Again, no sharing.

Really, my restraint was remarkable.

We moved on to my behavior toward Bethany and Kai.

“Bethany’s charges were pretty serious, Sophie,” Mr. Locke said.

At least I could set the record straight on that one. “I didn’t stalk Kai. He’s my boyfriend.”

Felicia showed a brief glimmer of interest at that. Probably amazed a breathing male would want me.

“Ask him yourself.” I almost said, “He’s up in my room,” but caught myself before getting expelled for an entirely different reason. “Bethany was the jealous one.”

“We’ll definitely be checking that out,” Doucette said. “But you still haven’t accounted for your whereabouts for the past two months.”

Everyone leaned forward.

Except, of course, Felicia. She was drumming a pencil against her thigh, staring out the window into the night.

Doucette cleared his throat to get her attention and she actually flashed me a look of annoyance.

So sorry that the explanation for my disappearance cut into your daydreaming, Mom.

Until that moment, I hadn’t been sure what I was going to say. I knew they’d ask me the question. Knew that my answer would be what determined whether I’d get to stay or not.

Frankly, I’d been too busy dealing with everything else to think about it.

But in that moment, watching Felicia fail to give a damn, I knew exactly what to say.

“I went to see my birth father.”

That got her attention.

She started to tap the pencil faster.

Interesting. What did she think she knew about whoever had been listed as my birth parents that she’d neglected to share with me?

“Could you elaborate?” the psychologist asked.

“My birth father. I found him. I was having a rough time … with Bethany.” What the hell. Might as well toss that in. “He wanted to meet and I saw it as a chance to get away from it all. I should have been more responsible about it. I’m sorry.”

I hung my head, the picture of contrition, as everyone save Felicia began to discuss this development.

I glanced up at her and my heart stopped.

Felicia was twirling the pencil in the same complicated pattern I’d seen only twice before.

Once by Kai at Delphyne’s.

And once by my murderer as I laid dying as Persephone in the Underworld.

I couldn’t breathe.

I was frozen, staring at Felicia as her eyes stayed locked on the window.

This had to be a coincidence, right? Felicia couldn’t be my murderer. That would mean she’d been in the Underworld.

There had never been any mention of Felicia in the Underworld. And Theo would have known. Just as he’d known Demeter had somehow snuck in.

Unless …

Felicia is Demeter
?

Impossible. My entire body rebelled at the thought. There was no way that Felicia was Demeter. No way that my horrible excuse for a parent was the same caring mother of legend.

I don’t know if she got bored of the view or felt the weight of my gaze, but she turned and looked at me.

Saw me staring at the twirling pencil.

Her hand faltered for a second.

“Mom?”

Her chin came up and she calmly met my eyes.

Oh.

Felicia
was
Demeter.

I lost the thread of the rest of the meeting.

Stopped caring.

The world ground down into slow motion. Sounds were distorted, movements grotesquely disjointed.

When I’d met the sham Demeter at Maia’s, the imitation had gelled with who I’d imagined Demeter to be. And while my friends had been suspicious of her, none of them had disputed the caring she’d shown.

In fact, Kai had insisted on how much Demeter loved Persephone. How much she would love me.

I ground my palms into my temples, tried to stop the sensation of my head being cinched in a vise. I couldn’t understand it.
Sixteen years
. She’d been near me this entire time and I could count the number of warm, fuzzy memories I had of her on one hand.

She knew she hadn’t lost me. Hadn’t lost Persephone. No, she had known who I was.

Had to have arranged it somehow, without even Theo knowing. Because I knew in my gut this would all be news to him.

I raised my head and stared at Felicia, each blink of my lashes a heavy thud, wondering how. And
why
?

Why hadn’t she loved me?

Why hadn’t she at least talked to me when my goddess side was awoken?

Doucette, Locke, and the psychologist were still talking amongst themselves. But Felicia simply watched me with a shrewd look.

I met her eyes and the hatred that flashed there for the briefest second made me grip the underside of my chair, paralyzed in fear.

Why did she hate me so much?

My breath caught. Hate me enough to kill me. Or, kill Persephone.

Because sixteen years ago, that’s exactly what she’d done.

And if she could murder the child for whom she’d arranged the stars in the sky, what was she going to do to me, who she’d never cared about?

I started to shake. I had never felt so cold, so scared, or so lost.

Eventually, I became aware that everyone was watching me.

Dazed, I blinked at them.

The other adults exchanged a concerned look.

“As you can see,” I started at Felicia’s perfectly modulated voice. “My daughter has problems.”

Huh? I snapped back to attention.

“All this business about her father is a lie. Look at her, she’s spaced out, her eyes are glassy, she’s clearly under the influence.”

I shook my head. “No. It’s because … you’re my mother.”

“See?” Felicia nodded as if I’d proved her point. “Unaware of the obvious. I’m afraid,” she continued, “that I’m going to have to remove Sophie. Bring her home for her own benefit.”

I jumped to my feet, wide-eyed. “No!”

I’d be killed if I left the school. If not by the Photokia and Pyrosim, then by her, finishing what she started sixteen years ago.

I lunged across Principal Doucette’s desk and grabbed onto his hand. “Please. Don’t let her take me.”

“Perhaps she could stay and get some counseling,” he began, his grip on me tightening.

“I’m not on drugs!” The shaking and panic probably weren’t helping my case, but I was terrified.

Felicia gave a tight smile. “You lost her once. I can’t entrust the safety of my child to this place any longer.”

Ladies and gentleman, that was irony.

I started laughing.

Felicia stood, gathered her jacket, took me by the arm, and yanked me free of Doucette’s grasp. “We’ll send for her things.” She led me from the principal’s office.

Dragged me, actually, because I was trying to grab onto anything I could to stop our progress. But she wasn’t any ordinary mom. She was Demeter.

And she was strong.

Felicia manhandled me out of the front office as I laughed hysterically.

I attracted a crowd as we passed through the foyer, but none of them wanted to follow the nutjob out the door.

Especially not when Kai shoved his way through and sent them scattering with a terrifying look.

“Kai.” I reached out behind me for him. He could stop this.

He reached us as Felicia yanked me down the front stairs.

“Leave her alone.” I had never heard him sound so cold.

Felicia paused and turned to Kai with the smile that made men fall at her feet. “Kyrillos, it
is
you. What a delightful surprise, darling.”

I flung a desperate glance at Kai over my shoulder.

He’d frozen at her words but quickly snapped out of it. “Demeter, you’re not taking her anywhere.”

My mother cocked her head and tapped a finger against her mouth, as if she was thinking. “Why I think that I am, rather. She’s certainly not staying here.”

“If she leaves here, she’s in danger,” Kai said.

Especially with her. It didn’t matter how much I fought against Felicia’s grip, she wasn’t letting go. “How could you want me dead?” I asked in a pathetically small voice, shaking from shock and the cold, since I still wore my party dress. “You loved me.”

I had forgotten that Demeter’s actions were news to Kai. He sounded almost as shocked as I felt. “Demeter murdered you?”

She ignored Kai and released her hold on me. “Look at you. You’re freezing.” She gently placed her coat over my shoulders. Felicia smelled of her signature Chanel perfume.What might have been comforting had just become creepy. Mother me so she could kill me.

I bolted but was hauled back against Felicia before I’d taken three steps. She faced Kai, completely calm, not even flinching at the deadly fury of his expression.

She was either very brave or very stupid. Felicia readjusted her hold on me. “Yes. I loved you so much I followed you into the Underworld. Into Tartarus. Risked my life see you, to be with you.” She sounded sad.

“Then why?” This made no sense. What could have poisoned her like this?

Her voice hardened. “Things change.” She resumed pulling me toward the parking lot.

I wrenched myself from her grip with Kai’s help. “I’m not going.”

She shrugged and continued walking. “You’re not staying, either. I’m no longer paying your tuition. And since you’re obviously not scholarship material,” she chuckled to herself. “Home it is.”

Kai clenched my hand in a bone-crushing grip as we followed her. “I’ll pay,” he said. “You’re not taking her anywhere.”

Felicia beeped her silver sports car open. “Cute. But I’m the legal guardian. I’m responsible for her.”

“In what dictionary is ‘murder’ part of the definition of ‘responsible?’” I demanded.

“You’re insane if you think I’ll let her leave,” he said.

“Why ever would you want her?” she asked, surprised, one hand on the car door.

My hurt deepened.

“Kyrillos?” she asked once more. “Why would you want someone who was going to betray you?” She laughed at the shock on our faces. “Why do you think I tried to kill her?”

Her voice grew hard. “Persephone was supposed to place
me
in power. That was the plan. Kyrillos, you were simply the expendable means of doing so. But in the end, she wanted it all for herself. She was going to betray us both. I don’t like being betrayed. Did our Sophie neglect to tell you all that?”

My mind reeled.

Kai’s voice was low. “You’re lying.”

Felicia threw him a patronizing look. “Really, darling. Does she have you snowed that thoroughly?”

Kai stared at me with what looked like desperation. “Tell me it’s not true.”

“Of course it’s not …”

True. Because now I remembered. And I knew.

I had never been the victim. Had never been betrayed by Kai, or abandoned by my mother.

I’d been the betrayer.

The monster had arrived. And it was me.

Kai paled. “Never again. No more betrayals.” The coldness in Kai’s voice broke my heart. “
No more games
.”

“It wasn’t me. It was Persephone.”

He gave a harsh laugh. “You
are
Persephone. Just because she’s your past, doesn’t mean she’s not you.”

“Kai … I love you. I’d never hurt you.”

He flinched. “Hurt doesn’t have to be physical,” he said softly, echoing what he’d told me about Hades and the dragonflies.