My Date From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy, #2)

Shafted but good (Part 2)

Hannah yanked me out of Kai's manic grip. "Everyone is getting a little worked up here."

Theo snorted.

"I think it's fabulous," Festos crooned, both hands on top of his cane.

"In what universe?" I snapped back.

Kai reached out for me again. "Theo," he said, almost shaking with the effort of forcing himself to stop. He threw Theo the chain he'd stolen from him back in Delphyne's cave. "Bind me."

Props to Theo. I figured he would have brained Kai with it now that the chain was back in his possession. But all he did was say, "With great pleasure."

He wrapped Kai in the chain, which not only kept him in place but gave off some good sizzling noises with a free side of burning cloth and singed arm hair.

Kai twitched once but given how tense he looked, I suspected it was more a psychological issue with being bound again than the actual effect of said binding.

Not that he was getting my sympathy.

I snorted. "You would rather burn than be in love with me."

"You want me in love with you like this?" he fired back.

"No. I don't want you in love with me any way. Excepting the absolute minimum amount of time it takes to do the ritual." I turned to Festos. "You're a god. Undo this."

"Not to be Mr. Negativity, but no can do."

"Then I want the antidote," I said. "Those lead arrows."

"We have no idea where Pierce is, Magoo," Theo replied, the chain glowing in his hand. "Or if he'll agree."

"Oh Pierce will agree, if I have to milk his nipples and get the damn antidote that way," I insisted. Every second I had to watch the infamous love arrows do zilch when I was the object of desire was beyond depressing.

"There'll be no touching of Eros' nipples, Sophie," Kai said.

Festos unconsciously rubbed a hand in sympathy pain across his chest.

"Not to mention you're not in love." I batted my eyelashes at him to see how he'd react.

"Is the fight between your brain and your mouth finally causing spastic overload?" Kai asked. "Because you sound nuts."

I felt nuts. Out of control and insanely hurt. "Not in love. Conclusive results," I said.

Kai's hands clenched. "What's conclusive is you being ridiculous. Pierce screwed up somehow. It's not indicative of my ability to fall in love with you."

"Pierce didn't screw up," Hannah said hotly. She turned to me. "To be fair, that was hardly a proper experiment."

"Less scientific procedure, more best friend supportiveness, Pumpkin."

"Science is your friend," she told me, "considering there is an antidote. Time," Hannah said. Everyone looked at her. She shrugged. "What? It's proven. Dad's a divorce lawyer. People fall out of love constantly. He makes a very good living from it."

I would have been struggling with the looming shadow of Persephone had the arrow actually worked. But this continual reminder of how lacking I was in Kai's eyes?

This made my loserdom a million time worse. "I don't have time. This needs to happen now."

Kai threw me a taunting look. "Get over yourself, Sophie, because like it or not, not only am I not going anywhere, I just made it my personal mission to get you to fall for me so hard, you won't know which way is up. And I won't need an arrow to do it!"

He added something in Greek for good measure which made Festos start and Theo give a sharp nod. Theo had to shove Kai to get him to move in the opposite direction from me but they managed to walk away over the grass back toward the school.

"Should I come too?" Festos called out to Theo's retreating back but he didn't answer. "Okay. We'll work on that." He watched them walk away. "You know, that was actually kind of—"

"Infuriating?" I asked.

"Hot," Festos said.

"Enlightening." Hannah added, a thoughtful look on her face. "The way Kai challenged you like that. Got you all worked up and out of your comfort zone."

"That doesn't get him points," I protested.

"It makes him more well-rounded than previously thought." Hannah looped her arm through mine. "Dinner?"

I quit my muttered cursing long enough to say, "I'm too mad to eat."

"Uh-huh." She glanced over at Festos. "You coming?"

His eyes widened in surprise. "You want me to?"

Hannah shrugged. "Are you going to dish about Theo?"

He lit up. "I could."

Hannah held out her other arm. "Then come on."

"Great," he said, taking her arm. "I'm freezing my bollocks out here."

Hannah only gave one look back.

I squeezed her arm, feeling bad for her, despite my anger at my own situation. "You'll see him again."

Festos elbowed her. "I could dish about Pierce too, if you like."

She nodded. "I like."

It should have been a highly entertaining dinner, with Festos telling us stories about Theo and Pierce. The cafeteria was only two-thirds full, which meant we had our choice of seating area. And tonight we were having Mexican. Hope Park may have been stuck in the middle of nowhere, but we had good food.

Not everyone had returned from winter break, start and end dates being somewhat fluid around here. With some parents still around visiting their kids, no one batted an eye at our extra guest.

A million evil thoughts swirled around in my head as I ate Hannah's quesadilla. She'd gotten two, not believing for a second that I was really too mad to eat.

So, Kai hated the idea of loving me that much, did he? Stupid god and his stupid hangups over Persephone. Not to mention the sheer gall of Kai thinking he'd be able to make me fall at his feet.

"We'll see who falls in love with who," I said.