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

A little carnage is a dangerous thing (Part 5)

Delphyne didn't like that, either, because she renewed her attacks on me. I gave her everything I had.

"Aim for the eyes!" Hannah reminded me.

Score one eye and two. Delphyne screeched in pain.

Her loss, my gain. New and improved blind Delphyne had a much tougher time sensing me. "Good tip!" I yelled back.

For a such a big mother (and even blind), she was pretty good at dodging my hits. Even so, she should have been down and out by this point.

Exhaustion overwhelmed me and I got clumsy. Delphyne caught the right side of my body with her flames. I hit the deck, a Kindergarten chant ringing in my mind. Stop, drop and roll.

One more weak blast shot out of me. Uh-oh. Was the chamber empty? Seemed so. I was out. I lay on my back, spent.

Kai landed hard on his feet beside me.

"First off, stop doing that," I mumbled, pain fogging my brain. "And B, where the hell have you ... ?"

Words failed me as I stared at Kai's true form. He towered above me, eighteen feet tall.

My jaw fell open as I craned my neck up to catch him in his unbridled splendor. Before me, truly was a god. Power and arrogance emanated from him. And gorgeousness. Definitely gorgeousness.

Any lingering illusion I'd had about the jerk being human disappeared. This was the Kai of my memories.

Delphyne was charging straight for us in a roar of teeth, tail, and insanity.

Kai looked down at me with what I swore was tenderness. Before I could make sure, it had been replaced with pure savagery.

I saw him raise his hands for the final attack.

No way. "I told you. She's mine," I snapped, as I sucked up every bit of energy in me and fired it outward from my palms at Delphyne a single blinding detonation.

I felled her in mid-charge. Her body twisted up into a gross arthritic knobbiness as her scales turned white. She spasmed violently on the ground.

Yay. Dragon down. But so was I. There was no way I was getting to my feet on my own power. Hating to ask, I rolled my eyes and stuck out my hand.

Kai was instantly at my side. With one massive hand, he carefully helped me up. "You are so stubborn. Couldn't let me take her, could you?"

Determined to stand on my own, I tugged my hand free. My knees buckled. I dragged my sorry self over to a large rock and propped myself against it.

Once I'd positioned myself in a suitably "I'm just lounging, not actually using the stone to keep myself upright" manner, I felt free to respond to Kai's accusations of stubbornness. A quality I may have been on a first name basis with, but still.

"We discussed this. You were on box duty." Wearily, I raised my head to look at him, then blushed furiously as I realized that I was staring up at his groin.

Kai laughed. "Interesting possibilities," he murmured, which came out more like a rumble that bounced off the cliff walls.

"Such a dog," Hannah said, since she'd have had to be deaf not to hear his last comment. She and Theo had arrived with Cassie, hands and legs tied up in the scarves, strung between them. Hannah had the head, Theo the feet. Thankfully, Cassie had stopped chanting.

"You okay?" I asked Hannah.

"Except for my head trying to self-destruct. You were very impressive. Nice to see you showing some initiative."