My Life From Hell (The Blooming Goddess #3)

The End Of The World As We Know It (Part 4)

That was impossible. I was the savior of humanity.

Cassie's words about me being the instrument of destruction echoed back to me.

Zeus chuckled and patted my head. "You've done such a good job. Earth will be free of humans in no time. Maybe I'll let you live after all, daughter."

I didn't get a chance to respond because, the very fabric of the air around us shredded. I flew into my father's leg with a hard jolt, bouncing off of his shin to land on my butt in the dirt. Blood streamed from my ears. I put a hand on my stomach, certain that the violent rift in our atmosphere had torn my organs from my body.

Standing, moving, doing anything beyond gaping up at the swirling, churning, burning depths above, was impossible. I saw the end of everything.

Man, was I pissed.

I clawed at my arms. Everything we'd gone through? Theo?! For what? The end of the world? The end of humanity? I refused to accept it. There was no way we'd been so wrong.

I peered through the smoke toward Demeter's temple far below. There was nothing left. Just a raging torrent of water.

Winds buffeted us. Fire writhed all around me, mocking with its flickering dance. Instrument of our destruction.

I looked into the depths of the rift. How could we be responsible? In the face of all the hate that had surrounded us, Kai and I represented love. Didn't we?

Persephone's voice raged in my head. They must not win. My arms burned and my head felt ready to explode.

The rift grew larger and larger. It was angry.

So was I.

I faced my last seconds of existence and thought about everything I'd experienced since I'd become a goddess. How my fury had grown with each new challenge. Had it really been any different than the rage that the gods had felt?

Look at how much raw anger Kai had held on to. For his father. For Persephone.

For me.

Despite all our protestations, were we any different from the rest of them? What if Kai and I had performed the ritual from a place not of love, but of hate? What if we'd taken the right actions—a love ritual to stop Zeus and Hades—but with wrong, angry intentions? What if the means hadn't justified the end, and in wanting to prove those gods wrong, we'd given them exactly what they wanted? A world free from humans. A gods-only existence?

In which case ... what?

Fight harder. Persephone shouted from inside me.

I pushed her voice aside. Tried to focus. One above. One below. Alive. Awake. A key. It is no more. It is no more. How did I stop this? What did the prophecy mean?

Persephone stole my breath with her rage. It speared through me, my own anger calling up in response to hers.

The rift swirled faster. Like it was reacting to my churning emotions. This was a billion times worse than me sending spring into limbo. With that thought, I understood what had to be done.

Kai and I were not the prophecy. Or rather, we were. But the destructive one.

The version that could save the world? It applied to me. And Persephone. She was above. I was below. My realization was the key. The key to stopping this apocalypse and all godly destruction. Making sure it was no more.

I finally understood what Hekate had meant by Persephone and me being in synch. What my visions meant by insisting that all I needed was love.

Humans knew that love got you everywhere.

Love gets you nowhere. That was Persephone's—no, our secret fears. And it had gotten us nowhere.

Overhead, the rift expanded in an ugly crackle, consuming entire heavens. It had gotten us worse than nowhere. I flinched.

I was the synthesis of god and human. And it was my rage, my fire, my hate that had to be extinguished right now. My path was clear. I knew what had to be done. Fighting our fathers? Taking control of the minions? It was just more destruction and powerplay. How could I have believed that my outcome would have been anything other than this? No. Destruction was for Hades and Zeus.

I had to relinquish the role of warrior. My path was creation.

I'd said as much to Zeus and Hades before. I was the goddess of ushering in a spring free from the destruction of the gods. A world that allowed humans to bloom. I'd just been trying to do it with a blowtorch instead of a green thumb. It was time for me to remember who I was and what I truly stood for. Human and goddess selves alike.

It was time to forgive. Time to love.

I looked at Kai. Maybe a minute had elapsed since he'd realized what we'd done. He was rooted to the spot, watching the end, his expression shattered.

I touched his arm.

Kai stared at me, glassy-eyed. "How could we have done this?"

"It's okay. I know what it needs." I smiled at the questions in his eyes. "Love, baby."

Then I threw myself into the rift.