My Life From Hell (The Blooming Goddess #3)

Them's Fightin' Words (Part 1)

"Up and at 'em, honeybunch," Festos said cheerily on Sunday morning, crawling onto my bed to seat himself against my headboard. I was so dopey with sleep that it took me a second to remember where I was.

He looked disgustingly chirpy, all clean shaven, dressed in a green sweater and one of his endless pairs of skinny jeans. No fedora today though.

"Ugh," I croaked, rubbing morning granola out of one eye. "What time is it?"

"Time to celebrate my sheer unmitigated genius." He jammed his hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a silver ring, which he dropped into my palm.

I sat up, scootching against him. "Look at that." I held the ring up to inspect it. "Necklace, bracelet, ring. I've got a whole jewelry set."

The ring was really cool, with a wide, silver band. Attached to it was a flat silver plane, shaped like a shield, with a stylized sun engraved on it.

I slid the ring onto my middle finger and saw that the shield part went all the way up to my middle knuckle. "Tres funky." I held it out to better admire it on my hand. "But how does said stylish accessory work?"

"Five minutes. Get dressed."

"Can I eat?" I asked as I scrambled out of bed.

"No." He left the room.

"I'm calling Amnesty International," I called after him.

I threw my fabutastic red superpower T-shirt back on. First, because I knew Felicia would haaaate it. But mostly because I could do with any extra confidence boost I could get before facing her. Truth be told, I was really nervous about seeing my mother again. I'd always known she didn't love me, but I had stupidly held out hope.

I didn't anymore.

That just made it worse.

I pulled Kai's jeans back on because, yeah, I liked wearing his clothes, and again, Felicia would despise our implied—no, actual, I corrected—closeness.

I made it to the living room in four minutes, partially to show off my punctual commitment to the cause, but mostly because I smelled bacon. The one reason I could never be a vegetarian.

Kai was already there, wearing jeans and a fitted red long-T. Tension simmered between him and Festos.

"We match," I grinned, indicating our outfits, hoping to change the vibe.

Kai smiled as he held up a take out coffee cup. "Espresso?" he asked, waggling it.

"Gawd, I love you."

"Doesn't take much," Theo said, entering the room, already dressed.

I shot back the espresso, my brain waking up as the hot caffeine hit. Heavenly.

Festos grabbed my hand. "Back to me and my brilliance ..." He led me toward the door.

I glanced over my shoulder at Kai.

"Don't worry, I'm coming," he said.

"No." I gestured vaguely with my free hand. "Bring bacon."

Theo snorted his laughter.

Kai shook his head and caught up with us in the foyer, handing me a couple strips of super crispy bacon. I bit into a salty, crumbly piece and my eyes rolled back into my head in delight.

Festos opened the door to the cold, concrete stairwell. Both he and Kai tried to take the lead, jostling each other for position. Fee whacked Kai across the back of the knees with his cane. In anyone else, he would have shattered something. All Kai did was shove Festos hard enough into the cement wall to crack it.

I pushed between them. "What is your problem?" I hissed.

I understood why Theo hated Kai. Kai's kiss had messed up all of Theo's plans. Plus Theo knew how Kai had catted around after Persephone's supposed murder. But Festos and Kai seemed to have some kind of history that left massive chips on both their shoulders. Yet they bonded over the oddest things.

"Well?" I demanded looking from one to the other.

Their expressions smoothed out and became totally unreadable. But they stopped behaving like bratty ten-year-olds, so I let it lie.

Festos only went as far as the third floor.

I shivered as we stopped in the middle of the large, unfinished, unheated space.

"Go for it," he said.

My moss green light flew from my body to fill the room with a bright flash, then immediately dissipated. Before I had a chance to experience my usual utter exhaustion at using that much power, the ring glowed and a warmth poured through me.

I felt fine.

"Again," Festos said.

I blasted another one. And another. I whirled on Festos excitedly. "Three! I did three in a row! That's never happened. This is a freaking incredible superhero ring! How did you do it?"

"I'm brilliant." He looked down his nose at me in mock haughty arrogance.

"Noted and agreed." I bounced on my toes, still feeling the warmth tingling through my body. "I feel like I could go on forever."

Festos shook his head. "More precisely, you could go on for another three minutes and thirty seconds. That's our maximum time for you two to hold off the Pyrosim and Photokia. For me to cleanse the location and let you perform the ritual before Miss Dramabomb runs dry and hotshot is left on his own."

"Worried I wouldn't save you?" Kai asked him.

"Well, you are fickle when it comes to your loyalty," Fee retorted.

I could practically feel the air heating up as the two of them inched closer to each other.

"Versus how you have no loyalty at all," Kai sneered.