My Life From Hell (The Blooming Goddess #3)

Mommy Dearest (Part 3)

She rose from the sofa and crossed to the bank of floor-to-ceiling windows, gazing at some far point.

I buried my face in my hands. Tears coursed down my cheeks. I felt Kai sit beside me and take me in his arms.

He stroked my hair. "It'll be okay."

But it was never going to be okay again.

"Soph," Theo said. I realized he had moved to sit beside me, too.

I raised wet eyes to his, wanting to ask him how he could have done this. Wanting to know if he could really just walk away from me? I saw that it was killing him, and he was doing it anyway.

Once I'd become a goddess, there had been a lot of points that I'd figured were tests. Big tests, small tests, it was the nature of the hero game. All of them were totally insignificant beside this one. With shockingly cold clarity, I knew that when Zeus had kidnapped me, when Demeter had almost ruined my relationship with Kai, even when I'd been bleeding out on the ground, I'd had one massively important thing that I didn't have now.

Hope.

I swallowed hard and wiped my eyes. Then I pulled Theo into the fiercest, tightest hug I'd even given him.

He didn't even resist. All he did was echo Kai. "It'll be okay."

"Can we talk details now?" At the sound of Felicia's voice, I released Theo from the hug, but kept his hand in mine.

I knew my father was a psychopath. And while I had lots of colorful names for Felicia, that wasn't one of them. Yes, Persephone had screwed her over and taken away her chance to rule Olympus, but still, watching her recline in her chair with an expression of mild boredom, waiting while my heart broke—I revised my opinion.

"Start talking." Kai had a take-no-prisoners tone. He slung an arm around me and hauled me against him, his body practically humming with tension, his eyes never wavering from her.

"Your little ritual ground borders my temple in Eleusis. Where are the boundaries of the ward you created? Is there overlap?"

"Yes," Theo replied. "On the southwest side."

"Good." Felicia nodded. "Beside the remains of the Lesser Propylaea," she said, using the Greek word for the monumental gateway, "there is a cave. Inside is an entrance to the Underworld. Or, conversely, an exit to Earth."

"You want us to go through Hades." Kai's disbelief was palpable.

"There is no other way for me to grant you inside access. Descend to the Underworld and make your way to the portal on that side."

"Hades will kill us," I piped up. My arms burned. I had to give up Theo and Felicia couldn't even find a non-lethal solution for us?

"Then you'll have to stay one step ahead. You've been quite successful thus far." The look she shot me was almost proud.

"I'll deal with my father," Kai said.

"Do you know where to find the portal on the Underworld side?" Theo asked Kai.

Kai thought about it, then nodded. "Leave it to me."

"We should time this as close to the equinox as possible." Theo stroked his chin. "We want to get through and take down Zeus' ward. Then we let Festos take down ours and quickly cleanse the site before you two say the ritual." He looked at Felicia.

"I'll open it early Thursday," she said. "It won't alert Hades or Zeus one way or the other. I will ensure that the way between the two realms is open, and that your passage through is safe. At which point you will be inside their ward and can proceed." She raised an eyebrow. "Are we done?"

"Swear on the Styx," I said, barely audible.

My body ached with the knowledge that my time with Theo was counting down, in a gut wrenching, marrow-of-my-bones kind of way. If I was going to have to endure this blinding heartache, and a future without my best friend, then I could bind Felicia to her word.

"I beg your pardon?" She sounded insulted.

"Swear. On. The. Styx."

"Such a petulant child," she protested.

"Swear, Demeter." I startled at Kiki's voice. Still standing by the windows, she had been so quiet that I'd forgotten she was still there.

Felicia looked like she couldn't wait to have this over with. "I swear on the Styx that it shall be as I decreed," she said, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Now you. I want you bound to give me power this time."

Whatever. Not like I had a choice. "Fine. I swear on—" A knifelike pain slashed across my left wrist. With a gasp I stared down, but it was unmarked.

"It's the oath," Theo explained. "The binding hurts. Just say it." He got up and rocked on his heels as if stretching out his back.

"I swear on the—" Pain flared across my right wrist.

"What'd I miss?" I knew that voice. Behind me.

Words failed me as my personal tormentor and classmate, Bethany Russo-Hill sauntered into Felicia's living room, in her usual ridiculously pricy yoga gear, all streaming dark red hair and deceptively innocent blue eyes. She gave Kai, Theo, and me a dismissive glance, and then plopped into a chair like she lived there. Which given Bethany's god groupie tendencies and Felicia's desire to inflict maximum emotional damage on me, may actually have been the case.

Felicia turned a doting smile on Bethany. "Sophie was just swearing to put me in power in Olympus and never see her little friend Theo again."

"Oh. Cool."

I waved my throbbing right hand between her and Felicia. "Are you kidding me?" I exploded.

Bethany rolled her eyes. "God, Demeter, you sure she's really yours? Such a drama queen."

Viney light shot out of my palms, snaked around Bethany, and began to squeeze.

"Sophie!" Kiki hurried over to me and smacked my arm. My light flew back into my palms.

Bethany rubbed her sides, giving that "poor wounded me" look that she'd pulled so many times before, back at Hope Park.

Take her out. Me and my Persephone voice were in absolute agreement.

"I'm going to kill you," I said to Bethany.

She laughed. "Try it. I'm under D's protection."

I wanted to claw her eyes out. She was on such familiar terms with my mother that she'd given her a nickname. Whereas, I wasn't even invited to call her Demeter. I couldn't even look at Bethany because my hands literally shook with the desire to annihilate her. My Persephone voice screamed at me to do it.