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

A little carnage is a dangerous thing (Part 1)

I screamed like the frightened little girl I'd just reverted to as reality smacked me in the face.

Pyrosim and Photokia were one thing. This was worse.

Mrs. Rivers was dead. She lay face down, but I knew it was her even as I wished upon every wish that it wasn't. I collected myself as best I could, which meant the screaming stopped but the shaking didn't. I knelt down.

My knee landed in a patch of something dark.

Blood.

Another scream threatened to spew out of me like vomit. I swallowed it down and took several gulping breaths to calm myself.

I gingerly rolled her over.

Her neck had been slashed, leaving a red gash like a twisted parody of a smile. Tears welled in my eyes. Back out in the real world was her family, who were never going to get her back.

If the enchantment wore off, and they did remember her, they'd never get closure on her disappearance. I couldn't carry her with me, and doubted I'd be able to get her out. Which meant that this stupid, messed up illusion was her final resting place.

She didn't look scared. That was a blessing. In fact, she appeared furious. She'd been killed in mid-snarl, her fingers twisted into talons. The woman had obviously fought back.

Good for you, Mrs. R., I silently cheered. A flutter of gold fabric in her right hand caught my attention. Carefully, I pried it from her grasp. It was a piece from the shirt Cassie had been wearing the last day I saw her. She'd died protecting Cassie, if not Bethany, too.

"Mrs. Rivers ..." I faltered. "You were a great counselor and kind person. We all really liked you." Could I have sounded lamer? I cleared my throat. "I'm so sorry this happened to you. You should have grown old and gotten sick of us kids, not died for us." With my left hand, I closed her eyes out of respect. "Goodbye."

I wasn't sure what else to do. I couldn't bury her.

But I could avenge her.

I set off.

Theo was right. Being raised human meant my alliance fell with them. Perhaps, if I'd still been Persephone, I wouldn't have cared about Cassie. Or maybe I would have understood Delphyne's position better. After all, she was a creature trying to fulfill her own duty; that of guardian of the Oracle. Would I have applauded and respected the extremes that Delphyne had gone to in order to accomplish what she'd been born to do?

I was so preoccupied with my thoughts that I almost tumbled into a huge hole, too large to jump over.

I shot a vine at a boulder on the other side in order to swing myself across. The boulder glowed so white hot, I could feel the heat suffusing into my ribbon of light.

I started to sweat as I attempted to pull my vine away. The heat flowing into my arm grew to near unbearable proportions. And it seemed that the vine had fused to the white heat of the rock. I had to disconnect from it somehow.

I felt myself getting dangerously overheated. I shot a vine from my other hand at the boulder, which intensified the heat, but allowed me to destroy the rock.

The heat disappeared, which was great, but now I had no way across the hole.

I rested, wiping off the sweat the best I could. I glanced up at the ceiling. I could attempt to shoot my light up there and swing across but I wasn't willing to risk that it had been booby-trapped in the same way. Dangling-crispy-Sophie was not how I wanted to bite it.

"Hello?" I called out. My voice sounded muffled. It was as if I'd stumbled into some kind of dead zone. It creeped me out.

I couldn't go forward because of the hole, so I took a step back. There was a grinding noise and the walls to either side of me pushed in slightly. That couldn't be good.

Maybe I could just run for it. I rapidly pivoted and tried to run back out the way I'd come. I bounced off an invisible shield and landed on my front, millimeters from the gaping maw.

The walls pushed in some more.

I really wished I could remember how I'd thought as Persephone. Maybe she'd have some brilliant solution to all this.

My few memories were all I knew of her. Like a movie slowly unfolding, but without any insightful voiceover to make me privy to Persephone's views on the world. If I couldn't get inside her head, then I only had my own experiences to guide me. Sixteen years of humanity to form my moral compass.

Lying on the edge of the precipice, I felt a clear distinction between right—saving Cassie and even Bethany—and wrong: what Delphyne had done to Mrs. R.

But was that seeing the trees and not the forest? Was I getting hung up on the death of a single individual because I had a purely human emotional attachment to her? Would the traits that would win me the battle and defeat Delphyne ultimately cost me the war?

And did any of this even matter, I wondered, as the walls closed in even further, now mere inches from either side of me. One more thrust inward and I'd be smooshed.

A sudden longing for my real mother swamped me. Forget navigating boys and cliques, I needed her to safely guide me through the minefield of my continued existence. What if I couldn't find her? What if she didn't want to be found?

I had to acknowledge that possibility. Either through fear of some kind of reprisal for whatever had motivated a visit to Hades, foul play already done, or simply because my plans went against everything she'd taught me, maybe Demeter was going to stay away permanently.

In which case, I was on my own. And the only thing I could be certain of, was that right here, right now, I had save my own butt so I could finish off a dragon and rescue my classmates.

I couldn't use my goddess powers, so I had to survive this as my human self. With a touch to my pendant to center me and a deep breath, I did what humans had been doing throughout history.

I took a leap of faith.