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

Twin Troubles (Part 2)

"Cover me, boys, I'm getting up close and personal." I fired a vine up at the castle wall, feeling gratified when Apollo and Artemis yelped and took a step back. All I'd really wanted to do was wrap one end across the wall and swing myself to the stone closest to the castle.

Festos put a restraining hand on me before I Tarzaned over. "Hang tight."

He unleashed a lava flow that in seconds had totally covered the lethal moat water.

Meanwhile, Kai had taken a running jump and leaped up to the top of the wall, which never failed to impress. As did the fact that he took on Artemis and Apollo at once, distracting them from shooting off more arrows.

Festos' voice broke into my admiration. "Proceed." He pointed at the red hot lava, which cooled at an unnaturally rapid rate but still looked pretty hot. "Carefully."

"Gotcha." I swung myself across the moat, since walking on it would have melted my feet and I didn't trust my balance on those pointy boulders. At least I couldn't get splashed by stray drops of face-be-gone.

I came so close.

I made it across before either of the twins could cut me down. But what I didn't count on was that when I landed on one tiny, flat spot on my chosen boulder, I'd set off some kind of motion sensor, causing the stone to rock violently. I yelped.

Kai glanced down. A infinitesimal distraction for him that allowed Artemis to cut my vine.

I fired out another vine to catch myself and pulled myself upward toward the top of the castle wall.

I raised my eyes skyward to see how much farther I had to go just in time to catch Artemis' evil smile as she ripped the end of my vine off the wall and held it in her hand.

Thus began the tug of war for my ribbon of light, Kai and Artemis grappling for control, while I swayed and bobbed dangerously close to the "let's not test the temperature with my face" lava.

I tried to fire a vine elsewhere on the castle wall, but my light just slid off. The top was the only place it would grip and while Artemis had me fast in her hold, Apollo ensured my vines wouldn't land anywhere stable.

WHACK! Artemis cracked me into the castle wall.

"Quit tenderizing me." I let out a stream of particularly inventive swear words.

"Thesi, sweets, Sophie just gave me the best idea for our date," Festos called out from where he was trying to melt Apollo with an impressive stream of fire.

"Which I have not yet agreed to," Theo said, still swatting away arrows.

I was fighting a wall and the wall was winning.

It was bad enough I had to compete with the memory of Persephone. There was no way I was going to be humiliated by Kai's never-ending harem.

It was time for everyone, especially Kai, to realize that Sophie Bloom was a girl to be reckoned with. A girl who did not accept sloppy seconds. I snapped my light back in, freeing me from Artemis but crashing me down onto the only mildly molten ground. The position was perfect for firing a solid blast of green light from my palms up at Artemis.

It didn't obliterate her, but she staggered back in pain.

I turned to Theo and Festos. "Coming, boys?"

I swung the three of us to the top of the castle wall to find Kai looking like he was casually swatting away flies as both Artemis and Apollo came at him in furious battle mode.

I wrapped Artemis up in my vines and began to smack her around into the castle stones. "How do you like it?" I accented each smack.

Behind me, Festos gave a not-so-smothered laugh.

I glanced over to find Kai watching me with an amused look. "Yes?" I asked him, giving Artemis another thwap.

"You're cute when you're jealous."

"I am not cute. Or jealous."

Kai shook his head, "Adorably green. Occasionally bitchy, but adorable."

I gave a little "grrr."

Artemis spewed out a series of impressively foul names at me, and somehow managed to brandish a razor-sharp hunting knife. She freed herself from my light vines, springing into action the second my ribbons fell from her and loosing a torrent of arrows that were undoubtably going to bullseye my forehead.

Or they would have except Theo, Festos, and I were now pros at this and jointly knocked them down, as Kai disarmed her, tossing Artemis' weapons over the castle wall.

Apollo stepped forward, using his bow like a spear, Artemis at his side, ready for hand-to-hand combat.

I stepped forward to jump into the fray but was stopped by Kai growling "Don't even think it" at me.

He was pure lethal motion as he took them on, yet seemed relaxed.

"Excuse me, I have every right to fight," I said, ducking to avoid the back end of Apollo's bow.

"Humor me," he said, aiming a sharp point of toxic black light that came very close to reducing Artemis' arm to ashy waste.

"Not in my job description," I replied.

Festos and Theo tried to get in on the action but Kai shot them a raised eyebrow in an "I think not" manner as he sailed around in a brutal roundhouse kick to Artemis' chest, which knocked her back.

Unfortunately, even that didn't shut her up.

"Go away, little girl," Artemis told me. She ducked under Kai's light to get in close to him and purr, "Fighting as foreplay. You do know how to show a goddess a good time."

Okay. That was it.