My Life From Hell (The Blooming Goddess #3)

We Have To Stop Meeting Like This (Part 2)

Jack had gotten every little detail right when he'd created a fake Demeter to trick me. Her dark hair, the crow's lines around her eyes, the slight lilt of her Greek accent as she spoke my name and brushed a strand of hair from my face. I memorized her appearance.

"Has he contacted you?"

Demeter shook her head impatiently at my look of confusion. "Your father, Persephone. Has he bothered with you at all lately?"

"Of course not. But, Mama—" Instinctively, I had reverted to Persephone's name for her.

Demeter cut me off before I could steer the conversation around to the equinox and what was or was not going to happen. "Selfish, arrogant man."

"I prefer psychopathic narcissist," I muttered, but she was on a roll.

Demeter gripped my hands, her eyes glittering. "Four days, kopella mou. We will have everything we want and he will have nothing."

There was the familiar rush of rage. "Everything you want."

"What we both want." Demeter's voice was firm.

Anxiety warred with anger. I cannot disappoint her. Thus will I play the perfect daughter until it is time for her to learn.

I closed my eyes to center myself. I was at the mercy of Persephone's emotions. I had to get on top of this. Murder just wasn't gonna happen a second time.

My very existence was at stake.

Think, Sophie ... I frowned. I willed my breath to stay steady, my power to remain contained as I sifted through Persephone's memories for something that could help. I only half-listened as Demeter spoke again. But when she said, "Tell me where you and Kyrillos plan to recite the ritual," I came to full attention.

"The less people know, the better," I hedged.

Demeter gave a familiar grumble and smoothed her hair. A gesture I'd seen from Felicia many times.

My heart twisted.

"Now is not the time to be coy," she said. "I want to be there. To make sure your father understands how his promises and lies have brought about his defeat."

I was lost. There was nothing in Persephone's memories about Zeus having promised anything.

Demeter's lips were tight. "He wants it all. He will have nothing. No one. You think she will want him when he is no longer ruler? He will see how I was the only one who truly loved him, but it will be too late."

The bitterness in her voice stunned me. That's what this was all about? The fact that Zeus wouldn't leave Hera for Demeter? The fury of a woman scorned?

She had been betrayed in love and now she expected me to do the same thing to Kai? This had to stop. "Mama," I beseeched her, "let it go. He's not worth it." But even as I said it, I knew she wouldn't listen. It had always been about him. Even my abduction—Persephone's abduction—was about making him notice her. It was the only reason she cared so much.

I was losing it. I felt like Persephone was blindly taking over. Not a voice I had made manifest, but a personality alive and well and righteously pissed off. She dwarfed me with her fury, and I no longer knew where she began and I ended.

Rage and hopelessness and destruction. She was me and I was her and Tartarus worked its oily evils upon us both.

"He is everything." Demeter's words, combined with the cold look she gave me, allowed me, Sophie to regain the upper hand.

"I won't betray Kyrillos," I said. The words were thick in my mouth. Almost impossible to speak. Persephone didn't want me to say them and Demeter didn't want to hear them. "There has to be another way."

One where we all got out of this without any collateral damage. I twisted my fingers, welcoming the tight pain.

"You will do as you promised."

My ears rang with Persephone's howling, her grief and pain swallowing me completely.

"You're drowning in hate." I wasn't sure if I was speaking to Persephone or Demeter.

Demeter flicked me a contemptuous glance. "Don't be ridiculous. I love him. But he doesn't know how to love. Which is why you and I will defeat him. Then we will have each other." She bestowed a smile on me that promised sunshine and happily-ever-after as a loving family.

It was all a lie.

Because most of these gods didn't understand love. For them, it was all selfish passion. Not the glorious connection that humans immortalized in books and songs and movies. That was about giving yourself freely and willingly.

I wanted that scary free fall where your heart is in someone else's hands and theirs in yours. Instead of making you weak, it was the most precious, most secure place to be.

Most gods couldn't see that. For them, love was only allowed from a position of power. And any hurt would be paid back tenfold with ultimate destruction. They had it so wrong.

But I had no clue what to do, other than what Persephone had always done. I put a smile on my face and said, "I want you to be happy." At least Demeter would think I was still in line with her plans.

Demeter's expression softened as she took my words for agreement. "My girl." She pressed a hand to my cheek. "Go back now. Before you are missed."

"But—"

Demeter kissed my forehead. "It will all work out fine."