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

United we stand, deluded we fall (Part 1)

We ran into Anil on the way back inside. "The divine Miz S," Anil enthused. He had a partly open sports bag slung over one shoulder, inside of which I could see his wrestling gear.

After my encounter with Nysa the spectacular (and spectacularly insane), my ego was desperate for any compliment. I took off my jacket, like that was going to up my appearance factor.

"We have to stop meeting like this," I joked.

"Getting to be a regular event, I hear," Kai said, flashing Anil a smile that showed a little too much tooth. He placed his hand on the small of my back.

It was possessive and ridiculous and blatantly "mine is bigger than yours" posturing. I won't lie. I thrilled. For about two seconds. Then I opened my mouth to tell him to quit it precisely as he started stroking his thumb over my sweatshirt in feather light touches.

I squirmed, highly distracted.

Anil threw me an odd look.

"Someone must have walked over my gra-ve?" I ended on a squealed question as Kai slipped his hand under my top to continue with skin to skin contact. I was positive I was blushing.

"Whatevs. Catch you at dinner." He frowned at Kai, who smiled blandly.

The stroking didn't stop. "You've made your point. He's gone."

Kai's fingers trailed down my back to the top of my pants. "Maybe the point wasn't for him."

I met his gaze, refusing to be cowed into submission. Massaged into submission. Whichever. "You going to help me slay a dragon or not?"

"If I do, does that make me your knight?"

"If only you could be labeled so easily."

Kai laughed. How come he only sounded that entertained when it was at me, not with me?

"Why do I get the feeling that nothing else amuses you as much as I do?"

Kai's only response was an enigmatic smile as he towed me along to the gym.

Theo and Hannah were waiting. Hannah handed me a King Size package of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

I unwrapped it. "You got peanut butter in my chocolate."

"You got chocolate in my peanut butter," she answered, taking one of the cups.

We giggled. I offered the third one to Theo, who declined, so I rewrapped the rest and shoved it in my pocket for later.

"I'll have one," Kai said.

"There's a corner store in town. Go nuts," I mimicked. Take that, suckah.

"All caught up with the nymph?" Theo asked.

"Any other old friends I should reacquaint myself with? A man-eating python, a giant with anger issues? We could have tea."

Theo snickered. "At least we got the box."

Kai held out his hand to see it and Theo tossed him the box. Kai turned it over, not looking enormously impressed.

"It expands when we open it," Theo informed him.

"No kidding."

I attempted to take it from Kai. He held it away from me. After a couple of useless jumps to retrieve it, I gave up and adopted a Western swagger. "All right, hoss, guess you're on box duty. But save the killin' fer me."

Kai scowled at Theo. "'Hoss?' Was there so little choice of available humans that you had to pick this one? Six billion and you get the one who should have been left on the hilltop to die?"

Hi-larious. As soon as the dragon was dead and Cassie safe (fine, and Bethany too), I was going to find a way to get Kai's ass expelled and out of my hair. "Let's do this."

"Try to remember everything about it," Hannah said.

"You're not coming?"

"'Course she's not," Theo said.

"I'm not a lethal weapon like you, Soph. I can't lock and load."

"I know, but we're a team. You, me, Theo." I pointed at Kai. "Even Gilligan there. I just figured that you'd be by my side for this. I'll keep you safe."

Hannah hesitated.

I continued with my song and dance. "My whole life, I've listened to you go on about one deadly animal after another. You're obsessed with things but all you ever do is read about them." I took her hand. "You need to get out of your comfort zone. I mean, I know it's not easy, but you're sixteen. You can't spend your life secluded away. You gotta engage with the world in all its glory and danger. It's normal. Plus, we're talking dragon here."

"You just go for the emotional jugular, don't you?" Hannah muttered, pulling her hand away.

Despite knowing that this adventure would be dangerous, I wasn't callously disregarding Hannah's safety. I really believed that with the level of my powers, I could keep her safe. And I was sure she'd regret missing this opportunity for the rest of her life.

"Listen, if you believe that between Kai and me," I said, shooting him an "agree or else" look, "we can't protect you, then stay. But if anything I've said is true, then push yourself and come."

Hannah glanced uncertainly at Kai. "I'll watch your back," he assured her.

"We going or what?" Theo demanded. I think all of the sharing and the insights were making him nauseous.

"We're going,' Hannah announced. I squeezed her arm. She brightened. "I'd be an idiot to turn down the chance to see my phony school counselor in dragon form."

Kai looked puzzled. "How do you remember that?"

She grinned. "The miracle of flashcards. Helps you memorize anything. Even seemingly non-existent students and faculty. Give me one sec. I just need to race up and grab something."

I handed her my jacket and sweater to dump in our room. She returned wearing a couple of long scarves as belts. Hey, if she needed to accessorize to feel brave, I for one was not going to criticize her.

The door to Ms. Keeper's office opened easily. Either no one had been inside since Kai's and Theo's fight or Stan was getting lazy, because the debris remained. The warded up window still glowed blue.

Theo pulled out the dragon scale. "Watch and marvel." He said something in Greek under his breath, then swiped the scale in a complicated pattern against the invisible barrier. Theo released the scale and it fell through the windowpane freely. "We're good to go."

"Nice. How'd you do that?" I was definitely impressed.

"I figured the barrier was probably keyed to Delphyne's body. She had to be able to get through no problem. All I had to do at that point was make the ward believe that the scale was her entire self and let us through in one piece."

"Pretty fab," Hannah complimented.

Kai picked up a pencil and tossed it through the window frame. When it failed to set off any traps, he swung his leg over and hopped down.