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

You're Beautiful (Part 3)

Except for Bethany, of course.

Kai and I locked eyes and I doubled over in pain. I could barely breathe, barely stand upright. I pressed a hand to my side, just as Kai caught me. "The arrows," he gritted out. "Whatever Bethany is doing is amping up the arrows. I can feel it now that I'm in here."

I didn't care. The pain didn't matter. I just had to be with him. I reached for him.

"Snap out of it!" Kai shook me. "You have to win the crown."

He didn't understand. He hadn't been here to witness the full unleashing of Bethany's amazingness. So despite how much it hurt, I kissed him.

Only to be yanked off him and flung to the floor.

If Theo had broken us up, I'd kill him. Not figuratively. Really kill him.

But it wasn't Theo.

It was Bethany.

"Kai," she said, "Just in time to be my king." She leaned in to him for a kiss.

I saw red. No way was she getting him.

"I got the crown," I heard Veronica chime in.

I shoved her out of the way. She was interfering with me getting to Bethany.

I grabbed Bethany by the arms. This was going to end now. And it was going to be painful.

As I called out my ribbons of light, I had the sense that despite my rage, there was something very wrong about all of this.

I looked around the gym, now in total chaos, with students fighting and fooling around.

At Kai, shaking his head at me. Yelling something I couldn't understand over the roar of my blood.

And finally, at Bethany's face, her expression caught between fury and fear. I may have looked a tad unhinged.

I sent my light into her anyway.

No, not to kill her. To burn off the tattoo once and for all.

Third degree burns might be painful, but she wouldn't be dead, right? Except, as I sent my light deep into her arm to wreck the thing at every level, I felt this, well, black lump in her.

I prodded a bit. It wasn't a tumor or anything. More alive. Throbbing.

With one strong pulse of light, I destroyed it.

Bethany's face paled. "What have you done?" she shrieked in horror, and ran from the room.

I blinked, coming to my senses. What had I done?

"Sophie?" Kai looked at me in concern.

I waved him off and wandered through the gym, checking on the other kids. Students were breaking apart—some with dazed faces, others bruised—everyone shaking their heads and looking around, trying to figure it out as well.

What a mess. I had to make everything normal somehow.

I trudged back up onto the stage and picked up the mic. "Uh, hello?"

It took a few minutes, but I finally had everyone's attention.

I had no clue what to say. How could I possibly explain what had just happened?

"Obsession and teen hormones are a bad, bad combo," I said.

My classmates looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to finish.

Yeah, no. That was all I had.

"Thank you, Sophie, for that," Principal Doucette said into his own mic, giving me an odd look. "We seem to have gotten off schedule." He looked around the gym, puzzled. "So let's get back to crowning our king and queen. Do we have our contestants for King?"

Anil was a no-show and no other guy volunteered.

"This is highly unusual. Moving on to Queen. Is Bethany here?"

I tensed. But she didn't return.

Doucette shook in head. "I guess then, this year our only royalty is Sophie Bloom." He motioned for Veronica to come forward with the crown.

It may have been made of cheap gold plastic, its "jeweled" tips mostly broken from when I'd pushed Veronica away, but knowing this crown would win Hannah her freedom made it more valuable than any precious jewel.

Festos and Theo led the applause with obnoxious whoops, followed soon by Cassie, then a few other students, until everyone was cheering. Or at least politely clapping.

Doucette smiled as he led me off the stage.

"Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera began to play as the disco ball started spinning.

This was supposed to be where the King and Queen danced together.

I stood there by myself.

My cheeks flushed. My stomach churned. I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat. Any second and the whispering about my loserdom would commence.

I saw Festos start forward to save me but before he could, Kai said, "This one's mine," and pulled me into his arms.

I practically sagged with relief for not being left hanging or having a pity dance. Kids could sense that. They were vicious that way.

Kai kissed my forehead and tightened his hold on me.

I laid my head on his chest and just enjoyed it.

Okay, Even I'm judging me right now. Here I was dancing all la la la like I hadn't a care in the world and Hannah was still tied up with a blade at her throat. Not to mention everything else that was on the line.

I'm not saying I was a good person for dancing but yeah, I took the four minutes that the damn song lasted and danced.

I'd never had a slow dance with a boy I liked. Never been the Queen, the girl who everyone else watches with smiles and you betcha, even envy. So shoot me. I was sixteen, and I freaking wanted my dance.

It was only the two of us on the floor for the first few seconds before everyone else started dancing. But that didn't matter.

Because all I was aware of was Kai holding me as he gently swayed me around the room. How his head rested on my hair and his splayed fingers were warm even through the cloth on my back. I could smell the faintest odor of seawater and fresh air, and feel the cool smoothness of his shirt front against my cheek.

A deep-seated feeling of contentment ran through me and I gave a blissful sigh.

And when Kai sang that I was beautiful in every single way? I thought I'd die of happiness.

For those four minutes, I was just a girl, dancing with her boy.

And every single one of them was precious.