My Life From Hell (The Blooming Goddess #3)

Phospherocious (Part 1)

I'd like to think that Kai was back there screaming a clichéd slow motion "Noooooo!" Maybe even combined with a run toward me, his arms outstretched, the pain at my sacrifice etched across his face. But the truth was, I jumped, got my teeth rattled as the rift knocked me around, and then I found myself back in the garden.

And oh baby, was it glorious. Gloriously terrifying. My vision had come true with a vengeance.

A carpet of lava bubbled over the ground, consuming everything except the rock on which I stood. The air hung so heavy with smoke and ash that the sky looked night-dark. But the lava burned so brightly, that I threw a hand up to shield my eyes.

Fat orange bubbles popped, turned black, hardened, and were swept away. Geysers of molten lava jetted, reminding me of Fee's chandelier. This was no less beautiful, but the jets spewed upward to heights of thirty or forty feet, infinity times more deadly. Fragments of molten lava flew through the air.

In the middle of it all, the lava swirled around the furiously blazing pomegranate tree. The fruit, the leaves, everything was gone save for the most barren skeletal outline visible in the flames.

I shook in the face of this devastation. It's amazing I didn't wet myself. Major life-realization-heroic-moments are all well and good, but my heart hammered and my brain screamed, "Are you freaking insane?!! You just threw yourself into the heart of darkness, idiot!!! And look where you ended up!!"

All of that combined in a hell of an endorphin rush that left my limbs rubbery. I'd been so certain that jumping into the rift was the way to stop the apocalypse. But this? I didn't understand this.

Lava splashed my skin, blistering it. I protected my face as best I could, but I had to get out of here, or risk death. I tried to step forward, not even sure where I could go, since the lava fountain danced all around me. But that was irrelevant. My foot was stuck fast.

Panic clawed at my throat. The stone twined itself around my feet, as if it was fluid. I knew how this ended. With me in a sarcophagus.

I fought back. Blasted the stone. Again and again.

I had a visitor. Kiki stood beside me on the rock. She didn't look particularly goddessy with her low cut zebra print top tucked into fitted jeans, and stilettos on her feet. Her red hair was as pouffed up as ever. But I didn't doubt her power for a second.

"Stop fighting it. You had the right impulse. Don't ruin it all now." A lit cigarette appeared in her hand. She inhaled with an oddly delicate flick of her wrist.

"Go ahead," I said. "Enjoy your smoke. Don't worry about me being entombed or anything." I flung myself violently from side to side, hoping to break free.

The stone rose up to my knees.

"Sophinchka." Her voice was stern.

I stopped struggling long enough to stare at her. "What? You have something to say to me, Kiki? Some great wisdom to impart? The vision is real. Happy now?"

She blew a smoke ring to the side of my face. "This ... manifestation. It did not come from me. You saw the consequences of your actions. You didn't heed the warnings. Now you live them."

I slammed my hands down on the stone, now at hip level. As if I could physically hold it back. My body was a block of icy terror. Which was ironic since the air around me was so hot, that it had to be amping my core temperature.

The tree wasn't doing much better. I watched branches disintegrate and fall away into nothingness.

I glared at Kiki. "I needed love. I gave in to love. To compassion. I understood the gods. Realized I had to take another path. What more is there?"

She looked at me, puzzled. As if she couldn't understand how I could fail to understand. "You are missing the most important piece."

"What?!" I felt the stone cement my belly button.

"All you ever needed was love."

I screamed in frustration. That was no help. I knew that already.

The stone slithered up to my chest. Lava splashed against it, hardening into chips. Great. I could be a freaking art piece in Zeus' statue room when this was over.

Kiki stood there, watching like she'd handed me the key to this whole puzzle and was waiting for me to unlock it.

I forced myself to take a breath, which wasn't easy, since the rock was crushing my ribcage. All right. I needed love. No, wait. She'd emphasized "you." I needed people to love me? Well, I had some. Maybe not all the ones I wanted, but good ones nonetheless.

The stone rose to my armpits. The tree had lost all its branches now. Only its spindly trunk remained. Poor tree. Poor Persephone. I felt for her. "She never felt loved enough. Never loved herself enough."

I hadn't either.

"Talk to me," Kiki said.

"Where to start?"

"Where it began."