My Life From Hell (The Blooming Goddess #3)

First Impressions Aren't Always Correct (Part 2)

"Nope. If you and I are going to plot, I'm betting this is the safest place to do it. You're a natural born citizen of the Underworld. I'm just a landed immigrant with dodgy papers. Probably a lot more breathing room on your side of the palace."

Oizys sank onto her bed and tugged off a combat boot. "Points for stringing together a logical argument. But no. I don't room with anyone. Especially not goddesses of spring."

"It's not a communicable disease. Trust me. You're not going to get suddenly flowery and smiley." I sure hadn't and I was the Goddess of Spring. I leaned back against her door, my palms pressed to the wood. "I'll be honest."

She paused, boot in hand, and looked up at me, visibly pained. "Must you?"

"I can't go back to the room that I share with Kyrillos. Which means I'll have to wander the halls, stealing naps where I can, and being entirely inefficient in springing Prometheus."

Oizys pulled off her other boot and waggled her toes as if delighting in the cool air. "Good. Then you won't get in my way. You've done enough damage."

"Oh no," I scowled. "You're the sidekick on this little mission."

"I don't think so." She fixed me with her best Spirit of Misery and Woe glower, and rose to her full height. It was an impressively quelling look, but once a girl had death squads trying to whack her ass on a regular basis, evil stares failed to pack a punch.

"Partners then." I settled myself onto a daybed in one corner. Instead of the usual wrought-iron rosettes, curlicues, and colored glass that often made up the sides and back of these things, this one looked like a massive iron spiderweb. Complete with evil metal spider awaiting its prey.

I bounced up and down on the mattress to get a rise out of Oizys. "It's a little macabre but it'll do in a pinch."

Her lips flattened so thin, they were practically nonexistent.

"Look," I said, relenting, "it's only for tonight. Tomorrow, we'll find Prometheus and break him out." This was a total lie. Until that truth spirit showed up to break this farce of an enchantment and let us out of here, I was bunking with Oizys.

Not that I'd tell her that.

Oizys pulled on the cuffs of her sweater so that they slid over her hands, covering them. "It'll cost you," she said.

I rolled my eyes. Of course it would. There couldn't be the simplest transactions with these Greeks without payment due. "What?"

"Tell me why Prometheus matters so much to you."

I leaned back against the daybed's scratchy sheets—black of course, like the rest of her bedding—and considered how best to answer that.

I felt the mattress creak as she sat down beside me. Felt her expectant stare.

I couldn't tell her the truth. First off, she'd never believe me. Second, no matter how much she cared about Prometheus, I wasn't about to risk the well-being of humanity by telling her anything that could be used against us on the equinox. Or get me imprisoned now.

So not the plan.

Which only left one explanation. "In another time, another place, he was my best friend. And whatever we are now, I'll always love him."

Even if we never saw each other again, Theo would always be my best friend. I would always love him, and I refused to give him up without a fight. There had to be some kind of wily loophole in the Theo agreement. Like telephones. Technically, I wouldn't be seeing him, right? I couldn't give him up. He was a part of me.

I let myself get lost in mushy memories for a bit.

"He never mentioned you." Oizys said.

I blinked a couple times to clear my pictures of the past, then met her eyes, the fingers of my left hand crossed behind my back. "Because he loves sharing so much, does he?"

It was a long shot, but given how closemouthed Theo was, I was willing to bet that the same was true for Prometheus. Which meant he probably didn't go around talking about his life in Olympus.

She bought it. I could tell by the way that her jaw relaxed. "Fine. You can stay. But annoy me and I'll throw you into the Styx, and happily watch you dissolve."

On that cheery note, it was bedtime.

On Tuesday morning, I woke up the polar opposite of refreshed. Part of it may have been the fact that I was wearing yesterday's clothes, since I dreaded going back to my bedroom and running into Kai. Part of it may have been my nightmares, where the world burned and I was forced to watch, held in place by one enormous spider leg.

Mostly though, it was the equinox was in two days and I had a massive amount of stuff to accomplish: free Prometheus, break the enchantment, get through the portal safely, take down the wards, do the ritual, save the world, and not die anywhere in the process. I was somewhat daunted.

I couldn't let myself dwell on that, because, well, thinking led to getting overwhelmed, which led to angry feelings and the possibility of uncontrollable destruction.

Back there in reality, I'd managed to throw Planet Earth into a seasonal limbo. I'd made plants burst into flame, and broke branches off trees from twenty-three stories up. Not to mention dealing with an internal rage that was ripping me to shreds. Literally, given the way I'd attacked my arms.

Here, I was so busy trying to keep Persephone's emotions at bay that mine hadn't had a chance to suffocate me. And I planned on keeping it that way. If my off-kilteredness somehow managed to leach through and combine with all of Persephone's issues? That sounded like a recipe for disaster. The makings of a Sophie/Persephone megabomb.

Which was why, as much as I could, I focused all my thoughts on what I could do, what I had to do, not what I was feeling. And my immediate problem was freeing Prometheus.

"We need to know what obstacles we face in the great prison break," I told Oizys. Also, how would I buy him time to get the Spirit of Truth here without Kai mounting a manhunt—or rather, a Titan-hunt?

"Where are the dungeons?" I asked. We'd returned to Oizys' room after breakfast for maximum plotting privacy. She'd needed to eat as badly as I had.

She sat at in front of her mirror, re-applying eyeliner in heavy black lines.

I was on the floor, my back against the daybed, chin resting on my hands. I was hopeful. Neither Kai, nor Hades had crossed our paths. Yet. Out of sight, out of mind seemed like my best policy where those two were concerned. While I understood that Kai—and Kyrillos—didn't want me hurt, who knew what consequences our newly strained relationship might have.

My breakfast suddenly felt heavy in my stomach. I shifted, uncomfortable.

"There are no dungeons," Oizys said.

Her voice startled me out of my thoughts. "Where do they imprison people then?"

She tossed a flat stare over her shoulder. "They don't."

Queasiness morphed to all out panic. I bolted upright. "They killed him?!"