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

Hit Me Baby One More Time (Part 3)

Surprisingly, he did. "When I was little, Hades used to take me out of the Underworld every so often to go up and visit Earth. For the colors, you know? We both liked to see all the colors you could find there."

That seemed like a nice memory. I guess even with Hades as your father you were bound to have one or two.

I jogged up to walk beside him. "Did you have a favorite spot?"

Kai shrugged. "Not really. But everywhere we went, we'd always see dragonflies. They're so vibrant. Blue, red, crazy yellow-and-black ones like a bee." He sounded wistful. "Pappas and I would stay very still so that they wouldn't fly off."

My breath caught. Kai didn't realize how he'd just referred to his dad.

Kai looked off into the distance, lost in his memory. "One day, a blue one landed on my shoulder. It wouldn't fly off. Hades said I should bring it back to the Underworld with me. I worried it would die but he promised me that if I loved it enough, nothing would happen to it."

I had a very bad feeling about this. "It died, didn't it?"

Kai met my gaze, his poker face on. "They all died. Every single one of them that Hades encouraged me to bring down that year. No matter how much I tried to care for it, tell it I loved it. Nada. He told me it was my fault."

Sympathy overwhelmed me, magnified by the effects of the arrow, and I lunged into hug mode. "You know it wasn't. That was just a dick thing to do to a kid."

Kai's breath hitched at my words. Without meeting my eyes, he repositioned us with his arm around my waist. We kept walking as best we could.

"Anyway," he said. "Don't like dragonflies."

I so hated Hades. While I had qualms about fighting my father, I had none about fighting Kai's. I tried to lighten the mood. "How would someone say 'I love you' in Greek?"

Kai shot a sideways glance at me. "Something you want to tell me, Goddess?"

I swallowed. Hard. "Hardly. When I finally meet Demeter, I want to be able to say it to her."

"You pronounce it 'saya-ga-po.'"

I appreciated his tact and the phonetic breakdown. I practiced it a few times.

We continued hiking.

"We're headed uphill," I noted. "Still."

"Yeah. Since the most likely place for Jack's home is at the top, looking down on everyone." He cracked a wry grin. "Psychoanalyze that."

"Too easy."

We passed under a large tree with green leaves shaped like mittens.

"Here we go round the Mulberry bush," I sang. Nowadays, I could totally clean up on Double Jeopardy, if only the category was "trees."

Kai covered his ears at my singing.

I poked him in the ribs. Not that I was going to do any damage, because the boy was solid. "It's a nursery rhyme—Ouch!"

A mischievous grey monkey had showered me with mulberries from high in a branch. Uncharmingly sticky. He chittered his laughter.

"Yeah, tough guy? Come down here and say that."

Either the monkey understood English or just didn't like me because with that taunt, Kai and I were under fire.

"Berry siege," I yelped, laughing. "Abort!"

We ran left, the only safe direction open to us.

Kai skidded to a stop at the foot of a rope bridge, dangling high over a chasm.