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

Twin Troubles (Part 1)

I took a deep breath, ducked under the archway, and started up the the stairs with my team.

If this played out like the real game, then one of the millions of squares would rise, revealing a door. We'd have to go through it and complete the challenge on the other side. If we were successful, we'd be led back to the board to continue. If not, well, we'd still be back on the board, but with a very deadly first strike.

Generally, three strikes and the door at the far end wouldn't open. You'd be sent home in disgrace with a cheap consolation prize.

If Hannah was going to live, we could only get one strike.

I was determined even that wasn't going to happen.

And who knew where we'd be set back after each challenge? If we reset to the bottom foyer each time, we'd be here forever. With time running out before my meeting at Hope Park tomorrow morning, we had to get through this game as quickly and carefully as possible.

I crept forward tentatively, sticking with the "hug right wall" principal, eyes darting around.

"A little caution," I said as Kai strode past me, grabbed my hand and pulled me along in his wake.

He didn't break his stride. "We're on the clock. The sooner we get through this, the better." He sounded all business.

Any closeness we'd had after that glorious kiss, imagined or otherwise, was definitely dead after Jack had set us at odds. Rationally, I knew it wasn't Kai's fault, but I already struggled with enough self-doubt where he was concerned. Whatever I knew intellectually about Jack's mind games didn't help with the emotional reaction, not to mention having to fight the constant arrow-induced urge to rub myself all over the Prince of Darkness.

"Not sure what date vibe you're going for here," I asked him.

Kai flashed me an amused smile. "Memorable."

I snorted as we hit the landing on the third story. "My time with you is consistently that."

A black tile silently rose up before us, pulling up a door attached below it.

"Here we go," I said nervously.

The door opened and it wasn't so much a case of stepping inside as being sucked through.

Jack had spared no expense at throwing us into real scenarios. No soundstage sets for us. We were outside. On location as it were.

Our challenge was obvious and literal. We really did have to capture a rook—or castle. Jack had started us off with that old classic; jump across rocks without falling into the moat, then climb up the castle wall at the far end and make it to safety. The rocks would be slippery and the black team would be firing on us.

I was right about the idea, but not the execution. This wasn't a fake set piece of a castle with a "wall" the warriors could scale with only a bit of trouble and a lot of teamwork.

No, we found ourselves facing a real moat, maybe thirty feet across, surrounding an actual castle wall, which from here looked to be built of impossibly slick giant black rocks.

A path of worn boulders jutted out from the water. And by water, I meant the same corrosive orange and red toxic substance found in the River Styx. One drop of that stuff on you and you'd start to sizzle away in a very unpleasant manner.

I jumped as an arrow whizzed past my head.

"First one to get your attention. Next one to kill you," a male voice called out.

I believed him, which was why I edged behind Kai.

"Yoo hoo, Apollo," Festos waved to one of the two figures standing atop the castle wall using us for target practice.

Kai sent up a shield of light as Theo surveyed the moat.

I stared up at the two archers, one male, one female. Both had dark hair and eerily glowing green eyes that I could see from where I peeked out from behind Kai. Since the only other beings I knew with freaky lit up retinas were the Photokia, I took their presence as a bad sign.

They were clad in identical leather leggings and long-sleeved blue shirts. Each one had a black knight piece embroidered across their chest. And both held wicked looking bows, bags of arrows slung across their backs.

"Artemis and Apollo," Theo murmured for my clarification as we all crept closer to the castle. "Apollo, God of Sun and Truth, and his Goddess of the Hunt twin, Artemis. Both deadly archers."

"Isn't she famous for being the ultimate virgin?" Past English class lectures filtering through.

Festos snorted. "Technically. But there's a lot of wiggle room before you do the deed. And Artemis is legendary for her wiggling."

Fascinating. That certainly hadn't been taught in class.

Another arrow whipped at Kai's head. He deflected it at the last second by slicing it in two with his black light.

"You slimy jerkbag," Artemis yelled from Apollo's left side.

Kai muttered something under his breath.

"You messed around with Artemis?" Theo asked. "You couldn't find a scorpion to fondle?"

Poor Artemis. Even if she was a giant hypocrite for catting around while promoting her V-card status, I understood being left in Kai's wake.

"Grow up and get over it," Kai yelled back at Artemis.

She gave an outraged gasp. "It was only two months ago!"

I did the math. Two months ago put us back in November. Which was after he'd kissed me. "Arrgghhh!" I yelled, shoved Kai out of the way, ducked out from under his shield, and ran toward the moat, snapping a long vine out of my right palm.

"Sophie!" Kai growled.

My brazen approach must have startled Apollo and Artemis because I didn't find myself immediately impaled by their arrows.

I heard Kai swear behind me. The boy was not pleased.

Yeah, well reciprocated by infinity. I blamed Aphrodite for the anger and jealousy that had ripped through me. Technically, I'd already broken up with him by the point he'd wiggled with Artemis, so he had been free to do as he pleased.

Right. Tell that to the arrow. Aphrodite's, not the ones firing directly at me. I was barely keeping them at bay with my palm blasts of light.

"You tried to sleep with my ... Kai?" I snaked a vine up at Artemis and essentially slapped her across the face with it.

Light totally shouldn't behave that way, but man, was I petty enough to be glad it did.

"Catfight!" Festos cried.

"You were dead," she growled, slicing my vine with her arrow.

Neat trick, but I had plenty more where that came from.

Of course, so did she.

"Please," I scoffed, "the second he kissed me, I hit every Greek's radar."

I heard Festos sigh as he unleashed his fire, burning up most of the arrows before they got close.

"That's true," Apollo said, having paused his pointy barrage to give his twin a few choice words about the stupidity of getting involved with Kai.

"See? Skank," I called out, happy to have an ally here.

"Don't talk to my sister that way," Apollo roared, letting his arrows loose on us.

Once again, I'd gone too far. I was really going to have to work on that.

Theo jumped into motion, racing ahead of me while snapping his chain to knock away the arrows that Festos missed.

"Would you all get the hell back under the shield?" Kai demanded.