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

United we stand, deluded we fall (Part 3)

Yup. There it went. Boiling fire spat up toward us. I yanked us up and deposited Kai, Theo, Hannah, and myself on the other side of the hole in the floor, milliseconds ahead of the scalding liquid. It hit the ceiling and splattered around us, and only Kai's quick thought to send out a shield of black light protected us from a boatload of pain.

"Go!" he yelled. Hannah, Theo and I raced down the corridor and took the first turn we found.

"But, seriously. You were kidding, right?"

Hannah laughed.

Kai joined us.

"Neat trick," Theo commented.

"Thanks," Kai said.

"I meant Delphyne."

"She is one demented dragon," I panted.

"She's certainly showing a lot of creative, higher-thinking abilities for essentially being a giant lizard," Hannah observed.

A troublesome thought hit me. "If Delphyne is tied to this maze, what happens when we kill her?"

"It disappears," Theo said.

Kai looked at him darkly. "In the best case scenario. And when have you ever heard of a best case scenario in a labyrinth?"

"It's called positive thinking," Theo snapped.

Kai waved him off. "Positive thinking gets you positively dead. Be a realist and prepare for all contingencies."

"You have a Plan B?" I asked hopefully.

"Never fear."

The corridor lightened. "Must be getting close. To whatever it is." Theo kept his chain close.

Kai continued to mark the walls.

"You know what's still bugging me?" I asked. "What happened while we were in Hades that made Keeper want everyone to forget about Cassie, Bethany, and Mrs. Rivers?"

Kai thought about it. "Could be it was the first time she took her dragon form. She was stepping up her plan."

That made as much sense as anything else. I was about to say so when I realized I was all alone. And in the dark.

"Hannah? Theo? Kai?" They were nowhere to be found. Had she just plucked them out of thin air? What did she have in store for me?

"Sophie," a slightly slurred voice trilled. Ice tinkled in a glass.

I checked my watch and groaned. The light slanting through the window at the far end of Felicia's living room was not yet in full brightness.

Not even mid-afternoon and Felicia was drunk already. "Felicia, you've had enough."

Felicia stared at me with lidded eyes as she nursed her gin and tonic, then motioned for me to sit. She smoothed out her already perfectly coiffed blonde hair and flexed a Christian Louboutin pump in my direction.

I sunk into my favorite overstuffed chair. Out of habit, my toe wriggled its way into the chip in the fireplace tile beside me. It drove Felicia nuts when I did that.

Today was no different.

She snorted. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Get your money back?"

"If only I could. Get a decent pair of shoes for you. Never really wanted you, you know. Guess your real mom didn't, either."

You'd think after sixteen years of this, I'd be immune to it. And I was. Mostly. Didn't mean she wasn't a bitch, though. Some thought was tickling the back of my brain. Or was that something scratchy against my neck?

She held out her glass. "At least you make a good cocktail."

"Make your own damn drink, Felicia. I'm not your slave."

Felicia gave me a tipsy, mocking bow. "Forgive me, princess."

Princess? Yeah. I'd been stolen from royalty. Kind of?

"My real mom is a queen," I replied. "And when she finds how you've treated me, she'll be pissed. Royal wrath."

"Ooh, I'm terrified," Felicia taunted. She swung up into a sitting position and again thrust her drink at me. "Grow up, Sophie. And get me my drink or I'll take you away from your precious friends and stuff you in a military academy."

Grumbling, I swung my feet onto the ground and stood. I took a couple of steps toward her to grab the stupid glass but my feet got tangled in her precious Persian rug.

"Jesus! You're a walking suicide mission."

Ooh! I hated that phrase. And that stupid, arrogant, sanctimonious rat bastard Kai with his all-knowing condescension who kept saying it to me. I was a goddess, damn him.

Hang on. "I'm a goddess!"

Felicia looked startled. Then she laughed so hard she belched. I almost saw fire spew out, it was so potent.

"It's true!" I felt myself reverting to a childish status but I was so mad, it was all I could do to keep from stomping on the floor.

"Prove it," she mocked.

"Fine," I shot back. Except I had no idea how. I waved my hands around. That seemed like a good place to start. Good place to end too, since it didn't do anything.

She rose and came toward me, rattling a small bottle. "Take some of my Chlorpromazine."

"I'm not insane. I don't need an anti-psychotic."

Felicia stopped in front of me and opened the bottle. "One little pill, Sophie. It'll make you feel better." She peered intently into my eyes.

My head hurt. Maybe she was right?

"Listen to mummy," she cooed.

Yes. My mom would make it all better. She loved me.

Felicia put a pill in the palm of my hand, then closed the bottle and handed it to me. "Take one now and as many as you like later." She closed my hand around the bottle. "You keep it. See how much mummy trusts you?"

I was the luckiest girl in the world. I put the bottle in my pocket, but it wouldn't fit. There was something else in there. I pulled out the chocolate candy and regarded it curiously.

"You got peanut butter in my chocolate," I murmured dreamily.

Felicia didn't answer. I frowned. That wasn't right. She was supposed to answer.

"You got peanut butter in my chocolate," I prompted again.

"Stop saying that," she snapped.

That wasn't the right answer. I said it again, quietly and mostly to myself. The answer pushed at my brain until I could hear Hannah saying "You got chocolate in my peanut butter!" I felt the hold on my mind relax. I'd remembered who and where I was. "Nice try, Delphyne," I taunted.

Felicia's face contorted in rage and transformed into the enormous visage of one very pissed off dragon. Smoke puffed out of her flared nostrils. Her face was more reptilian than I'd expected, and a slightly darker purple than the scale Hannah had found. Inhuman eyes stared at me with malicious intent.

I swallowed. I think I'd liked her better as Felicia.