My Date From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy, #2)

From Bad to Worse (Part 1)

Kai cocked his head at the door. "What's the situation out there?"

"Far as I know? Heavy wards. Two guards. A Photokia and a Pyrosim."

"Together?" He sounded incredulous.

"I guess Hades and Zeus decided hating us trumps hating each other. There's some level of playing nicely going on now. Any ideas?"

He nodded. "I have a plan. But I need eyes on the minions. Which means blasting the door open. It's the frame, not the door itself that's warded," he explained. "Give it a go."

I gave it my best shot. Sadly, using my vine on Kai had left me tapped. I couldn't call up any light beyond a dim glow on one palm. The door didn't budge.

"Guess I'm up." Kai's body tensed, his jaw tightened and he took a sharp breath before silently sending a blast of his sharply pointed black light toward the door. If pointed light wasn't scary enough, it gave the impression of deadly things wriggling in its depth. Every landed strike resulted in toxic ashy obliteration.

I jumped out of the way of the deadly dust falling to the ground.

Kai's show of power was impressive, as always, but his tension only seemed to confirm that the Prince of Darkness was not yet right as rain.

I hoped he could fake it because the door was gone. I registered the exact second that our captors realized we were free of our manacles and tensed to do something about it.

Kai sprang into action.

Okay, not so much sprang as stared.

The minions slowed to a dazed stroll, eyes downcast, a deep sigh shuddering through them.

"What are you doing?" I whispered, coming to stand beside him.

Looking utterly inconsolable, the Infernorator and the Gold Crusher headed directly for the warded up entrance. And us.

I tensed.

"Don't worry,' Kai chuckled, "I'm just helping them realize that their miserable lives are not worth living."

A self-satisfied grin spread across his face as our guards hit the ward one after the other and fried into oblivion.

Cool. "How did you guide them into offing themselves like that?

He smiled humorlessly. "Hades' son, remember? I have a gift for death."

"You don't use it, though. I mean, you could have. I'm sure you wanted to turn it on me a few times."

"Five or ten," he agreed.

"But?"

"Takes a lot of energy. And I can't use it on more than a couple of beings at a time."

I didn't buy it and I guess that showed because his voice constricted. "It would make Hades proud." He looked away from me, ending the conversation. "Give me a sec."

He bent over, hands on his thighs.

I could hear his breathing, heavier than usual. This didn't bode well. "You okay?"

He brushed off my concern with a dismissive wave. "Let's roll. Get Persephone's memories and get the location."

"Then we ward it." I bounced on my toes excitedly. "The location. Theo is a warding whiz kid. We ward it up so it can't be destroyed before the equinox."

"Good idea."

I glanced outside. The difference in the darkness was faint, but dead of night had tipped over into pre-dawn. Which meant Zeus could return at any time.

I grabbed Kai's upper arm, panicked at the thought.

And maybe because it was important to objectively check that my best hope out of here was in fine working condition. His muscles still filled out his ragged clothing quite nicely without being steroidly obnoxious, so three cheers for that.

Kai waited expectantly for me to say something.

I was still distracted by his biceps. "Um, what's the plan?"

Kai quickly strode over and retrieved a set of manacles. "I'm going to stretch the chain out as wide as it'll go. Lay them across as much of the entrance as possible."

He knelt down and busied himself spreading out his manacles on the ground just outside ward range. "These puppies both call power forth and absorb it. In theory, they should suck the ward in and contain it. Then we can step over them and get out."

Kai stood and brushed off his jeans then pushed me back a few steps. In a blur of motion, he kicked the manacle into the doorway.

White light flared. I blinked rapidly to clear my vision. "Did it work?"

"Sure." He leaned forward peering at it.

I crossed my arms, doubtful. "But you don't actually know. Here's a thought. Maybe you should have saved a minion to test it on."

"Yup," he replied with a grin, "that would have been smart." He stepped forward into the night.

I yelped then relaxed as he turned, totally unharmed. "You coming or what?"

"Since you asked so nicely," I muttered and followed him outside.

I took a deep breath. The dawn was cool and fresh. It felt amazing. "Why Earth?"

Kai laughed. "Compromise. Neither Zeus nor Hades would let the other be our host jailer."

I scanned the area. "Joshua Tree at four o'clock. Let's get back to Hope Park."

"Right," he murmured, then he shoved me. "Run!"

The sky had filled with Photokia and Pyrosim. Our display had not gone unnoticed.

I froze. Kai shoved at me again with his right hand and began slashing at minions using his black light from his left. There was no sign that he was anything other than absolutely powerful.

I couldn't join in since I had no power to blast yet, but being outside, even in these early rays, I was slowly recharging. Kai wasn't getting out of here without me, and he definitely wasn't taking them on himself.

"You stay, I stay."

Kai muttered some choice words about my stubbornness, shot out a shield of black light to protect us and then almost tore my arm from its socket as he ran toward the tree, holding on to me tightly.

Infernorators thrust out their flaming tentacley arms to blast fireballs that quickly took root in the dry desert scrub. A rapidly blazing wall of flame sprang up, gaining on us. We had to make the tree before we were toasted.

Or before the Gold Crushers took it out with their strikes of lightning, as the Joshua tree was very obviously our destination.

My feet burned. My chest heaved with exertion, but we'd almost made it, mostly intact, when a wall of minions landed between us and the tree.