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

You can lead a nymph to water but you cannot make her think (Part 5)

"Nysa," I tried again, ignoring the unnatural bubbles frothing in the creek bed. "We can hang another time. Soon. But I really need to go and I'm sure you're being missed and—"

"I'm not finished with you yet!" Huh. More banshee than nymph on that one.

She turned to me with wild eyes, enraged. "You can't tell me what to do! No one tells me what to do. I call the shots!" Before I knew what was happening, she'd wrapped her fingers around my throat and was trying to choke me.

Bless those wards. I definitely had to compliment Theo on a job well done. The second she squeezed my neck, she was flung back violently onto the ground.

"Ouch," she whined. "Whatcha you do that for, huh?"

I wagged my finger at her, parent style. "You tried to choke me. No hurting the goddess."

Her bottom lip quivered. "You don't want to play anymore."

"I'm sure we had this problem before. What happened when I wanted you to leave?"

"I never left."

"You must have left at some point." There was no way I left this running tap of crazy on around me 24/7.

"We played Hide and Seek. I hid and you seeked. You were terrible." She giggled at the memory. "I could hide for days." Her voice turned sad. "Then you went to Hades and I never saw you again." A tear glistened beautifully down her cheek.

Awww. She was guilting me out. I hated being guilt-tripped. I attributed it to my unbalanced personality problem. Worrying about Bethany, wanting to placate the batty nymph; my adolescent-goddess duality must have been messing with my hormones something awful.

I checked my watch. Still a half hour before class. I guessed I could squeeze in a few more minutes. "Why don't we—"

"Nysa." A very displeased Kai had silently arrived. Fabulous. Couldn't he walk up like a regular person? Dude was the poster child for abnormal and irritating behavior. He looked between Nysa and me.

I glowered at him in all his broody hotness and pulled my coat tighter around me, emphasizing my Michelin Man silhouette.

The only upside was that Nysa had gone pale. "K-Kyrillos," she stammered. Quickly, she pecked me on the cheek. "Gotta dash," she trilled in a shrill falsetto. She dove into the creek and vanished.

"I'm missing something here. Why is she so scared of you?"

Kai grinned. "I'm a very scary god."

"No. Seriously."

"Nysa used to drive you insane."

"That hasn't changed."

"First time she tried to follow you into Hades, you asked me to take care of it. I did. She never tried to visit you there again."

I was intrigued. "What did you do?"

"Nope. A god's gotta have his secrets. No mystery otherwise."

I laughed before remembering that I was mad at him. I think. Kai hadn't bothered to show himself to me since he'd dropped his bombshell on me and pronounced me his. For someone who protested so strongly against being considered human, he did an awfully good impression of a caveman.

He had me so confused, I didn't know what I felt toward him anymore. "So? Been busy?" I asked breezily.

"Yes. Dragon, remember?"

"She's back?"

"No. But I did find out a few things. Delphyne was the keeper of the Oracle. The site and the priestess. Guarded them. Once there was no more Oracle, she was out of a job. Evidently, she's been trying to find a suitable priestess ever since."

"Cassie." A thought occurred to me. "When my change set off Cassie's, she must have popped up on Keeper's radar. I wonder if that's what that truth exercise was all about? Her wanting to test if Cassie really was prophetic."

Kai didn't know what I was talking about so I explained what had happened in class that day. "Wouldn't be surprised," he said.

"So Delphyne's taken her to Greece?"

"Nope. No sign of her anywhere."

"Then she must be in Keeper's office behind window number one."

Holy crap. I had to go kill a dragon now. Guess I'd be missing class. "Be vewy vewy quiet. I'm going dwagon hunting." Because really, if you couldn't crack inappropriate jokes in the face of possible death, when could you?

Kai looked at me for a long minute before he sighed heavily and took my arm. "Come on."

"Thanks, but I'm good."

"You let a nymph guilt trip you. What are you going to do when the dragon turns her big brown eyes on you? Other than get roasted."

"Charming." I took in his stubborn expression, considered how much I felt like having this fight, and decided the answer was "not at all." "I'll let you come for guilt duty, but the dragon is mine."

"Go nuts."

Talk about making a girl feel special. Anymore sweet talk and I'd behead him myself.

I brightened. So long as there was a plan.