My Life From Hell (The Blooming Goddess #3)

Radiance of Memory (Part 2)

I woke up warm and sleepy, laying on my other side, still snuggled into Kai. We were face to face now. Our noses almost touching. He still had one arm flung over me and our legs were tangled up.

"Sleep well?" His voice sounded scratchy as his eyes crinkled in a smile.

I smiled back, too drowsy to speak.

He brushed the tip of his nose against mine. "You're adorable when you sleep."

I scrunched up my face and ducked my head, embarrassed.

Kai tipped my chin up with his finger. "You're blushing." He traced the curve of my jaw and along my throat.

I squirmed. "Well, you're pretty cute when you sleep too."

Kai propped himself up on his elbow. "You watched me?"

I mirrored his gesture. "Yeah. Back in Hades. You were beautiful, sleeping in the moonlight." I looked at him, my heart in my eyes.

Kai ducked in for a kiss. A lovely wake up kiss.

"Ahem." Festos cleared his throat.

I blushed for entirely other reasons and tried to twist out from under Kai.

He didn't budge. "Go away."

"Trust me, I'd love nothing more. But we have a problem."

With a sigh, Kai rolled off of me. He got to his feet, held out a hand, and pull me up.

Festos strode over to me. He gave my shirt a sharp tug to straighten it and ran a hand over my hair, smoothing it down. "Just ratcheting down your wantonness," he declared cheerfully.

I removed a twig from his hair. "Aren't you in a good mood."

He blushed.

Adorable.

"Follow the leader. I'm leader." Festos pivoted and left the cave.

The air was cool and gray. What a surprise. Although, maybe, the sun really would come out tomorrow. Clear away our sorrows and all that jazz.

"What's up?" I asked. I was glad I'd banked all that fireside time. Instead of feeling all goosebumpy, I was pleasantly cool. I stretched out my arms, feeling a tightness in my shoulders. "What time is it?"

"About 4:30," Festos said. "We all crashed pretty hard."

Theo stood in the distance on a slight rise, waiting patiently for us to arrive.

"I thought he didn't want us out in the open."

"Yes, well. Best laid plans blah blah blah." We continued in silence until we had reached Theo.

I gasped. From this angle I could see that we stood inside an area ringed with flames. "What happened?"

"Hmm?" Theo peered at the fire. "Oh. No. That's just their ward."

"It hasn't caused mass panic among the townspeople? That this ancient site is on fire?"

"They can't see it," Kai explained. "It's magic. It doesn't hurt them."

Which would explain why the sky wasn't filled with smoke. Why I couldn't smell fire, just see it. "Then what's the problem?"

Theo pointed over to his left. "Do you see a pomegranate tree?"

I shook my head. "No."

"Exactly." He looked at Kai. "The ritual had a precise location. Care to guess where it was?"

Aw, jeez.

"How could our place marker disappear inside our own ward?" It didn't make any sense to me. Yes, Zeus and Hades had set up a ward of their own but it ran outside of ours. "The entire point of our ward was to stop them destroying the location. So how did someone manage to do exactly that?"

"It's not destroyed, exactly," said Festos. "Just a wee bit harder to locate. The garden is still there." He scrunched up his face in confusion and looked to Theo. "I could have sworn we saw the tree when we originally set up our wards."

"Yeah. We did."

"Felicia," I groaned. "It's her temple. She's the only other person who could have gotten to the tree. She probably wrenched it out of the ground with her bare hands."

"And ruin my manicure? Please." We all jumped at the sound of her voice. She looked as perfectly groomed as ever. Her meticulously coiffed hair brushed the shoulders of her short, cognac-colored jacket with fur trim. It was odd seeing that color on her clothing instead of in her glass.

Felicia stretched out a hand to peer at her nails, as if to assure herself no harm had come to them. "Bethany and an ax worked just as well." She smiled at me with glittering malice. "You know how effective mere mortals can be. Especially that one."

I am the bigger person. I am the bigger person.

I shot my vines out.

Felicia laughed and sidestepped them easily. "Not very effective when I see it coming a mile away. Don't telegraph so much, darling."

"But I don't." Kai gave her his snake smile. "And I haven't shown my displeasure at Sophie's personal time with your knife."

Felicia went pale.

Damn, that was satisfying.

"Blame it on Kiki," she said, recovering quickly with a flippant wave. "It was her ridiculous enchantment."

"Other than gloating, did you want something?" Theo asked. He stood in his usual slouchy stance, hands jammed in his pockets. But I was not fooled. His chain could be in his hand and doing serious damage in a second, if he thought the situation called for it.

Felicia smiled faintly. "Many things, dear boy. Right now I'm just curious to see how this all plays out."

I wrapped my arms around my chest. Mostly so I wouldn't blast her again. "If I lose, Mother Dearest, I'll probably be dead. And while I'm certain you'll enjoy celebrating my end, just remember that Zeus will be celebrating, too. With his beloved Hera at his side." Apparently, despite my love for her, I still had more than my ongoing share of petty desire to hurt my mother.

I'll give her credit. She didn't even flinch at that barb.

It was a good speech. Too bad I'd trembled slightly as my tangle of emotions—around her, around us—got the better of me. I dug my nails into my sides and let the sting keep me steady. I had to ask. "Why would you destroy the tree and actively help him win?"

"It was a fit of pique." Her eyes flicked down to my fingers, curved painfully into my skin, and back up to my face. "Things could have been different," she said.

"Why weren't they?" That came out a bit harsher than I'd intended.

My mother shrugged. "Despite your childish refusal to give me what you promised, I haven't totally knocked you out of the game. Just made it more difficult. The tree may not exist, but the location most certainly does." She glanced at her watch. "You have more than three hours to figure it out. Oh, and to say good-bye to Theo." She patted my cheek and disappeared.