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

United we stand, deluded we fall (Part 4)

Delphyne's body was behind me. She had coiled her long scaly neck around my body and Exorcist-twisted her head around to face me.

I squirmed and ducked to get out of her grasp, but she restrained me with a heavy claw on my shoulder. I tried not to look down at it, but I couldn't help myself.

Four long, lethally sharp talons curved from the gnarled claw to bite into my shoulder. Blood welled through the rips they had made in my shirt.

Maybe this would be the part where she told me to go back and she'd let me live?

Delphyne opened her mouth and sprayed flames. I tore out of her grasp just in time to avoid them. Problem was, I hadn't realized that her mouth wasn't necessarily the most dangerous part of her.

Her heavy, spiked tail lashed around to fling me like a tennis ball into the stone walls. I flew backward, hitting my head against the rock, and slid to the floor, lacking the useful bouncing properties of the aforementioned ball.

Blood trickled down my scalp, but as long as I was conscious, I had to fight her.

The ground vibrated with every step of her hulking body as she made her way closer. I was amazed she wasn't leaving cracks in the rock with each stride, as she had to weigh almost a ton. From nose tip to tail end, I guessed her to be close to ten feet long, and the top of her head stood about eight feet off the ground.

Better take my turn, and fast. I blasted her with a wave of powerful light. The knock to the melon and my awkward position meant I wasn't in perfect form and didn't kill her. Did leave a heck of a scorch mark across her side, though.

Delphyne hissed at me; her eyes wild. "You will not get the Oracle! She's mine!" With one more roar of flame, she fled down a corridor, into the shadows.

Any lingering doubts I may have still been harboring about the status of her sanity were gone with that look. Beastie was mad as a hatter.

And I was starting to feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland. It was all completely mad. Persephone, Delphyne, a war of the gods, betrayals, and murder. Best not to think big picture. Too overwhelming.

Immediate plan: find Theo, Hannah, and Kai, and charge to the rescue.

Unsure of where anybody was at this point, including myself, I picked a direction at random. I wasn't entirely rash. First, I collected a handful of broken cobblestones from the floor to toss in front of me as I went. No need to be surprised by any more nasty traps.

Well, nasty physical traps. Given that last little head game trick with Felicia, it appeared there was nothing I could do about the psychological minefields.

This corridor was dark. I released my light just enough to allow a faint ball to shine in each palm. I was like the deluxe edition of a human Swiss Army knife; handy in every situation.

I kept my eyes and ears peeled for any sign of my gang.

Now that the shock had worn off, I had to admit that my encounter with Felicia, even though it had been an illusion, had really shaken me up. It was as if years of Felicia's meanness had been distilled into two fun-filled minutes.

I shook my head. Of course. It had. Delphyne didn't have some intimate and interactive acquaintance with Felicia. Everything she'd thrown at me had come from my memories. Even the Chlorpromazine. It was all drawn from my real life and woven into this tapestry of lies.

My conscious self must have been attempting to break through the illusion. Maybe the fact that I'd managed meant that I was more capable than I gave myself credit for? Maybe I hadn't been useless, run-of-the-mill Sophie all these years; a girl who happened to luck into these powers?

What if my laying low was subconsciously part of some bigger cosmic plan? The very thing I'd needed to do—be a normal, unexceptional human—so that my powers would matter when I came into them?

I rounded a corner feeling a renewed sense of confidence.

If I'd been Einstein or Serena Williams, perhaps they wouldn't have had such an impact. Since I would have already been exceptional, maybe I wouldn't have wanted to give my life up to fight a battle that was my backstory and not my present.

Even Felicia made a twisted kind of sense. Would I be so willing to charge in and right the wrongs if I had to worry about a loving family? Worry about them not only getting harmed, but becoming horrified by me?

How would a good mom have felt seeing her little baby become a mutated freak of nature? She might never have recovered, and that would have devastated me.

Felicia wouldn't care. And I realized that was for the best. I was feeling good. I'd made some important realizations about myself; I hadn't set off any more traps.

In all ways, it appeared as if I was on the right path.

Then I hit it.

No. Not a dead end.

A dead body.