My Ex From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy)

by Darling, Tellulah

  “Let’s not get crazy.”

  Theo snapped his chain down another path. It seemed safe. “Left?”

  The rest of us shrugged in agreement. We’d find out soon enough if the path was useless.

  We came to a large fissure in the wall and stopped to examine it. The air behind it was stale and stagnant.

  “Structural damage?” Hannah asked, casting a worried glance up at the ceiling.

  The thought of all this rock tumbling down on me was enough to give me a claustrophobia attack.

  “Of sorts,” Theo replied, darting a questioning glance at Kai, who nodded.

  “You boys want to fill me in?” Anything to distract myself from the thought of being buried alive.

  Kai traced the edge of the fissure. “I think Delphyne designed this labyrinth.”

  “Guardian of the Oracle and Maze Designer. She’s a real Renaissance dragon.” I would have preferred a double threat of singer/dancer, but apparently it wasn’t my choice to make.

  “You don’t get it,” Theo said. “‘Designed’ is the wrong word. More like created. The maze’s existence is tied to her will.”

  “So?”

  Kai pointed to the fissure. “It’s coming undone.”

  Hannah frowned, puzzled. “Which means she’s losing strength?” This could work in our favor.

  “Which means she’s losing her mind. My bet is she’s come unhinged.”

  “Why now?” I asked.

  “Who knows? Maybe the stress of the final push to her goal? Maybe just having kept a human form for too long?” Kai squared his shoulders and tried a new path. Theo, Hannah, and I followed grimly.

  “Seems promising,” Hannah commented, glancing about the path. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than the floor dropped out beneath us.

  “Ahh!” We were falling at impossible speeds into an inky nothingness. There was no way I wanted to find out what was at the bottom.

  I shot a ribbon of light out with my left palm and wove it carefully around the others’ wrists. With my right, I shot the light back up at the ceiling. It held like a giant Spidey web.

  “Whatever you do,” Kai warned, “don’t look—”

  Down. Too late. There we were, swinging in mid-air. Far far below us was what must have been an enormous fire, since I was able to see the bubbling flames so clearly.

  I got woozy contemplating it. We began to sway. What was it with the Greeks and their unnatural love of all things fiery? Why couldn’t they have an obsession with, say, death by chocolate?

  “You ever going to learn not to look?” Theo chastised.

  “Theo!” Hannah snapped. “That’s not helping.” She glanced at the ribbons nervously. “That’s not gonna dustify us, is it?”

  “Great, put that in her head,” Theo muttered.

  “N-no,” I stammered, making sure to think only binding thoughts not killing thoughts.

  My light ribbon dropped us down a few more feet.

  “Easy, Goddess,” Kai murmured.

  “Soph, look at me,” Hannah ordered.

  I forced myself to make eye contact. We were swaying dangerously.

  “I never told you this before, but I kissed Jason Fried in grade two.”

  “I liked him! I even put glue in his hair so he’d notice me.”

  Hannah shrugged. “Yeah. Sorry. He was cute.”

  “Some defense,” I replied, aghast at the elementary school betrayal.

  “Keep going, Hannah,” Theo muttered.

  I realized that I’d started pulling us up. Ah. “Nice distraction technique.” I paused. “It was a technique, right?”

  “You’ll never know unless you get us back up top,” she replied, smugly.

  “Hurry it up, already,” Kai said. “Hanging over an enormous open flame is not my idea of a good time.”

  “Then jump us up,” I snapped.

  “From dangling in mid-air? Not gonna happen.”

  The cauldron began to rumble. It was a familiar sound. Kind of like a geyser.

  Yup. There it went. Boiling fire spat up toward us. I yanked us up and deposited Kai, Theo, Hannah, and myself on the other side of the hole in the floor, milliseconds ahead of the scalding liquid. It hit the ceiling and splattered around us, and only Kai’s quick thought to send out a shield of black light protected us from a boatload of pain.

  “Go!” he yelled. Hannah, Theo and I raced down the corridor and took the first turn we found.

  “But, seriously. You were kidding, right?”

  Hannah laughed.

  Kai joined us.

  “Neat trick,” Theo commented.

  “Thanks,” Kai said.

  “I meant Delphyne.”

  “She is one demented dragon,” I panted.

  “She’s certainly showing a lot of creative, higher-thinking abilities for essentially being a giant lizard,” Hannah observed.

  A troublesome thought hit me. “If Delphyne is tied to this maze, what happens when we kill her?”

  “It disappears,” Theo said.

  Kai looked at him darkly. “In the best case scenario. And when have you ever heard of a best case scenario in a labyrinth?”

  “It’s called positive thinking,” Theo snapped.

  Kai waved him off. “Positive thinking gets you positively dead. Be a realist and prepare for all contingencies.”

  “You have a Plan B?” I asked hopefully.

  “Never fear.”

  The corridor lightened. “Must be getting close. To whatever it is.” Theo kept his chain close.

  Kai continued to mark the walls.

  “You know what’s still bugging me?” I asked. “What happened while we were in Hades that made Keeper want everyone to forget about Cassie, Bethany, and Mrs. Rivers?”

  Kai thought about it. “Could be it was the first time she took her dragon form. She was stepping up her plan.”

  That made as much sense as anything else. I was about to say so when I realized I was all alone. And in the dark.

  “Hannah? Theo? Kai?” They were nowhere to be found. Had she just plucked them out of thin air? What did she have in store for me?

  “Sophie,” a slightly slurred voice trilled. Ice tinkled in a glass.

  I checked my watch and groaned. The light slanting through the window at the far end of Felicia’s living room was not yet in full brightness.

  Not even mid-afternoon and Felicia was drunk already. “Felicia, you’ve had enough.”

  Felicia stared at me with lidded eyes as she nursed her gin and tonic, then motioned for me to sit. She smoothed out her already perfectly coiffed blonde hair and flexed a Christian Louboutin pump in my direction.

  I sunk into my favorite overstuffed chair. Out of habit, my toe wriggled its way into the chip in the fireplace tile beside me. It drove Felicia nuts when I did that.

  Today was no different.

  She snorted. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “Get your money back?”

  “If only I could. Get a decent pair of shoes for you. Never really wanted you, you know. Guess your real mom didn’t, either.”

  You’d think after sixteen years of this, I’d be immune to it. And I was. Mostly. Didn’t mean she wasn’t a bitch, though. Some thought was tickling the back of my brain. Or was that something scratchy against my neck?

  She held out her glass. “At least you make a good cocktail.”

  “Make your own damn drink, Felicia. I’m not your slave.”

  Felicia gave me a tipsy, mocking bow. “Forgive me, princess.”

  Princess? Yeah. I’d been stolen from royalty. Kind of?

  “My real mom is a queen,” I replied. “And when she finds how yo
u’ve treated me, she’ll be pissed. Royal wrath.”

  “Ooh, I’m terrified,” Felicia taunted. She swung up into a sitting position and again thrust her drink at me. “Grow up, Sophie. And get me my drink or I’ll take you away from your precious friends and stuff you in a military academy.”

  Grumbling, I swung my feet onto the ground and stood. I took a couple of steps toward her to grab the stupid glass but my feet got tangled in her precious Persian rug.

  “Jesus! You’re a walking suicide mission.”

  Ooh! I hated that phrase. And that stupid, arrogant, sanctimonious rat bastard Kai with his all-knowing condescension who kept saying it to me. I was a goddess, damn him.

  Hang on. “I’m a goddess!”

  Felicia looked startled. Then she laughed so hard she belched. I almost saw fire spew out, it was so potent.

  “It’s true!” I felt myself reverting to a childish status but I was so mad, it was all I could do to keep from stomping on the floor.

  “Prove it,” she mocked.

  “Fine,” I shot back. Except I had no idea how. I waved my hands around. That seemed like a good place to start. Good place to end too, since it didn’t do anything.

  She rose and came toward me, rattling a small bottle. “Take some of my Chlorpromazine.”

  “I’m not insane. I don’t need an anti-psychotic.”

  Felicia stopped in front of me and opened the bottle. “One little pill, Sophie. It’ll make you feel better.” She peered intently into my eyes.

  My head hurt. Maybe she was right?

  “Listen to mummy,” she cooed.

  Yes. My mom would make it all better. She loved me.

  Felicia put a pill in the palm of my hand, then closed the bottle and handed it to me. “Take one now and as many as you like later.” She closed my hand around the bottle. “You keep it. See how much mummy trusts you?”

  I was the luckiest girl in the world. I put the bottle in my pocket, but it wouldn’t fit. There was something else in there. I pulled out the chocolate candy and regarded it curiously.

  “You got peanut butter in my chocolate,” I murmured dreamily.

  Felicia didn’t answer. I frowned. That wasn’t right. She was supposed to answer.

  “You got peanut butter in my chocolate,” I prompted again.

  “Stop saying that,” she snapped.

  That wasn’t the right answer. I said it again, quietly and mostly to myself. The answer pushed at my brain until I could hear Hannah saying “You got chocolate in my peanut butter!” I felt the hold on my mind relax. I’d remembered who and where I was. “Nice try, Delphyne,” I taunted.

  Felicia’s face contorted in rage and transformed into the enormous visage of one very pissed off dragon. Smoke puffed out of her flared nostrils. Her face was more reptilian than I’d expected, and a slightly darker purple than the scale Hannah had found. Inhuman eyes stared at me with malicious intent.

  I swallowed. I think I’d liked her better as Felicia.

  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. Yup. Four long, lethally sharp talons curved from the gnarled claw to bite into my shoulder. I could see the blood welling 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.

  12

 
A little carnage is a dangerous thing

  ιβ’

  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. Then I knelt down.

  My knee landed in a patch of something dark. Blood. It was blood. Another scream threatened to spew out of me like vomit. I swallowed it down and took several gulping breaths to calm myself.

  Then 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 stood there a moment, feeling useless.

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

  But I could avenge her.