My Life From Hell (The Blooming Goddess #3)

This is Hell (Part 2)

I bit down on my bottom lip, trying to make sense of this. Kiki had decided that me being Persephone fit Felicia's wish for me to suffer and helped me fulfill the prophecy. The first part made sense. Being stuck with Kai, with him thinking that I was his original love was so going to suck. I could even grudgingly acknowledge the sense in the second part.

I still grumbled. "It's all about Persephone. I should have known."

Kiki shook her head. "No. It's all about you. Persephone is part of your younger self. She's part of you, and you still share characteristics. But now you are you."

I let out a half-laugh. This was sounding eerily familiar to the words I'd flung at Kai.

"... Except you're way too hung up on the past. That's no way to have a future. And a heart full of hate can't love. You need love."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Like The Beatles song?"

She blinked, then got the reference and smiled. "Yes. Exactly."

This was all too coincidental. The feeling of being buried alive in the tunnel. The song. "Did you plan all this? The visions? Has it been you the whole time?" I felt a little sick. My mind whirled with conspiracy theories as everything that had happened in the past few days started to look seriously shady.

To her credit, Kiki played confused very well. "You're affecting the present, Sophinchka. That's a danger to all around you. You will never be successful unless you work through it. This," she spread her hands wide, "is both you facing the consequence and me helping you learn from the past."

There wasn't time for this. The equinox was in four days. Which may seem like a lot of time but, trust me, when you're facing the battle of your life, it's not. The last thing I wanted was to deal with was some after-school special about "life lessons for a better you."

I put my hands on my hips, trying not let the fact that I had hips distract me. Persephone was a curvy girl. "The only help I want involves you showing me the exit to Felicia's temple so we can break the stupid ward. Can you do that?"

Kiki scowled at me. She gave great scowl. "This is the way out. The way to ensure your victory. But you need to prove that you deserve it. Sometime in the next few days, Demeter is going to murder you."

That stopped me cold. "We've gone back in time?"

"This is an enchantment," Kiki scoffed. "Everyone here is under my spell. To them, they're playing out these events for the first time. But the end can be just as deadly." She motioned for me to get off the path and onto the grass beside it as a busload of seniors went past. "Seventeen years ago, in the early hours of the equinox, I put Persephone's spirit into your body. At that moment, you and she were perfectly aligned. Now you're not."

"There's the understatement of the year." I focused on the procession before me. A widow on the prowl, hard scrambled grandma with a visor, lecherous old guy with an orange tan ...

Kiki moved herself into my field of vision. "If you and she are not aligned once more by the equinox, you will fail. Save Persephone and the enchantment breaks. You're free to go through the portal and save the day. Don't save Persephone? You die here and no one knows Sophie Bloom ever existed."

That got my attention. "Not fair." My blood ran cold. "That's cruel."

"It's balance. You repeated the past when you betrayed Demeter by not keeping your word. Now Demeter has her chance to repeat the past and avenge that. It's up to you how it ends." She smiled and patted my cheek. "Have fun."

Kiki disappeared.

Fun? No. What I was going to do was get myself out of this stupid enchantment and back to reality. There were plenty of trees around to transport me. I felt under the dress for my pendent and, with its reassuring weight in my hand, headed straight for the nearest one.