My Ex From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy) (13 page)

Any leaves that had been clinging to their branches were now on the ground, dead.

I knew that they wouldn’t be enough to cushion me.

Because I was falling. And so tired. My human tupperware exterior could still get cracked. Needed to remember that for next time.

I hurtled downward. My hands burned like a mother, and after that hailstorm of electric shocks, my head felt like it was only semi-attached. A rib or two might have been broken as well. On a scale of one to ten, I’d cranked the pain to eleven.

The ground rushed toward me and I remembered enough about physics to know that when I landed, it was going to hurt. A lot. Theo’s comment about how sometimes death was a blessing popped into my head. Now might be one of those times.

This was it. Five, four, three, two … I heard the ground beneath me rumble as if something had landed on it, hard. Was it me?

“Like I said,” Kai’s voice rumbled against my chest as he caught me safe in his arms, “a walking suicide mission.”

My brain, barely working at all by this point, couldn’t even form the words to ask where he’d come from. The only way down to this spot was from the top of the ravine. I looked up at it, confused.

Kai must have read my thoughts because he grinned and said “I like to jump.” Then he proved that point with a running leap, soaring up the fifty feet to the top of the ravine.

That got my attention. I processed it.

Then I blacked out.

When I came to, I was back in my bed. Hannah was bundled in her bathrobe, hovering over me, terrified. I tried to smile reassuringly. Instead I blacked out again.

The second time I came to, Kai was sitting on the edge of my bed, frowning. “Some death wish you’ve got.”

I rolled over, too tired to engage. “Some bedside manner. Go away. I want Hannah.”

“She had to go to class.”

“Don’t you?” I asked, not really caring.

“Why? Because if I flunk out I can’t get into university and make something of myself?”

Good point. “How long was I out?”

“A day.”

Tentatively, I took stock of my condition. Toes wiggling. Check. Neck moving. Check. Arms?

I lifted my hands. They peeked out from under my too-long pajama sleeves, bandaged in heavy gauze. I panicked as I realized that part of my head was bandaged as well. I had to get to a mirror and see if I was hideously deformed by burns.

I struggled to sit up.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Kai asked.

“Mirror.” I needed all my energy to prop myself up.

Kai gently pushed me back down. “No,” he said.

I fought him as best I could. “Let me up.”

“As imperious as always,” he muttered, keeping me firmly in place.

That surprised me. “I would have thought I was a lovely goddess. Everyone likes Spring.”

“Yeah,” he said, in voice that sounded oddly sarcastic, “you were a real doll.”

I closed my eyes. “I’m going to make children cry now, aren’t I?”

He laughed. A rich belly laugh. I refused to think about what the sound did to me. I was hurt, not aroused. If I reminded myself of that about fifty thousand times, I might believe it.

My eyes snapped open. “Do I amuse you?”

“Annoy, actually, but I’m trying to focus on the positive.” He shot me an angelic smile.

“Are you going to help me up?”

“No. You have a broken rib, your hands are badly burned, and your head was singed.”

“Not my face?”

“Nope. You lost some hair. It’ll grow back, and the burns on your scalp will heal. Theo doctored you. Meantime, you stay put.”

“You like the fact that I’m stuck here at your mercy. You like the indignity of it.”

“It’s an added bonus. Yeah.”

I voiced the question that had been bothering me. “Why didn’t they kill me? They had the chance.”

“You’re wanted alive.”

I doubted it was so we could have tea. The big bosses probably wanted to kill me themselves. “But they attacked. If I was to be taken alive, why all of the pyrotechnics?”

“Alive doesn’t preclude having a little fun first.”

“Like how a lion toys with a gazelle before ripping its throat, fun?”

When Kai stared at me, incredulous, I shrugged. “I spend a lot of time with Hannah. She’s very vocal about her interests. Wait. Is the school wondering what happened to me? Or have I disappeared from memory, too?”

“Hannah put it out that you have food poisoning and need a couple days to recover.”

“It’s going to take more than that.”

He shook his head. “Doubtful. You get beat up easier than you did as Persephone but you heal faster than a normal human.”

Only because I wasn’t dead. “Thank you. For saving me from splattage.”

“You were pretty impressive,” he admitted. “Couldn’t let that go to waste.”

I allowed myself a small smirk. “Yeah. I kicked their asses.”

“You did. Looks like you’re up to speed on your power.”

I was. Faulty still on the memories, though, which made talking to Kai a constant battle between doubt and desire.

“Now you just need to master defying gravity and you’ll be good to go.” He grinned at me and I felt myself falling into that smile.

Cue cheesy music as our eyes locked.

This wasn’t “Sweet Valley High.” Some piece of Kai’s true form had emerged, because when I gazed into his eyes, I saw something not-quite-human staring back at me. It was ancient and feral.

Something inside me flickered in recognition. I tamped down hard on it. Evidently, I hadn’t really thought through all the consequences of embracing that Greek heritage of mine. When it came to love lives, those gods made cable seem tame.

I, Sophie Bloom, the girl who had barely been kissed, was
so
out of her league. I laughed. Hard. Possibly with a touch of hysteria.

Kai stared at me, puzzled. “I’ve never heard you really laugh.”

That seemed wrong. “Didn’t I have a sense of humor?”

He thought about it. “I guess so. But you would never have let yourself go like that. Too concerned about appearance.”

“I was vain?” Super weird idea.

“All goddesses are vain. Goes with their beauty.”

“Score points for that.”

“They’re not mouthy though. Not like you. You always say what you think. Gods and goddesses tend to be more crafty. They’ll strike out at you, but under the facade of seeming so pleasant. A smile to your face and a knife to your back.”

“Majorly sucky way to live.”

He shrugged. “It is what it is.”

He stretched out his arms, fingers intertwined, palms outward. A tiny scar in the hollow between his thumb and forefinger caught my attention. I took his hand and ran my finger over it. “I remember that. How did you transfer it to your human form?”

“I’m not human. What you see is what you get.” He tugged his hand away to frown at his scar.

I felt the loss. “No. You’re waaaay taller.”

“I’ve dialed my energy down to fit in. We never appear on earth in our true form.”

Maybe, but I sensed a caginess about him. “You’re holding out on me.” He remained silent. “Oh, come on. I’ll get better faster if you tell me.”

“That’s scientific.”

“Fine. I’ll nag you til you do.” I curled my fingers into my palms, resisting the urge to touch him again.

His lips compressed in a thin line, like he was suppressing a smile. “Guess it can’t do any harm for you to know. I couldn’t cross Theo’s wards in my true form. Even though I bore no active intention to harm, my life force was too strong. I had to dampen it.”

“That’s why Ms. Keeper couldn’t come through all dragony.”

“Yeah. She had to assume a less potent form.”

“So, if you unveiled yourself to me?”

“I’d blow your little mind. I’m still myself. Not human. Just reigned in.”

It made sense, especially given what I’d seen in his eyes. For the first time, I truly believed he was a god. Not just intellectually understood it, but knew it.

A question nagged at me. “How did Theo? Become human, I mean.”

“Dark magic. I don’t know why he’d …” He trailed off.

I poked him as a prompt.

“Dark magic demands a price. A high one.”

“So?”

“Well, two of you were made human, weren’t you?”

“You mean the price of turning me human was Theo becoming human, too? Why would anyone demand that of him?”

Kai looked at me fondly. Like I was an idiot child to be tolerated. “Beings that practice that type of sorcery aren’t nice. Could be spite. Because they could. Or because they wanted his god essence—his powers—and gave him a human shell to house what was left. You’d have to ask him.”

No wonder Theo had been so dodgy to Hannah and me about taking on his true form. This was awful. He’d paid too high a price.

“You won’t fail him,” Kai said.

I hated that he could so easily read me. “How can you know that?”

“Don’t really have a choice, do you? If you want to make it right for him, you have to save humanity. To do that, you have to stop the war on earth.”

“And to do that, I have to help you take over.”

He smoothed away a strand of hair that had fallen in my face. “Would it be so bad?”

I tried not to shiver under his gentle touch. “Don’t know. No idea what it entails. Don’t even know how we do it.” Nervously, I smoothed my comforter.

He tucked the strand behind my ear and leaned in close. “Two become one.”

It took a minute for the penny to drop. “Sex?!”

Disappointment flickered in Kai’s eyes. I guess my incredulous tone of voice hurt his poor ego.

“Yeah, sex,” he said flatly, moving back. “Big bang, honey.”

“Ahhh!” I covered my ears, embarrassed. Yes, and fascinated. “I thought we touched foreheads.”

Kai shrugged. “If that’s some kind of euphemism for orgasm, then sure. We touched foreheads.”

I swatted him away. “You know, maybe goddesses don’t care, but a girl likes a gesture or two before she hops into bed with someone.”

“No bed,” he pointed out. “It was always outdoors for you.”

I steeled myself against the deliciously naughty images running through my head and tried to stay on point. “Gestures like flowers. Or chocolates. Maybe even a date to actually get to know the guy, before she just gives it up.”

Kai swore. “Give it up? Are you a virgin?” Said like it was leprosy.

“Yes.” I jutted my chin out. “Got a problem with it?”

“In general, yes.” He sighed heavily. “Guess I’ll have to take one for the team.”

“Presuming it’s you, smart guy.”

He didn’t look pleased at that. “It will be.”

“That a threat?”

“Just a fact, Sophie Bloom. Don’t play jealousy games with a god.”

He got up and stalked off.

Well, at least he’d be jealous.

I dished to Hannah later that evening. She supported me in feeling this was one giant heap of messed up as she led me through some kind of “follow the light” test with a flashlight to assure herself I didn’t have a concussion.

I humored her and tried not to stare too hard at the vertigo-inducing fractal pattern on her T-shirt.

“There’s enough pressure around your first time without having the fate of the universe depending on it.” She swung the flashlight. “Look up.”

A wise woman. “I know, right? And what if it’s bad? Does that mean I only save half the population? This would be a lot easier if I’d already had sex. It wouldn’t seem so huge.”

“Think of it as simple biological urges. Although, you could totally cat around in the meantime.” She clicked off the flashlight, apparently satisfied with her findings.

“Kai wasn’t too on board with that idea.”

“You’re gonna let him dictate what you can do with your body?”

I cut her off before I bore the brunt of her feminist outrage. “Down girl. I agree with you. Thing is, it’s not like there’s any other guy I want to have sex with.”

Hannah narrowed her eyes at me. “Any other? Meaning you want to have sex with
him
?”

“I have. As Persephone.”

“Past tense, pussycat. Would you sleep with him now?”

I fluffed up my pillows. Avoidance tactic. Would I? The thought was exciting and scary and overwhelming to me in my weakened state.

Hannah cleared her throat. “I’m waiting.”

“I’m not ready to sleep with anyone. But what if I don’t? And I miss my chance to do whatever it is I’m supposed to?”

“As a representative of the human race, that would suck for us.”

“I’m human, too.”

“Only marginally. I don’t senior citizen things to death when I get mad,” she pointed out.

“Don’t forget my glowing eyes of fury.”

“Making your freakiness complete.”

I bowed best I could being propped up against pillows. “I pride myself on being well-rounded.”

Hannah crossed the room to put the flashlight away in her desk drawer. “Seems to me that you’re going to need more information. How is this whole power dealie supposed to go down? When? Where? And what does it mean for us mere mortals?”

“Agreed. But Kai isn’t the greatest with the sharing of info.”

“Talk to Theo,” Hannah replied.

“Are you crazy? He already hates Kai. Plus, he’s like my brother and I so am not having a detailed sex chat with him. Also, he might not know. I doubt Kai and I were going around sharing these details. And if other gods knew we could do this, they would have tried to …” Oh.

Hannah completed my thought. “Kill you. Makes you wonder who else knew what was going on when you were god-slaughtered.”

“And why Hades and Zeus came to finish the job. It might not be because they think I tricked them and have gone human. Maybe they don’t want me to carry out my plans.”

“Theo says that Hades is still incapacitated from the poison. You know, the event you failed to mention that you’d been framed for?”

I scowled. “I didn’t want you to know. You’d worry.”

“No kidding,” she said, gently swatting the top of my head. “But you still suck for not telling me. Anyhow, apparently the odd couple, Death and Sleep, seem to be running the show. Since they don’t love you, either, absolutely do not leave the grounds. Even if it seems like the right thing to do. At least not without Theo’s say-so. Promise?”

“Promise. Do you remember anything about Cassie?”

Hannah looked at me, with no trace of understanding.

“Never mind,” I said. I had my answer. “We’ll get her back from Ms. Keeper.”