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

Twin Troubles (Part 3)

I stepped forward, wrapped one arm around Kai (again, the Aphrodite thing, not personal choice), sent out a vine, and said, "Back. Off." Artemis was fully enveloped in green death before I'd even finished speaking.

All I could think was how much I wanted her dead. It was a cold, rational conviction and I focused in on her with singleminded ill will.

She began to spin.

"Uh-oh," Festos muttered.

Kai jogged my arm. Artemis stopped spinning, but fell to the ground where she struggled in my light, sadly intact and alive but with at least with a few new wrinkles courtesy of my aging-up powers. "Vines down, Goddess. No deicide today."

I whirled on that traitor, teeth bared.

Kai shook me. "Sophie. It's the arrow. Snap out of it."

I fought him, still wanting her gone. There was a tiny part of me watching this irrational rage with a curious detachment, but no part of me tried to stop it.

SMACK! For the second time in our acquaintance, Festos had slapped me across the face.

It worked, bringing me back to my senses.

But before I could say so, Kai had his hand wrapped around Festos' throat.

"Kai!" I tugged on his arm. "I'm fine. Let him go."

Kai forced his hand open and Festos slumped back. "Sorry," Kai said.

Festos waved him off, checking for bruises. "My bad. Should have remembered. Arrow makes people crazy."

Theo had been battling Apollo, and pretty effectively, but the battle had turned. Before the Sun God could do any irreparable damage to my friend, Kai blasted his light, taking out a section of the castle floor and sending Apollo down into the cavernous hole.

I put my hands on my hips, trying to hide my humiliation with attitude. "Why do you get all the fun?"

"You're not really missing out." Kai rolled Artemis face down on the floor, his foot on her back, all while I still held on to him. He flicked his head. Festos and Theo understood it to mean "move out of the way."

Festos took over from Kai, holding Artemis down with the tip of his cane. "One move and you'll be intimately acquainted with the phrase 'burn, baby, burn.'"

Apollo climbed back on to the castle wall.

Theo tugged me off Kai, who went up against Apollo.

The fight didn't last long. Apollo had taken a hard fall and enough previous hits that he was now severely weakened. There was no longer a contest between Kai's agility, strength, and speed, and Apollo's.

Kai again chose not to disintegrate Apollo with his black light, instead cold-cocking him with a right cross that made the god's head snap back so hard, I thought it might break off.

Apollo slumped to the ground.

Festos stepped back from Artemis. Neither she nor her brother were going anywhere. "And our work here is done."

"This way," Theo called, having found a door set into the castle wall. "Back to the board."

We stepped through the door and found ourselves in front of Jack, now on the left side of the hallway, on a landing that was high enough up that I stopped looking down to spare myself.

"One down, two to go," Jack said. "You have bested my knights. But each successive task calls on greater skills. And this one involves the Greek Gift Sacrifice." With a sly smirk, he disappeared.

I had no idea what Jack meant. "Theo? Clarification?"

Theo wrapped his chain snugly around his fist. "Classic mid-game strategy. It refers to sacrificing a bishop."

Festos frowned at the bishop on Theo's tunic. "We won't be having any of that today, thank you very much."

I nudged Theo, trying to convey how sweet Festos' concern was. Theo glanced at Festos and gave a small shrug. I knew that Theo had trouble expressing emotion and could be hard to read, but his past with Festos seemed really rough on him. I just wanted him to sort through it and be all happily-ever-after.

Kai started up a short staircase. The stairs were low enough that we could take them two at a time, which helped us climb faster toward the top and that final door where Hannah was.

"Jack is targeting us," Kai said. "The first one was more personal to me."

Really? Because he'd been so affected by that encounter with his weapon-toting fangirl?

"This one seems geared to you." Kai pointed to Theo. "Bet on some twist."

"Well," Theo said, "Festos is already here, so it's not that."

"Although I am a Greek gift," Festos said, his focus on managing the stairs, "I'm definitely no sacrifice. How about the Golem?"

"Gollum," Theo said.

"An army of Gollums all protecting Jack's precious," I added.

Kai shook his head. "Doesn't feel devious enough."

Massive dread. Each challenge was going to get worse, wasn't it? The thought caused me to stumble on the stairs.

Theo hooked a hand under my elbow to steady me. "All good, Magoo?"

In one fluid motion, Kai got between Theo and me and took my arm himself.

Theo just stared at him, unimpressed.

"You gonna whip it out and compare lengths now, Kyrillos?" Festos asked, obviously not happy with Kai's behavior.

"It's the arrow," I said. "It makes him crazy."

"Maybe," Theo replied.

And maybe we were all going a bit crazy from the strain and constant jeopardy.

How screwed were we?

We'd see soon enough. A white tile rose up, its door opened, and away we went.