My Life From Hell (37 page)

“Was it worth it?” she asked.

One side of his mouth quirked up. “Guess we’ll find out.”

“I could order you to move,” Kai said.

I glanced over at him. He watched her carefully but didn’t look particularly alarmed at her presence.

“You could,” she said.

“But you won’t,” Theo added. He stepped forward, closer to Oizys. “I didn’t get to say good-bye last time.”

“I hate you.”

He nodded. “I know.”

Her face twisted with an instant of hurt, then she crushed Theo to her, bending down to hug him. It was a fierce hug. And Theo returned it.

I didn’t begrudge them. Nor did I think about whatever good-bye he and I would be saying later today.

It was all very sweet until Kai reminded us. “They’ll be here any second,” he said, and I knew we had to move.

I grabbed Theo’s hand and tugged him away. “Oizys …” There was so much I wanted to say to her, but she cut me off with a sharp shake of her head.

“Get out of here,” Kai instructed her. “Don’t let them see you.”

Oizys looked surprised at this, but she nodded. Then she turned to Festos. “Take care of him.”

Festos snatched up Theo’s hand. “Always.”

I waved. “See you soon, Goth Girl.” It came out more wistfully than I’d intended.

She left me the ghost of a smile. “Not if I see you first, Springtime.” With a final nod to me, she blended back into the shadows around the cave. And just in time. It seemed like half of the Underworld was stampeding toward us.

We raced into the cave. “Demeter kept her word,” Kai said, pointing to a glowing light in the next chamber. “The entrance to her temple is open.”

She had to
, I thought with grim satisfaction.
She was bound by the oath.
I wondered how Demeter felt about almost killing me all over again. Did it matter to her at all? Was she glad I lived? Or sorry she’d failed a second time?

My chest felt tight. Sorrow spread through me like a virus. Settling into my bones. Add it to my nervous breakdown list for later. I wasn’t being flip. I just didn’t have the luxury of grief right now. Because if I started, where would it stop? With Demeter? Zeus? Theo? Hannah? The cyclone that was Kai and me?

And what would be left of me in its wake?

So no. No grief. Anger-fueled determination. That was good. I could work with that.

Still, I felt a brief pang as I wondered if the time I’d spent with Demeter in the Underworld would have any effect on the next time I saw Felicia. Right now, I had to get to the battle site. Which meant going through the exit into the Temple of Demeter in Eleusis.

My stomach turned as I stepped into the next chamber in the cave and stared at the light. Of course, it wasn’t some nice portal to just jump through. Nope, we’d have to dive into a pool of water so deep and dark that light only highlighted the shadows, and potential shadowy monsters, beneath the surface. I jerked away from the pool.

“Nothing to be afraid of.” Kai pointed to a lip of rock overhanging the water. “All you have to do is swim under that ledge, and through a short tunnel. When you surface, you’ll be inside the Temple of Demeter.”

“I’m not afraid. Just understandably cautious.”

“Thesi first,” Festos said, kicking off his shoes. “Safe and sound. Go.” He’d obviously had enough of Theo being in danger in the Underworld.

“Festos,” Theo began. He sighed and rubbed his hands roughly over his face.

Poor Theo. He’d had no time to process. No time to deal with seeing Oizys again, or transition from a world in which he hated Festos to a world in which he loved him. Not to mention the torture.

Again.

“Sorry.” I knew how hard it was for Kai to say that one word to Theo. But it was clear that he meant it.

Theo acknowledged the apology with a slight nod, but kept his distance from Kai.

Festos wrapped his arms around Theo, and leaned in. “Please.” It was more a breath than a word.

Theo touched Fee’s cheek. “We’ll go together.”

“Or you could let me take you home. Right now.” Festos gave Theo his most encouraging smile, but Theo shook his head.

“I can’t.”

I murmured to Kai. “Fee is still really worried about Theo undoing the ward that Zeus and Hades put up.” It worried me too. I knew it would be dangerous. Everything about this situation was dangerous.

But Festos’ expression was full of resigned heartbreak.

It scared me.

Kai kissed the top of my head. “Theo will be fine. Come on, I’ll swim with you.”

That was probably as good as things were going to get. I kicked off my shoes, really glad that my math skills were not up to calculating how much water per square inch of denim my jeans would soak up once we were in the water.

Fee went first. Since there was no gradual beach entry, he flung himself in. Then resurfaced, his cane thrashing the water as he howled “Cooooold!”

Theo, of course, stepped into the water with a minimal splash, swam toward Fee in a perfect front stroke, and wrapped his arm around him. “Stop wasting energy.”

Festos rolled his eyes, but stopped his melodramatic splashing. “Count of three. One, two, three.”

They ducked under the water and swam for the ledge. I watched until they were out of sight.

“Our turn!” I ended with a yelp as Kai swung me up in his arms. “Don’t. You. Dare,” I said.

He grinned and tossed me in the water.

I came up sputtering. My hair plastered to my face in long strands. As I swiped it out of my eyes, I felt Kai’s arms around my waist.

He pressed his face into the back of my shoulder and held me, both of us slowly treading water.

A minion rushed into the cave, all fire and fury.

“Hang on,” Kai said. He swung our bodies around so that I had no choice but to fling my arms around his neck.

A fireball sizzled past our heads.

I barely had time to take a deep breath as Kai dove under the water, taking me with him.

It was very dark. That didn’t matter so much since I decided that squeezing my eyes shut was a good idea. But I hadn’t taken a big enough breath. Actually, I don’t know if that would have been possible without transplanting a bigger set of lungs. As Kai dragged me through the frigid water, concern that the minions had found us, turned to concern that I might not have enough air.

Which turned to absolute certainty.

And progressed to burning panic as my lungs tried to explode. Or implode. Maybe both.

Until finally—on the verge of my “this is it, here I go, drowning now” moment—we broke the surface on the other side. I took an enormous gulp of air. Never had I been so thankful for the gift of oxygen.

Festos and Theo were already out of the water.

The portal light began to blink.

“Hurry,” Theo urged. “It’s closing.”

I let go of Kai so he could get out, but before I could go anywhere, fire shot up my ankle.

It appeared Pyrosim could not only swim, they could keep flaming in water, too. And grab on to people’s legs. It pulled me down.

The portal light blinked faster and faster.

I looked up toward the surface and tried to shake the minion free. Its other tentacle snaked around my waist. My T-shirt had floated up so his fire was in direct contact with my skin. My body jerked in pain. If I screamed, I would drown.

Enough of this.

I had no problem unleashing some fury on this minion right here, right now. I fired my light vines and spun the little bugger into oblivion.

Highly satisfying.

More minions poured through the tunnel. The closest Pyrosim stretched out its tentacles to grab my other leg.

There was a blinding flash. And not from me. Which meant the portal was closing.

I stretched my arm up and fired a vine, hauling myself out of the water and out of minion range. Just in time. I swung over the now-dark pool, breathing heavily. The portal had closed. With the minions trapped on the other side.

“The Temple of Demeter,” Theo said. “We’re safe.”

I lowered myself to the ground, avoiding the water. Not like I hadn’t brought enough of it with me in my clothes. I lifted the hem of my shirt to better see the tentacle damage. A lovely burn mark wrapped half-way around my waist. I touched it gingerly and hissed. It would heal but it still hurt.

“We match.” Theo sounded grimly amused.

I sent him a faint smile. “I beg to differ, Rockman. You got the magic salve. There’s no more marks on that pretty skin of yours.”

I wrung out my shirt. We were all sopping wet. I only spared one covert glance for Kai, to check and see if his already body-hugging outfit had gotten more defined.

It had.

Yum.

Nice as that image was, I was happy to see that Fee had a blazing fire going to dry us all out. Having the God of Fire and Volcanos around was pretty handy. I squelched my way over and sat down, enjoying the feel of the heat on my face. Now that I was momentarily safe, I relaxed enough to take in my surroundings.

We were in a cave. Empty of everything except a dirty floor. “How unspectacular,” I said.

“Well” Theo said wryly, “we’re essentially in an ancient doorway, so I’m not sure what you expected.”

“It doesn’t get much better,” Festos said. “We’re present-day again. The glory of this temple is long gone. All you’ll see are ruins.”

I looked toward the cave entrance to confirm his words. All I saw was Kai, framed in the frail pink light of sunrise, and staring outside.

“We’re not going anywhere yet.” Theo glanced at his watch. “It’s only 9AM.”

I stretched my hands toward the flame. “Are we safe here?”

He nodded, sitting down cross-legged beside me. “Yeah. We’re inside our ward, too. Not just theirs. Now we wait. We don’t want to appear too early and give them time to see us. Mess with our heads.”

I rested my head on Theo’s shoulder.

He relaxed against me.

Gawd, I loved him so much. How was I supposed to let him go? “I don’t think I can do it.” I didn’t mean facing Zeus and Hades, and Theo knew it.

“You have to, Magoo.”

My lip trembled and I bit down on it to keep from bursting into tears. Making Theo feel bad about our impending good-bye wouldn’t help him take down the ward. This was bigger than us.

Theo must have understood how much keeping silent was costing me, because he pulled me in and held me tight.

I sat there, enjoying our closeness.

No, memorizing it. Memorizing every last detail about him. How he smelled. How the knuckles of his right hand were weirdly more knobby than his left. How, without his glasses, I could see how deep and shining his eyes were.

But mostly, I just committed the feel of him to memory. So that on those days when his absence hit me like a physical ache, I could pull this time up and lose myself in it.

The fire hissed cheerfully. There was none of that woodsy smell I liked, since Fee had simply sprung it to life, but it sure was beautiful to watch.

We waited. The time would have been almost peaceful, except for Fee’s incessant pacing.

“Babe,” Theo said. “Sit down already.”

“I can’t. I’ll go mad sitting here for what, another nine hours?”

“Seven hours, thirty two minutes,” Kai said, barely turning his head. He seemed welded to the entrance.

Festos made another strangled sound.

“Okay, that’s it.” Theo gently disengaged himself from me and pushed to his feet. “Let’s go.”

Festos looked startled. “Where?”

“For a walk. We have some things to work out.” Theo turned to me. “You two stay here. Even though our ward is strong, I don’t want you out in the open until it’s time. I’ll take down their ward a few minutes before the equinox. You know where the ritual happens, right?”

Kai finally moved from his position at the mouth of the cave and nodded. His eyes locked on to mine. “Yeah. The pomegranate tree west of here.”

My mouth fell open. The pomegranate tree in my vision was real, and about to become center stage for the showdown?

Screw. Me.

Twenty-two