My Ex From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy) (15 page)

“The enchanted one. For Delphyne’s head. After you decapitate her.”

I felt queasy. Killing with my awesome powers from afar, excellent. Getting up close and personal to saw through something? Not so much. “I need to cut off her head?”

“After she’s dead. See, Apollo already killed her once.”

“And yet she’s here. That bodes well,” I snarked.

“His problem,” Theo continued ignoring me, “was that he didn’t properly finish her off.”

“You have that in common.” Hannah smiled brightly at me.

“Yeah. Some things just don’t have the common courtesy to stay dead,” Theo agreed.

“I think we have you to blame for Sophie,” Hannah pointed out to him. “I could have had a lovely roommate all these years. Maybe with a boat. I always wanted a friend with a boat.”

“See if I save you, Nygard. Where do we find this box?”

Mr. Naiman gave a sharp blast on his whistle. “Stations, people! One minute vigorous activity for each exercise. On my count.”

“Nysa. A nymph,” Theo replied as we made for the hand weights.

He was looking at me expectantly. I called him on it. “Am I supposed to know her?”

“Yeah. Wondering if you remembered her.”

“Sorry. I’m sure she’s very nice,” I said, picking up a couple of five-pounders.

Theo picked up a set of ten pound weights and laughed as Mr. Naiman blew his whistle.

We met Theo’s very nice nymph at 2am the next morning. “She some kind of vampire nymph? Can’t keep daylight hours?” I was tired, shivering despite the many layers of sweatclothes under my jacket, and would have liked just one Greek figure to behave normally.

I was also somewhat edgy since we were waiting near the bank of the creek and even though Theo had assured me a thousand times that the portal was safely shut, I continually worried that Cerberus was going to poke his triple-headed ugly mug out and finish me.

One worry led me to another and soon I was thinking about what Theo had given up. “Do you ever miss it?”

He stared off into the sky, up at the few visible stars. I worried that maybe I’d overstepped and he wasn’t going to answer, but after a moment he looked at me. “You know how people who’ve had limbs amputated can still feel them? Phantom limbs. They itch and they tingle and the person swears that arm or whatever is still there?”

I nodded.

“I swear I can still feel that part of me. Sixteen years since I was a Titan, and every single day I wake with a moment of dread and shock at what I’ve lost.”

“Then why?”

“Because when you’ve been around forever, you have to find something outside yourself to believe in or go mad. I believe in humanity. I believe in you.”

My palms were sweaty and my heart was racing. “What if I’m not worth it?”

“You have to be.” He gave me a crooked grin. “Because you’re going to have to compensate for Kai.”

Well, if Theo could joke, maybe the situation wasn’t totally bleak.

The creek began to shimmer. Instinctively, I took a step back, placing Theo square between me and the water. A form rose gracefully from the surface.

Nysa was everything one might expect of a nymph. Slender, with waist length auburn ringlets and large blue eyes, her skin was creamy white. Basically, she was gorgeous.

Unfair! I punched Theo who turned confused eyes my way. “Next time,” I hissed “prepare me so I can dress appropriately.” I’d never been a girl to care about keeping up with the Jones’, but sheesh! Sweats versus the dazzlingness of a nymph was a little too unbalanced, even for me. All I needed to complete the moment was Kai showing up.

I tensed, unsure of how to greet such a spectacular creature and thinking of possible formal salutations. Then she opened her mouth.

“Ahhhhhh” she squealed. “Oh my goddess, I can’t even believe it’s you!” She bopped out of the river—clad only in some strategically placed seaweed—and rushed me like a twelve-year-old girl reunited with her BFF at summer camp.

She jumped up and down as she clenched me in a hug. Squashed, I looked past her to Theo, who was lamely attempting to keep his composure.

“Like, I can’t even believe you’re here? When I heard from Prometheus, I was all ‘no way.’ But he was like ‘way.’ And he’s such a serious ninny that I totally knew he wasn’t lying.”

That description of Theo so failed to resonate with me that I made a mental note to learn whatever I could about Prometheus. Turning human must have entailed a massive personality switch.

Nysa hadn’t stopped talking this entire time. “… She was being such a Medusa head about letting me come. We both knew it was about that seriously cute shepherd liking me and not her. So. Not. My. Fault.” She tossed her hair. “I can’t help being beautiful.” Nysa screeched again. “I love your new size. You used to be so tall, but now …” She pranced around me in a gleeful jig. “We’re the same height. It’s like we’re sisters!” She poked my padded (99% clothing, 1% chocolate) belly. “‘Cept I’m the skinny one!”

Nysa threaded her arm through mine and waited. I had no idea what for. “Uh, yeah.”

Apparently that was enough because she jumped up and down. “Whaddya wanna do first?”

“Get the box?”

She stopped jumping and turned a very displeased frown on me. I rushed on. “Please. We’re under a kind of tight timeline.”

The creek water bubbled. I glanced at it nervously. “And there are a few people who need to be saved.”

Steam rose off the water. Nysa glowered at me with full-on hatred. “You haven’t seen me in sixteen years and all you can say is you want the box?”

I had the strongest sense that should I say the wrong thing, she might cause my blood to bubble. Time to switch gears. I tossed my hair in my best Bethany imitation and fake laughed. “Just to get the stupid thing out of the way, silly. Theo—Prometheus is so uptight about it. Mr. Stick-up-his-butt.”

Theo glared at me, but it was the least he deserved. It was also the right thing to say because Nysa brightened and slapped her forehead. “You. Are. So. Right.” She retrieve a small black plastic cube from the creek and tossed it to Theo. It didn’t look big enough to hold a finger, much less an entire head. “Scram, boy. This is girlfriend only time.”

“Wouldn’t dream of impinging,” he said, a big smile on his face.

The look I fired back at him promised tortures galore. He was going to leave me with this mentally unstable, dangerous child? I sighed. Fine. I’d give Nysa half an hour and then beg off.

“What now?” I asked brightly.

“Kyrillos.” She giggled. “Spill.”

I thought it was going to be a very long half hour.

I was so wrong. It was a very long six hours. She made me tell her every detail of my life, then regaled me with her share of sixteen years worth of gossip involving total strangers. Supposedly, I’d known them at some point and should have had a shred of interest. It made reality television seem deep. I couldn’t believe I’d cared about it all, at any point.

Somewhere during my third seaweed wrap at the makeshift spa Nysa had set up creekside, as she prattled on about the ongoing saga between Aphrodite and her latest boy toy, I zoned out. I was exhausted, hungry, numb, and suffering from a blinding migraine. If I didn’t get away from Nysa and her mindless chattering soon, I was going to turn my powers on myself, end my suffering, and let the human race fend for itself.

I rose and shook off the seaweed. “This has been so super swell but I have to get ready for class.” Nysa stared at me like I was an idiot.

“But, like, you’re a goddess.”

“In human form.”

“No probs. I’ll come with.” Her eyes shone with fervent eagerness. Yeah. That would be great. She could swan into Hope Park mostly naked and I’d pass her off as my cousin. I’m sure no one would mind.

“Are there a lot of cuties?”

That finished it for me. There was already a dragon loose at Hope Park. No nympho nymphs needed. We were full up.

“Nysa.” It was my most placating tone.

The creek began to boil again.

“Nysa,” I tried again, ignoring the unnatural bubbles frothing in the creek bed. “We can hang another time. Soon. But I really need to go and I’m sure you’re being missed and—”

“I’m not finished with you yet!” Huh. More banshee than nymph on that one.

She turned to me with wild eyes, enraged. “You can’t tell me what to do! No one tells me what to do. I call the shots!” Before I knew what was happening, she’d wrapped her fingers around my throat and was trying to choke me.

Bless those wards. I definitely had to compliment Theo on a job well done. The second she squeezed my neck, she was flung back violently onto the ground.

“Ouch,” she whined. “Whatcha you do that for, huh?”

I wagged my finger at her, parent style. “You tried to choke me. No hurting the goddess.”

Her bottom lip quivered. “You don’t want to play anymore.”

“I’m sure we had this problem before. What happened when I wanted you to leave?”

“I never left.”

“You must have left at some point.” There was no way I left this running tap of crazy on around me 24/7.

“We played Hide and Seek. I hid and you seeked. You were terrible.” She giggled at the memory. “I could hide for days.” Her voice turned sad. “Then you went to Hades and I never saw you again.” A tear glistened beautifully down her cheek.

Awww. She was guilting me out. I hated being guilt-tripped. I attributed it to my unbalanced personality problem. Worrying about Bethany, wanting to placate the batty nymph; my adolescent-goddess duality must have been messing with my hormones something awful.

I checked my watch. Still a half hour before class. I guessed I could squeeze in a few more minutes. “Why don’t we—”

“Nysa.” A very displeased Kai had silently arrived. Fabulous. Couldn’t he walk up like a regular person? Dude was the poster child for abnormal and irritating behavior. He looked between Nysa and me.

I glowered at him in all his broody hotness and pulled my coat tighter around me, emphasizing my Michelin Man silhouette.

The only upside was that Nysa had gone pale. “K-Kyrillos,” she stammered. Quickly, she pecked me on the cheek. “Gotta dash,” she trilled in a shrill falsetto. She dove into the creek and vanished.

“I’m missing something here. Why is she so scared of you?”

Kai grinned. “I’m a very scary god.”

“No. Seriously.”

“Nysa used to drive you insane.”

“That hasn’t changed.”

“First time she tried to follow you into Hades, you asked me to take care of it. I did. She never tried to visit you there again.”

I was intrigued. “What did you do?”

“Nope. A god’s gotta have his secrets. No mystery otherwise.”

I laughed before remembering that I was mad at him. I think. Kai hadn’t bothered to show himself to me since he’d dropped his bombshell on me and pronounced me his. For someone who protested so strongly against being considered human, he did an awfully good impression of a caveman.

He had me so confused, I didn’t know what I felt toward him anymore. “So? Been busy?” I asked breezily.

“Yes. Dragon, remember?”

“She’s back?”

“No. But I did find out a few things. Delphyne was the keeper of the Oracle. The site
and
the priestess. Guarded them. Once there was no more Oracle, she was out of a job. Evidently, she’s been trying to find a suitable priestess ever since.”

“Cassie.” A thought occurred to me. “When my change set off Cassie’s, she must have popped up on Keeper’s radar. I wonder if that’s what that truth exercise was all about? Her wanting to test if Cassie really was prophetic.”

Kai didn’t know what I was talking about so I explained what had happened in class that day. “Wouldn’t be surprised,” he said.

“So Delphyne’s taken her to Greece?”

“Nope. No sign of her anywhere.”

“Then she must be in Keeper’s office behind window number one.”

Holy crap. I had to go kill a dragon now. Guess I’d be missing class. “Be vewy vewy quiet. I’m going dwagon hunting.” Because really, if you couldn’t crack inappropriate jokes in the face of possible death, when could you?

Kai looked at me for a long minute before he sighed heavily and took my arm. “Come on.”

“Thanks, but I’m good.”

“You let a nymph guilt trip you. What are you going to do when the dragon turns her big brown eyes on you? Other than get roasted.”

“Charming.” I took in his stubborn expression, considered how much I felt like having this fight, and decided the answer was “not at all.” “I’ll let you come for guilt duty, but the dragon is mine.”

“Go nuts.”

Talk about making a girl feel special. Anymore sweet talk and I’d behead him myself.

I brightened. So long as there was a plan.

11

United we stand, deluded we fall

ια
’

We ran into Anil on the way back inside. “The divine Miz S,” Anil enthused. He had a partly open sports bag slung over one shoulder, inside of which I could see his wrestling gear.

After my encounter with Nysa the spectacular (and spectacularly insane), my ego was desperate for any compliment. I took off my jacket, like that was going to up my appearance factor. “We have to stop meeting like this,” I joked.

“Getting to be a regular event, I hear,” Kai said, flashing Anil a smile that showed a little too much tooth. He placed his hand on the small of my back.

It was possessive and ridiculous and blatantly “mine is bigger than yours” posturing. I won’t lie. I thrilled. For about two seconds. Then I opened my mouth to tell him to quit it precisely as he started stroking his thumb over my sweatshirt in feather light touches.

I squirmed, highly distracted.

Anil threw me an odd look.

“Someone must have walked over my gra-ve?” I ended on a squealed question as Kai slipped his hand underneath my top to continue with skin to skin contact. I was positive I was blushing.

“Whatevs. Catch you at dinner.” He frowned at Kai, who smiled blandly.

The stroking didn’t stop. “You’ve made your point. He’s gone.”

Kai’s fingers trailed down my back to the top of my pants. “Maybe the point wasn’t for him.”

I met his gaze, refusing to be cowed into submission. Massaged into submission. Whichever. “You going to help me slay a dragon or not?”

“If I do, does that make me your knight?”

“If only you could be labeled so easily.”

Kai laughed. How come he only sounded that entertained when it was at me, not with me?

“Why do I get the feeling that nothing else amuses you as much as I do?”

Kai’s only response was an enigmatic smile as he towed me along to the gym.

Theo and Hannah were waiting. Hannah handed me a King Size package of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

I unwrapped it. “You got peanut butter in my chocolate.”

“You got chocolate in my peanut butter,” she answered, taking one of the cups.

We giggled. I offered the third one to Theo, who declined, so I rewrapped the rest and shoved it in my pocket for later.

“I’ll have one,” Kai said.

“There’s a corner store in town. Go nuts,” I mimicked. Take that, suckah.

“All caught up with the nymph?” Theo asked.

“Any other old friends I should reacquaint myself with? A man-eating python, a giant with anger issues? We could have tea.”

Theo snickered. “At least we got the box.”

Kai held out his hand to see it and Theo tossed him the box. Kai turned it over, not looking enormously impressed.

“It expands when we open it,” Theo informed him.

“No kidding.”

I attempted to take it from Kai. He held it away from me. After a couple of useless jumps to retrieve it, I gave up and adopted a Western swagger. “All right, hoss, guess you’re on box duty. But save the killin’ fer me.”

Kai scowled at Theo. “‘Hoss?’ Was there so little choice of available humans that you had to pick this one? Six billion and you get the one who should have been left on the hilltop to die?”

Hi-larious. As soon as the dragon was dead and Cassie safe (fine, and Bethany too), I was going to find a way to get Kai’s ass expelled and out of my hair. “Let’s do this.”

“Try to remember everything about it,” Hannah said.

“You’re not coming?”

“’Course she’s not,” Theo said.

“I’m not a lethal weapon like you, Soph. I can’t lock and load.”

“I know, but we’re a team. You, me, Theo.” I pointed at Kai. “Even Gilligan there. I just figured that you’d be by my side for this. I’ll keep you safe.”

Hannah hesitated.

I continued with my song and dance. “My whole life, I’ve listened to you go on about one deadly animal after another. You’re obsessed with things but all you ever do is read about them.” I took her hand. “You need to get out of your comfort zone. I mean, I know it’s not easy, but you’re sixteen. You can’t spend your life secluded away. You gotta engage with the world in all its glory and danger. It’s normal. Plus, we’re talking dragon here.”

“You just go for the emotional jugular, don’t you?” Hannah muttered, pulling her hand away.

Despite knowing that this adventure would be dangerous, I wasn’t callously disregarding Hannah’s safety. I really believed that with the level of my powers, I could keep her safe. And I was sure she’d regret missing this opportunity for the rest of her life.

“Listen, if you believe that between Kai and me,” I said, shooting him an “agree or else” look, “we can’t protect you, then stay. But if anything I’ve said is true, then push yourself and come.”

Hannah glanced uncertainly at Kai. “I’ll watch your back,” he assured her.

“We going or what?” Theo demanded. I think all of the sharing and the insights were making him nauseous.

“We’re going,’ Hannah announced. I squeezed her arm. She brightened. “I’d be an idiot to turn down the chance to see my phony school counselor in dragon form.”

Kai looked puzzled. “How do you remember that?”

She grinned. “The miracle of flashcards. Helps you memorize anything. Even seemingly non-existent students and faculty. Give me one sec. I just need to race up and grab something.”

I handed her my jacket and sweater to dump in our room. She returned momentarily wearing a couple of long scarves as belts. Hey, if she needed to accessorize to feel brave, I for one was not going to criticize her.

The door to Ms. Keeper’s office opened easily. Either no one had been inside since Kai’s and Theo’s fight or Stan was getting lazy, because the debris remained. The warded up window still glowed blue.

Theo pulled out the dragon scale. “Watch and marvel.” He said something in Greek under his breath, then swiped the scale in a complicated pattern against the invisible barrier. Theo released the scale and it fell through the windowpane freely. “We’re good to go.”

“Nice. How’d you do that?” I was definitely impressed.

“I figured the barrier was probably keyed to Delphyne’s body. She had to be able to get through no problem. All I had to do at that point was make the ward believe that the scale was her entire self and let us through in one piece.”

“Pretty fab,” Hannah complimented.

Kai picked up a pencil and tossed it through the window frame. When it failed to set off any traps, he swung his leg over and hopped down.

Our unholy alliance was on its way. The blue glow provided some light, but Theo pulled out his chain, which immediately began to glow brightly enough to light our way properly. A corridor stretched before us, running about ten feet before it angled sharply left. We set off.

Every few feet, Theo would snap the chain forward in case any other traps were set. Since none of us were up for small talk, I took the opportunity to examine my surroundings.

Everything was rough. The floor was broken and uneven, like damaged cobblestones.

The walls were stone, although they were damp. Rivulets of water streamed down the sides and I was hit with the occasional drip on my forehead from the low ceiling.

From the way Hannah was manically swiveling her head around, I could tell she was committing every detail to memory for future examination.

“Happy you came?” I asked. She made a “shush” gesture at me and moved up ahead with Theo.

Kai laughed softly.

The corridor made a couple more sharp turns, then hit a dead end.

Theo turned to Kai. “Remind you of anything? Twisting paths, dead ends?”

Kai swore. “The labyrinth.”

I twigged a past class lecture. “You mean like the Minotaur? We’re going to run into a bull man?”

“I think the dragon is enough,” Kai responded dryly.

There was too much hesitation and not enough saving going on. I pivoted and strode three whole steps back before I was restrained by Kai’s hand on my shoulder. He spun me around.

“We’re in a labyrinth. You do understand that word, right? Big maze designed to trap people. Usually with something very bad at the center.”

“Don’t talk down to me. I’m not an idiot. Nor am I helpless. I’ll proceed with extreme caution, but lives are at stake here. So hurry up.”

Kai sent a small blast into the stone walls. Just enough to scorch them, with minimal smoking. When I shot him a questioning glance, he replied, “We need to know which way we’ve been. To get out again.” He continued to do this all the way through, differentiating between passageways which led nowhere and the useful ones.

We tried a different direction. Another dead end.

“Is this a common element of labyrinth design?”

“Yeah. It’s a standard aspect of the ‘you’re screwed’ school of architecture,” Kai deadpanned.

I blinked in surprise, taken aback by Kai’s sense of humor.

The corners of his mouth twitched up at my expression. “You’re thinking there’s hope for me, after all?”

“Let’s not get crazy.”

Theo snapped his chain down another path. It seemed safe. “Left?”

The rest of us shrugged in agreement. We’d find out soon enough if the path was useless.

We came to a large fissure in the wall and stopped to examine it. The air behind it was stale and stagnant.

“Structural damage?” Hannah asked, casting a worried glance up at the ceiling.

The thought of all this rock tumbling down on me was enough to give me a claustrophobia attack.

“Of sorts,” Theo replied, darting a questioning glance at Kai, who nodded.

“You boys want to fill me in?” Anything to distract myself from the thought of being buried alive.

Kai traced the edge of the fissure. “I think Delphyne designed this labyrinth.”

“Guardian of the Oracle and Maze Designer. She’s a real Renaissance dragon.” I would have preferred a double threat of singer/dancer, but apparently it wasn’t my choice to make.

“You don’t get it,” Theo said. “‘Designed’ is the wrong word. More like created. The maze’s existence is tied to her will.”

“So?”

Kai pointed to the fissure. “It’s coming undone.”

Hannah frowned, puzzled. “Which means she’s losing strength?” This could work in our favor.

“Which means she’s losing her mind. My bet is she’s come unhinged.”

“Why now?” I asked.

“Who knows? Maybe the stress of the final push to her goal? Maybe just having kept a human form for too long?” Kai squared his shoulders and tried a new path. Theo, Hannah, and I followed grimly.

“Seems promising,” Hannah commented, glancing about the path. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than the floor dropped out beneath us.

“Ahh!” We were falling at impossible speeds into an inky nothingness. There was no way I wanted to find out what was at the bottom.

I shot a ribbon of light out with my left palm and wove it carefully around the others’ wrists. With my right, I shot the light back up at the ceiling. It held like a giant Spidey web.

“Whatever you do,” Kai warned, “don’t look—”

Down. Too late. There we were, swinging in mid-air. Far far below us was what must have been an enormous fire, since I was able to see the bubbling flames so clearly.

I got woozy contemplating it. We began to sway. What was it with the Greeks and their unnatural love of all things fiery? Why couldn’t they have an obsession with, say, death by chocolate?

“You ever going to learn not to look?” Theo chastised.

“Theo!” Hannah snapped. “That’s not helping.” She glanced at the ribbons nervously. “That’s not gonna dustify us, is it?”

“Great, put that in her head,” Theo muttered.

“N-no,” I stammered, making sure to think only binding thoughts not killing thoughts.

My light ribbon dropped us down a few more feet.

“Easy, Goddess,” Kai murmured.

“Soph, look at me,” Hannah ordered.

I forced myself to make eye contact. We were swaying dangerously.

“I never told you this before, but I kissed Jason Fried in grade two.”

“I liked him! I even put glue in his hair so he’d notice me.”

Hannah shrugged. “Yeah. Sorry. He was cute.”

“Some defense,” I replied, aghast at the elementary school betrayal.

“Keep going, Hannah,” Theo muttered.

I realized that I’d started pulling us up. Ah. “Nice distraction technique.” I paused. “It was a technique, right?”

“You’ll never know unless you get us back up top,” she replied, smugly.

“Hurry it up, already,” Kai said. “Hanging over an enormous open flame is not my idea of a good time.”

“Then jump us up,” I snapped.

“From dangling in mid-air? Not gonna happen.”

The cauldron began to rumble. It was a familiar sound. Kind of like a geyser.

Yup. There it went. Boiling fire spat up toward us. I yanked us up and deposited Kai, Theo, Hannah, and myself on the other side of the hole in the floor, milliseconds ahead of the scalding liquid. It hit the ceiling and splattered around us, and only Kai’s quick thought to send out a shield of black light protected us from a boatload of pain.

“Go!” he yelled. Hannah, Theo and I raced down the corridor and took the first turn we found.

“But, seriously. You were kidding, right?”

Hannah laughed.

Kai joined us.

“Neat trick,” Theo commented.

“Thanks,” Kai said.

“I meant Delphyne.”

“She is one demented dragon,” I panted.

“She’s certainly showing a lot of creative, higher-thinking abilities for essentially being a giant lizard,” Hannah observed.

A troublesome thought hit me. “If Delphyne is tied to this maze, what happens when we kill her?”

“It disappears,” Theo said.

Kai looked at him darkly. “In the best case scenario. And when have you ever heard of a best case scenario in a labyrinth?”

“It’s called positive thinking,” Theo snapped.

Kai waved him off. “Positive thinking gets you positively dead. Be a realist and prepare for all contingencies.”

“You have a Plan B?” I asked hopefully.

“Never fear.”

The corridor lightened. “Must be getting close. To whatever it is.” Theo kept his chain close.

Kai continued to mark the walls.

“You know what’s still bugging me?” I asked. “What happened while we were in Hades that made Keeper want everyone to forget about Cassie, Bethany, and Mrs. Rivers?”

Kai thought about it. “Could be it was the first time she took her dragon form. She was stepping up her plan.”

That made as much sense as anything else. I was about to say so when I realized I was all alone. And in the dark.

“Hannah? Theo? Kai?” They were nowhere to be found. Had she just plucked them out of thin air? What did she have in store for me?

“Sophie,” a slightly slurred voice trilled. Ice tinkled in a glass.

I checked my watch and groaned. The light slanting through the window at the far end of Felicia’s living room was not yet in full brightness.

Not even mid-afternoon and Felicia was drunk already. “Felicia, you’ve had enough.”

Felicia stared at me with lidded eyes as she nursed her gin and tonic, then motioned for me to sit. She smoothed out her already perfectly coiffed blonde hair and flexed a Christian Louboutin pump in my direction.