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

A dead minion tells no tales (Part 1)

"Dragon? Tell me that means 'fluffy kitten' in Greek."

Kai shot me a look of disgust.

"So that's what's taken Cassie and Bethany?"

"Maybe." Theo didn't sound certain.

I stomped my foot and pointed at the blue light inside the empty window frame. "Cassie and Bethany could be in there right now. In danger."

"That's awful," Hannah said. "Who are they?"

I growled in annoyance. "How do we fix this?" I hated what had happened to them.

"First find out exactly what Ms. Keeper is," Theo said.

"Apparently, she's a dragon," Hannah replied with shining eyes.

"Or she has a dragon," Theo countered.

Hannah shook her head. "Even if this dragon is akin to a Komodo and trainable, there should have been other evidence of its presence."

"You know this from your extensive experience with real dragons?" Kai snapped.

"I'm extrapolating," she replied testily. "If the scale was here, the logical explanation is that the dragon was as well. No way Ms. Keeper could have managed it to the extent that there were no claw gauges on the floor or scorch marks. Ergo, Ms. Keeper must have been the dragon herself."

"My brainiac," I beamed.

"Why not? The simplest explanation is usually the most logical," Theo agreed, "but we still need to narrow down what type of dragon."

"So Sophie knows how kill it," added Kai.

"Me? Why me?" I asked.

"You seem to care."

I stared at him, dumbfounded. "That was a tasteless joke, right?"

"No," Theo said. "He means it."

"How can anyone be so unfeeling?" Hannah demanded.

Kai looked to Theo for help. "What part of this don't they get?"

"The part where you let innocent people be hurt without trying to save them," I retorted. "What part of that don't you get?"

Theo sighed. "Much as I hate to defend Kai, he's not actually acting like a psychopath. There's a fundamental difference between how humans and gods think."

"Yeah," Kai interjected. "Humans get all upset about the littlest things."

"Littlest things?" Hannah sputtered. "We're talking lives."

"Little picture, sweetheart."

Hannah made an "ugh" of disgust. "Don't 'sweetheart' me."

Theo tried to placate them both. "It's like this. Humans see the trees, gods see the forest. We're more infinite so our perspective is larger."

Kai brightened. "Exactly." He paused. "I do care about humans. They make great playthings."

I frowned. He didn't have to rub in his hots for Bethany now of all times.

Kai continued. "I don't particularly want to see them destroyed in all this. But you can't be concerned with the survival as a whole and be caught up in each individual sob story. You'd never get anywhere."

"Run along then and go worry about your world dominance," I scoffed. "I'll deal without you." I made a shooing motion.

Kai hesitated.

"Ohmigod." A slow smirk spread across my face. "You can't, can you? That's why you're here. Whatever you were up to involves me. I'm essential to your evil plans, aren't I?"

"You didn't think they were so evil when you were your proper self."

"I am my proper self. With an attitude adjustment." Cassie's gibberish popped into my mind. "I'm the key, aren't I?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Kai said. "It's not all about you."

"Then it's about the two of us," I continued. "Me from above, you from below, together we make a key."

Kai stared at me warily. "How do you know this?"

"Cassie told us," Theo replied. "We figure she's a descendent of the Oracle."

"Why didn't you say something sooner?" Kai demanded.

Was he kidding me? "I did! Back in the bathroom. You wouldn't listen. Too busy with the twisting of words and the kissing and being cryptic."

"She's the one you thought I wanted to harm? She might have had some useful information. Why would I hurt her?"

"Maybe you'd already gotten the information you needed from her, rendering her expendable," Hannah pointed out.

"And maybe you're deluded," Kai retorted.

I had a sick feeling. "It was world domination, wasn't it? I wasn't going to simply stop the war. I was going to take over." I looked at Kai for confirmation. "No," I continued sadly at his look, "we were going to take over. That's why you came back? Not because of me or us. Because you needed me to achieve your goals."

"My goals were our goals. Stop being so human about this." Kai sounded genuinely annoyed.

"I hate to say 'I told you so,'" Theo began until Hannah smacked him.

Guess it had been too much to hope that I was merely an unwitting pawn in this battle for world domination.

Little old me was a major player engaged in a coup d'état to usurp the two most powerful gods imaginable. Except, while they still wanted me dead, in true fashion of power mad dictators and gods everywhere, I was no longer major. Bet I hadn't seen that little change in status coming.

Big dummy.

I was, however, still key. Both to the battle and to Cassie's plight. This dragon would never have taken Cassie if I hadn't somehow set off her powers. She was the vision-seeing aftershock of my goddess earthquake. Whether intended or not, this was my fault. The enormity of my responsibility hit me full on.

"I'm taking the scale to examine it further," Hannah announced, breaking into my pity party.

"I'll come too," Theo said. "I have an idea about how to break through the ward and the scale is key. Soph, what are you going to do?"

A glimpse of red hair outside the window caught my eye. "Bethany?"

Everyone rushed to look outside.

"Who's she with?" Hannah asked, squinting for a better look.

"She's strolling around pretty casually for someone supposedly abducted by a dragon," Theo commented.

"I'll go talk to her," I said, and raced out the door. I'd been feeling itchy inside and the chance to get outdoors was compelling.

By the time I reached where I'd seen her, Bethany already hopped the fence and was headed into the woods.

Of course.

It was incredibly stupid to follow her outside the protective bubble but I didn't feel like I had a choice. I had to find out if Bethany had escaped Ms. Keeper. If so, how? Did she know where Cassie was? And yes, was Bethany all right? Her obsessed fangirl Veronica had forgotten her completely, which meant that something wonky was at play.

Plus, time was still ticking for Cassie. I was worried for her life, not to mention the fact that she might be able to clear Theo and I of any wrongdoing where poisoning Hades was involved. And if Cassie knew who had poisoned the Underlord, I might know who tried to kill me.

All things considered, it was a calculated risk I had to take. I climbed cautiously over the fence, touching my pendant for luck and courage.