My Ex From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy, #1)

If you play with fire, you're gonna get spurned (Part 2)

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.

"They're after you now, you know," he said.

"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."