My Life From Hell (The Blooming Goddess #3)

Why Did It Have To Be Giants? (Part 1)

At first I screamed. And then a howling drowned out the sounds and storm winds battered me against the cave walls like a bouncy ball.

It. Hurt.

Also, I was wet, and trying very hard not to think about all the grossness in the water that drenched me. I was tumbling down a hole, alongside the river, where it turned into a waterfall.

I called up my vines and fired one toward the walls. Luckily, the light held against the wet stone, and I could control my descent to Oizys. I fired another vine down into the gloom and prayed for a hit.

"Ouch!"

"I got you." Carefully, I lowered myself down with one hand and reeled her toward me with the other.

She was flailing on her end of the line, the vibrations making it that much harder to keep my descent steady in the gale force wind that whipped up the tunnel. My knee banged a sharp outcropping of rock. "Stop struggling," I yelled. "You're causing tension."

"It's the wind. I'm getting seasick," she said, when I managed to pull even with her.

A gust swung us right under the waterfall. I swung us out again as fast as I could, but not before we were both sputtering noxious water. "Try not to get this stuff in your mouth," I said.

"No kidding." She looked a little queasy so I picked up the pace.

The beam of the flashlight pointed down, so I could see we were maybe fifty feet from the ground. Bright flashes of lightning lit the way as I lowered us to the exit below. Talking was impossible. The winds were so strong and so loud that it was all I could do to keep us moving.

I focused on descending inch by painful inch, as the wind smacked us against the wet walls, and blew our faces into crazy funhouse mirror distortions. What should have taken seconds, took about ten minutes. Oizys lost her grip on the flashlight, and it hit the ground, going out. Not that it mattered, since we still had the lightening.

I glanced down to check our progress and realized that what I had mistaken for the bottom of the tunnel was just a ledge of rock with an exit to the outside. The tunnel continued downward to the left of the ledge, the water roaring down the canyon alongside. I had to land us on terra firma or risk continuing on to who-knew-where, along with the nasty river water.

We hit the ground in a bumpy heap.

I had never loved dirt so much.

We were bruised, wet, filthy, and judging by the scene outside the cave entrance, about to find ourselves in the midst of a violent storm.

I tested my limbs. Nothing seemed to be broken but everything hurt.

Oizys and I exchanged glances. Then she tipped her head toward to the entrance and raised her eyebrows, in question.

I nodded. Here goes nothing.

We got to our feet. Bracing our shoulders against the wind, we pushed our way out of the cave.

It would have been beautiful if it wasn't so terrifying. Above me, streaks of purple and black smashed against each other, while lightning snaked in jerky tendrils. I could only stare at it through slitted eyes. There was too much dirt flying around.

I tugged the collar of my shirt over my nose and mouth, against the twin scents of sulphur and electrical dust. I held it in place with my right hand, and hurried to take in our surroundings.

We stood at the edge of a vast pitted crater. All around us, the sides curved toward the sky. We were like ants against this vast backdrop of destruction.

And anguish. Did I mention the anguish?

The wind literally wailed. The air felt charged with an electric despair, so entrenched, so heavy, that every step was like trudging through a misery swamp. The wind would have severely tested the foundation of even the strongest building. But there was nothing to knock down. Only Oizys and me, as we struggled from boulder to boulder, bent double, looking for Prometheus.

The ground rumbled beneath us.

We grabbed on to each other for support, riding the quake out like a wave. Once it had subsided, we edged closer to the center of the crater, one eye out for the hundred-handed giants.

The next blast of lightning lit a rock formation. Prometheus' chain bound him to the middle stone. But this time, the chain seemed to be made of fire, which was a new trick, and had to majorly suck for him.

Oizys and I broke cover and dashed for the rocks.

Prometheus' stone was a wide, fat slab, like a sacrificial table that had been tilted upward at about a forty-five degree angle. His clothes hung off him in tatters, his flesh raw and blistered from the flaming restraints. Luckily, he was unconscious.

I wanted to throw up.

I tried using my power to free him from the chain, but neither Oizys nor I could do anything to break it. We couldn't even put out the flames, burning hot and fierce against his skin.

Suddenly, Oizys grabbed my shoulder and yanked me down behind the stone table. She pointed to the left. The giants Briareos, Kottos, and Gyes lumbered down one side of the crater with ground-quaking steps.

I craned my neck up to see the tops of these enormous creatures. Simply put, they were massive. Like a condo developer would have killed to build on their heads, just for the view. And I do mean heads.

Fifty of them.

Each.

Not to mention their hundred hands each. I lost count at forty-three on the first one.

I had to yell directly into Oizys' ear to be heard over the noise of the storm. "Now what? We can't free Prometheus. There's no way we can get him back up that tunnel, especially unconscious, and no way grabby and his brothers won't see us if we move."

The monstrosities neared, the expressions on their faces ranging from hideous leers to sneering smirks. My God, they were ugly. How fortunate that they were so large that I could see every single boil, snotty nose, and grimy finger in lifelike clarity.

I must have raised myself up a little too high over the back edge of the slab—all the better to gape at the uglies—because Oizys pulled me back down, glowering.

"Get caught and I leave you for their dinner." She sighed. "I didn't expect the chain to be like that. We can't take Prometheus until we find a way to unbind him without hurting him."

Or killing him. That's what she really meant. I didn't want to leave Prometheus. But she was right. His best hope was for us to get out of here and find something that could unbind him. Not just break the chain but do it without letting the fire consume him.