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

From Bad to Worse (Part 3)

I realized Hannah had trailed off and everyone now stared at me.

"So how did you get out of Olympus?" Pretty boy asked.

I strode off, irritated, toward the school building. "No. No longer want to know who you are. You obviously have some connection to the Greeks and that's enough bad news for me."

"You wound me, Sophie Bloom," he said, keeping pace beside me.

"Stay back." I made the sign of the cross.

Pretty boy's eyes glinted with amusement. "That's vamps, love. Fictional creatures."

"Then pick the appropriate 'screw off' sign and stand down," I said.

Hannah placed a hand on my arm. "I get that you're traumatized, but it's not his fault."

I sped up, not caring if my anger was misplaced. Every new Greek character I met just meant trouble. And I was exhausted.

"How did you get out?" Theo echoed, hot on my heels.

"Kai."

Theo made a rude sound, but noticing that I looked very close to the edge of sanity, didn't push things.

"Hannah found your disappearance rather off-putting," Pretty boy said. "You made her quite upset."

I squeezed her hand in genuine remorse. "Sorry."

Hannah glanced at Pretty boy and blushed.

Huh? I took a closer look at her.

Under her open winter coat, I saw she had ditched her uniform of science pun T-shirt and jeans for, well, a cute purple cap-sleeve top and jeans, but still. This was huge. Who was this guy? I stopped walking. "Fine," I sighed. "I'll bite. Who are you?"

"Sophie, Pierce. Pierce, Sophie," Hannah introduced.

Pierce stuck out his hand. I shook it, but only because of the fond smile he'd given Hannah when she spoke. Then I looked to Theo for further clarification.

"Eros," Theo said. "My 'cousin' who is staying here for a bit."

I shook my head. Not computing.

Theo sighed. "Cupid." He hated that I only seemed to know the "fake" Roman names of the Greek Gods. I often knew more than I let on, but he was so fun to taunt.

"No freaking way!" I exclaimed, once again striding briskly across the back lawn. And not just because I was still barefoot and now risking serious toe-loss. January in Canada and all that.

Pierce scowled at the "Cupid" name. "Back off, Thesi," he warned.

"Hey, if I could burn the Roman names from her brain I would. She's Greek learning disabled."

And then it hit me. I stopped dead, causing Hannah to almost plough into me.

"Cupid! Arrows!" I turned to Pierce. "Could you make me and Kai fall in love?" This could be the answer to all our prayers.

"Are you insane?" Theo rounded on me angrily.

I winced, knowing Theo was going to freak right out when I told him. "It's about the ritual." I paused, trying how best to say this.

"You don't have to be in love with Kai to have sex with him," Hannah said, annoyed and totally forgetting Theo didn't know about the ex-say and blurting it right out. She remembered a split second later when I glared at her and she clamped her hand over her mouth.

Too late.

"Sex?" he sputtered. "With Kai? That was your big plan as Persephone? A giant orgasm to Oxytocin the supreme gods into submission?"

"Actually," I snapped, "it was the lung cancer they'd get from the huge cigarette they'd want to smoke after. It was a long term game plan."

Theo glared at me. "I gave up my powers for the stupidest idea ever?"

"What?" Hannah exclaimed.

I poked him in the chest. "Next time, coach, you draw the play. Or hey, don't saddle your star Quarterback with a memory spell so she can't remember all the details."

"He. Was. Not. Supposed. To. Kiss. You." Theo ground out.

"Blah blah blah," I mocked back.

"Want me to smack them for you?" Pierce asked.

"You're so sweet," Hannah replied. "But not necessary." She gave us each a boff on the head.

I stuck my tongue out at Theo. He tried to grab it. "Hannah!" I bleated.

"Much as I would love two best friends who aren't royal pains in the butt," Hannah wagged a finger at us, parent-style, "I've trained you two, so stand down. Otherwise I'll have to set something awful on you." She blinked at Pierce. "I bet you know some terrible creatures, don't you?" she asked, all breathless with delight.

"Nightmare variety," he boasted.

Hannah beamed and leaned in closer like she wanted to hear more.

"Oh, spare me the foreplay," I said.

She shot me a look promising retaliation. "You planning on explaining about giving up your powers?" she asked Theo.

"Nope."

Fighting with Theo would get me precisely nowhere. He'd suffered as much, if not more than me. I flung my arms around him. "Gimme some love, sunshine."

"We are the Rockman-Bloom alliance. Resistance is futile." Theo spoke in a computer voice as he hugged me back. For about twenty seconds before he shrugged me off. "Enough touching."

I pasted an anxious smile on my face. "Yeah, so after all that, turns out the ritual doesn't involve sex. It involves us falling in—"

Theo scowled at me and stomped off.