My Ex From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy) (8 page)

Theo shook his head and wrote
I’d know if anyone from Olympus was on school grounds. Talk. To. Cassie.

I tilted his binder so I could reply.
If I can find her. Took off during class. Didn’t return. Left all her stuff.

Hannah read it and turned a worried look on me. I nodded, which Mr. Locke fortunately took as agreement with whatever long-winded point he’d been making. He smiled at my enthusiasm. I felt a twinge of guilt. I seriously hoped I wasn’t planning on obliterating him.

Lunch period found me too keyed up to eat. I raced around the school searching for Cassie and eventually found her in the sick bay. Okay, Nurse Hamata’s office. I just called it a sick bay because in the sci-fi version of my life—Crap. This was the sci-fi version of my life.

Cassie was lying on one of the two beds in there, with the lights off. I checked to make sure there was no one else around, then crept softly over to her bedside.

“Cassie?” I said quietly. “We need to talk.”

“Go away,” she moaned.

“What’s wrong? Can I get you something?” She was holding her head and rocking so I flung open the cabinets looking for a Tylenol.

“The blood,” she cried.

I froze. “Cassie. Are you talking about me?”

Nothing. I put my hand on her shoulder and she began speaking super rapidly. Some stream-of-consciousness stuff.

“OneaboveonebelowakeyawakeitisnomoreITISNOMORE …”

“What? Slow down?”

She thrashed, bucking off the bed. I stumbled back.

“What’s going on here?” I whirled around. It was Ms. Keeper, looking every inch the staff member who’d just caught a student where they shouldn’t be.

“There’s something wrong with her.”

She ran her hands through her hair, making tiny purple spikes. “Cassie is ill, Sophie. I’m getting her help. But I’m sure she wouldn’t want you to see her like this.” She had taken hold of my shoulders and was steering me toward the door.

“I guess not,” I agreed, trying to get one more look at her. But Ms. Keeper had ushered me into the hallway. She paused at the doorway. “Do you think Bethany has been bullying Cassie as well?”

“I don’t think so.”

“I just worry because Cassie is the kind of girl that Bethany could easily boss around. Don’t you think?”

Quiet, not many friends, a little weird. “Yeah. I guess she is.”

She nodded and shut the door.

I slid down the wall and tried to memorize the gibberish that Cassie had spouted, so I could share it with Hannah and Theo and see if they understood it. I sure didn’t. But that didn’t keep it from sounding bad. Really bad.

I didn’t see Hannah and Theo again until after classes were done for the day. I’d skipped out and spent the afternoon in the library doing more research, typing what she’d said into every search engine I could think of. No results. I didn’t actually think it was going to be that easy, but jeez, something could have come up.

I pulled the two of them into an empty classroom and recited what Cassie had said.

“None of it means anything to you?” Hannah asked.

“Nothing. ‘One above and one below’ could be me and Kai or Zeus and Hades. Though I couldn’t find any reference to Persephone, I mean me, and a key.”

“Kai? He’s part of the plan?” Theo was radiating thundercloud.

“Maybe?” I idly spun a globe which sat on top of a low bookcase. “Cassie knew I was Persephone. She could be right about this.”

If anything, his expression grew darker. “Cassie. She’s Cassandra. As in the oracle Cassandra who could predict the future—”

“But who no one believed,” Hannah finished. “How did she end up here? This sudden epidemic of Greek figures in teen bodies is a little too
Invasion of the Body Snatchers for me
.” She tilted her head and regarded the chemical equation on the board.

Theo muttered a few more choice words about Kai before answering. “I don’t think that’s it. Cassandra had a couple kids who everyone figured were murdered. But it’s not like there was DNA evidence to prove anything, was there? I think this Cassie is a descendent with the same abilities.”

“Could be,” I said. “She’s always seemed kind of, well, off. I probably do too, now. The stench of crazy.”

“What I’m more concerned about is when did she realize all this about you? Could it have been before the kiss?” asked Theo, leaning against a table.

“I doubt it. I never got that sense,” I replied. “I’m pretty sure it was that same night. The next morning she made this Persephone reference which I didn’t get until you told me your real name. She seemed really wigged out. Mentioned she’d had a bad night.”

“I’ll bet.” Hannah said. “Especially if it was the first time she actually got these predictions or whatever they are for her.” She moved up to the board, picked up a piece of chalk and made an adjustment to the equation.

“I tried to ask her about it but we got interrupted. Not that she looked willing to talk.”

“Could be when you broke through to your true identity, it triggered her full-on abilities. Which means that she’s right and Kai could be integral to all this. You’re sure you don’t remember anything about the plan?” Theo looked at me hopefully.

“Not yet. Sorry.”

“Let’s see if she’s up for a bit of a chat,” Hannah said, brushing chalk dust off of her hands. We walked in silence to the nurse’s office. The door was open and the lights were on. Cassie was still there, sitting up on the bed with her back to us.

Theo, Hannah and I exchanged glances. This seemed more promising than before.

Hannah stepped forward. “Cassie?” she said. No response.

I was chilled. This is what had happened last time before the crazy kicked in. I wasn’t up to hearing any more doom.

“Cassie?” Theo spoke a little louder. We came around the bed so we could see her. Cassie was staring blankly at a wall.

“She’s stoned out of her tree,” I said. I shook her but she didn’t even react, she was so looped out.

“It’s like she’s frozen,” Hannah commented, waving a hand in front of her face.

Theo picked up a small pill bottle on the table beside her and peered at the label. “Chlorpromazine.”

Hannah frowned. “That’s an antipsychotic.” She took the bottle from Theo. “And a really high dosage of it.”

“No wonder she’s all zombie,” I said.

“This much can’t be good for her,” Hannah observed. “But I can’t tell who prescribed it.”

“Someone who doesn’t want her speaking, obviously,” said Theo. “She might spill something that someone wants kept from Sophie.”

“Worse than I’m going to destroy the world?”

“It might not be about the earth,” Hannah added. “It might be personal to you.” She glanced at Theo. “Like Kai?”

“Prime suspect number one.”

“Because you don’t like him,” I sputtered. “Doesn’t mean he’d OD Cassie. That’s just evil.”

“Or self-serving,” Theo pointed out.

“What do we do about her?” Hannah asked, concerned, trying to catch Cassie as she fell slowly backward onto the bed. She lay Cassie down and put a blanket over her.

“We take the bottle and leave her. For now.” Theo ordered. “Tonight we come back and see if she’s more coherent.”

Hannah pocketed the pill bottle. “Fine.”

We cleared out of the room in time to find Kai heading straight for us. “Don’t you dare abandon me,” I muttered to Hannah and Theo.

“Don’t panic. All is well,” Theo soothed, grasping my elbow and steering me down another corridor before our two parties could actually meet. He pushed us all into a classroom, then peered out of the window to see if Kai had followed.

“That’s odd,” he said. “He’s not coming.”

Hannah’s hand flew to her mouth in exclamation. “What if he was coming for Cassie, not looking for Sophie? And we just left her alone?”

She flung the door open and we raced back to the nurse’s office. The door was locked. I tugged desperately on it to no avail. “Find Stan,” I cried. “He has a key.”

Hannah and Theo raced off in different directions to track him down while I uselessly pounded on the door. “Cassie? Kai? Open up in there.”

It felt like forever but was only moments before Hannah dragged Stan over and he unlocked the door for us.

We bolted inside. But it was too late.

Cassie was gone.

6

If you play with fire, you’re gonna get spurned

ς
’

“How could he possibly leave with her?” I demanded. “I was outside the door the entire time.”

Theo had arrived in time to hear this. “There’s always the window.”

Hannah looked at him in scorn. “He dragged her limp body out a window?”

Theo cast a cautious look at Stan, waiting patiently for us by the door, before whispering “Not your ordinary guy.”

Hannah rushed to the window to look out. “No sign.”

“You kids finished?” Stan asked.

We nodded and shuffled out so Stan could lock up.

“I’m going to check her room,” Hannah said. “Maybe she came to and decided to head up while we were in the classroom.”

“You don’t genuinely think that, do you?” asked Theo.

“No,” she sighed. “But it’s better than the alternative.”

“Right. Off we go.” He turned to me. “Coming?”

“No. I know it’s probably pointless but I’m going to search the school.”

Theo clapped my shoulder in encouragement and departed with Hannah.

I spent a good hour roaming around, checking out classrooms and asking students if they’d seen her. No luck.

Frustration overwhelmed me. Not to mention guilt that somehow my awakening as Persephone had inadvertently caused Cassie to come to harm.

Where could she have gone? If I’d been standing outside the door, then the only way out was through the window.

I headed outside to check the ground underneath, in case there were any clues. Footprints, tracks from a wheelbarrow in which her body had been dragged away. It was probably a little too Scooby Doo but I was desperate.

There were marks around the low hedges in the flowerbed but they weren’t proof of anything. I sighed and stepped over a bag of fertilizer left on the ground. Pictures of bright, tropical flowers adorned the package.

Flash!
I saw myself cavorting in a meadow of the same flowers, which was so pathetic I wanted to puke. Apparently, though, this is what goddesses did for fun. As long as I wasn’t fertilizing anything, I could deal.

My head was getting that lovely splitting open sensation again. No way was I going to space out down memory lane in public and risk looking like I was having a seizure. I needed to get somewhere private.

I ran blindly into the school, barely able to see anything in the here-and-now as more memories assaulted me.

The sun had been shining, hot and bright. I could feel it heating my skin through the layers of my filmy gown.

I gazed down upon my body.

Man, I’d been fine. Stupid Theo could have at least made sure I stayed the equivalent level of hotness.

The air was perfumed with grass and a bouquet of floral aromas which should have been cloying but instead seemed to fuel me. I dug my toes into the cool earth. Because I actually was on earth. Somewhere tropical and lush. There was an almost overpowering scent of jasmine.

I nearly collided with the wall in my haste to find somewhere private. There was a girls’ bathroom here. If I could just get inside.

Further along, people strolled and children played but I knew they couldn’t see me unless I wanted them to. And I wanted to remain invisible. To enjoy the freedom of being alone.

Things were so tense on Olympus. Zeus was always in a rage and everyone was terrified of setting him off. My mother was anxious because …

The thought was elusive. There was something important that I needed to remember. But it wouldn’t come. I drifted back to that day.

I got a prickling feeling like I was being watched. Could someone have followed me? I’d tried to be careful but I had nowhere near all the tricks of some of the other gods.

I pivoted slowly and then I saw him. An impossibly gorgeous figure, radiating power.

No. No more Mr. Tall, Dark, and Brooding. I tried to shake it off but like it or not, this was the memory I was stuck with. Fine. I fast-forwarded to Kai moving into the light. My first look at him. The version of Kai I saw in my memory looked like a taller, more powerful, and slightly older version of the Kai here at Hope Park.

There was only one god he could be. Kyrillos, son of Hades. I’d heard of him but had never seen him. “Kyrillos,” I said, in a cool voice.

He gave me a mocking bow. “Persephone.”

“What business have you here?”

He padded toward me slowly, like a jungle cat I’d seen in my travels, lithe and dangerous. I refused to be cowed and held my ground.

He examined me slowly and smiled. “My father neglected to speak of your beauty.”

He overwhelmed me. I didn’t like it so I turned to leave.

He caught me in an iron grip and made me face him. “Not so fast, Goddess.” He traced my jawline with one finger.

I suppressed the tremor I felt inside.

“It pains me to do this.” He raised his hand and …

Crack! My eyes startled open.

“That must have been some dream,” Kai said. I realized the noise had been him shutting the door of the girls’ bathroom. “You were stumbling around. Zoned out. Figured I’d better bring you in here to make sure you didn’t kill yourself before you came to.”

It was kind of disorienting to see Kai in this utilitarian bathroom when I’d just been thinking of him outside in the tropics. “You hit me,” I accused.

“Huh?”

“The first time we met. You hit me and kidnapped me.” I yanked a paper towel out of the plastic dispenser and blotted my forehead.

“I don’t hit girls,” he scowled.

“I wasn’t a girl. I was a goddess. Am a goddess. Stop ignoring the point.” Annoyed, I wadded the towel into a ball and threw it in the trash.

“I didn’t hit you either, Goddess.”

“Cut the crap. I remember. You raised your hand and …” I trailed off.

He snorted. “I raised my hand and you attacked me.” He pointed to a tiny silver scar under his left eye. “Gave me that. Nearly lost an eye trying to get you down to Hades.”

That could have been the truth. But of course a kidnapper would deny using force. It was another reason to be wary of him. I felt I should keep my suspicions to myself. For now. “Sorry for the inconvenience,” I sneered.

He shrugged. “It was kind of hot.”

“Oh brother.” I rolled my eyes. “Don’t tell me you get off on kinky foreplay.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t you remember?”

“I am not having this conversation with you.”

“Apparently, you are,” he replied, smugly.

I had to change the subject because there was no way I could spar with him about sex when I had no idea what had or had not ever happened between us. What if I liked being restrained and screamed like a banshee? What if I turned into a banshee? You could see my dilemma.

I cast around for a safe topic. “Cassie!” I sputtered. “What did you do with her?”

He looked blank. “Who?”

“Cassandra. The oracle?”

“Cassandra is dead. Do you have an actual clue about anything?”

“Not
the
Cassandra. My Cassandra. Cassie. My schoolmate. You were headed toward the nurse’s office—”

“Looking for you. Who took off to avoid me.”

“Giving you the chance to go get her and spirit her off,” I said.

“Why?”

“So she wouldn’t tell me that thing.”

“What thing?” He sounded genuinely confused. But he could have been a really good actor.

“I don’t know. You stopped her before she could tell me.”

Kai swore. “You don’t make any sense. You pretend to be Bethany coming to meet me. Then you get mad. Kiss me.”

“You kissed me first,” I pointed out. “Being all insufferable and arrogant.”

“Arrogant? That’s hilarious. You’re the one who let me think you’d been gone all these years having met some horrific fate, when really you’ve been here playing dolls with Prometheus.”

“You said ‘gone.’ Not ‘dead.’ You thought I was alive, didn’t you?”

“I couldn’t believe you were dead,” he grudgingly admitted. “It never felt right.”

“Is that why you came here? You were looking for me?” I slid myself onto the cool, blue flecked counter and waited.

“Don’t flatter yourself. I figured if you’d been gone this long, you wanted to stay gone. It was brought to my attention that some random school was incredibly warded up. I wanted to know why.”

He leaned in close and fixed me in his gaze. “Want to tell me what the past sixteen years were all about?” he asked in a low and deadly tone.

“Not really,” I answered, since I couldn’t. “I want to know what you did with Cassie.”

“Nothing. If I’d wanted to do something to her, you’d never have seen me coming. When you so rudely ignored me, I turned around and left.”

“And followed me here.”

He laughed. A sound so hollow it practically sounded painful. “I don’t need to follow you, Goddess. Ever since we kissed, you’ve been this burning GPS in my head. I know where you are every second.”

I preened, liking that idea.

“It’s driving me nuts and I want it to stop.”

So much for that. “I thought I was supposed to be the big love of your life.”

“I don’t even know you,” he retorted.

I stared up at the overhead florescent light and shook my head, willing patience. “Nice attitude.”

“You’re not Persephone. Just some human.”

I stood up, making sure I postured myself into full height. “First off, it’s a species not a disease. I’m not going to infect you. Second, I am Persephone. You know it. That’s why you said ‘finally’ before you kissed me. I’m Persephone and I’m Sophie.”

“How?” he demanded.

“Theo put me in this form to keep me safe.”

“From who? How much do you remember?”

“Why? Got something to hide?”

“Not as much as you,” he retorted.

We glared at each other for a moment before he abruptly changed the subject. “They’re after you now, you know.”

“I know. I saw them.”

“Zeus and Hades?” He sounded incredulous.

“No. Gold Crushers and Infernorators.”

His brow creased in puzzlement.

“Right, not the technical terms.” I scrambled to remember what Theo had called them. “A Pyrosim and a Photokia.”

“And you escaped?”

“I destroyed them. You might want to remember that as you continue to piss me off.”

“It’s impossible. You’re human,” he retorted.

“And a goddess. Get with the program.”

He was really getting under my skin. Maybe I just wanted one others person from my past firmly in my corner in the present. Or maybe I’d ingested too much romantic garbage from the movies, but his lack of overwhelming joy at my appearance rankled.

“So you have your powers?” Kai sounded doubtful.

Jerk. My palms started to tingle. I raised my hands. Nothing happened.

Kai crossed his arms across his chest. Totally unconcerned.

I turned my palms over to check them out. They seemed fine.

I refused to let him headtrip me. I was so going to strangle him with my trusty weapons. Yeah. Not what happened. Stupid defective hands.

“Behold: nothing!” he pronounced.

I deflated. “That went well.”

Kai’s lips quirked. “Out of curiosity, did you think it was going to go better or worse?”

I skewered him in a “not funny” glare. “I don’t get it. I smooshed those things. And I was able to show Hannah what I could do.”

“I believe you,” he replied.

“You do?” It was the last thing I expected from him.

“Yeah. That is your power, after all. And since you wouldn’t know about the Pyrosim and Photokia if you hadn’t seen them, you must have destroyed them to survive.”

“Why didn’t it work here, then?” I asked.

“Your little friend Prometheus didn’t fill you in?”

I glared at him, not wanting to implicate Theo in anything. Not to Kai, anyway. If Theo was keeping stuff from me, we’d have that out later.

“You haven’t been outside since, have you?” Kai motioned to the small frosted window, set high in the wall.

“Not for long. But I don’t see how that matters.”

“You need to recharge. You’re Spring. You’re tied to nature and the outdoors. Like the ultimate solar battery.”

“So my crummy power has conditions? Figures.”

“Even Superman had Kryptonite. Besides, fresh air is good for you.”

I took a deep breath and blurted out before I could think twice, “So where does this leave us?”

Kai stared at me, then shrugged. “Wish to Hades I knew. I’ll see you around, Sophie Bloom.” Then he left.

That was highly unsatisfying. Which seemed to be the tone of all our encounters. While he certainly wasn’t chatty about why he was here at Hope Park, I did believe him about Cassie. About the fact that if he wanted to harm someone, they wouldn’t know until it was too late. And he wouldn’t be caught. I filed that piece of info away under “up the security threat of this guy to DEFCON 2.”

My concentration was shot so I headed back to my room. Theo and Hannah were waiting for me.

“She’s gone.” Hannah was visibly upset. “Her roommate, Jessica, said that when she returned to her room after class, Cassie’s stuff wasn’t there. Ms. Keeper was waiting for her to tell her that Cassie’s parents had come to get her and that Cassie was being hospitalized for a nervous breakdown. She won’t be here for the remainder of the term.”

“Jessica didn’t believe it, did she?”

“She wasn’t sure what to believe.” Theo said. “She saw Cassie leave class and couldn’t understand what else it could be. Why would Ms. Keeper lie about it?”

“That’s the million dollar question.” I frowned. “Ms. Keeper appears and Cassie disappears? It’s too much of a coincidence. We need to find out more about this woman.”

“The timing sucks,” Theo agreed.

“You think it’s related?” Hannah asked.

“I’m not willing to chance it,” he replied.

“But you said you’d be able to tell if anyone from Olympus was here,” I retorted.