My Life From Hell (25 page)

I broke into a run.

Kai didn’t follow.

I hadn’t really expected him to.

I ran out of steam back by the shores of the Akherousian lake. I strode into the water, not even bothering to kick off my sandals or hitch up my dress. I glared at the reflection of Persephone’s perfect face.

I smacked at the water, and watched her ripple. “Damn it! I am Sophie Bloom.”
Smack!
“I am Sophie Bloom.”
Smack!

I think the technical term for my watery assault was hysteria. Every time I looked down and saw her face staring back at me, I felt disconnected. My skin prickled with the fear of not belonging in my own body.

Every time I shouted my name, I felt more and more depersonalized in the face of the unyielding reality of her, well, face. My emotional turmoil reached a fever pitch and I was utterly unmoored.

My peripheral vision faded and I was thrust back into my vision.

The rock on which I stood rose up, molding around my legs to entomb me. With growing horror, I watched it become a box to encase my entire body.

The pomegranate tree had burned to an ashy skeleton that threatened to crumble into nothingness.

John Lennon sang louder and more insistently but he was wrong. This wasn’t love. This was getting buried alive.

There was a grinding noise and I watched wild-eyed as a heavy stone lid swung shut over me. I pushed against it with all my strength, but my arms bowed uselessly against it.

The world went black.

Fifteen

I came to on the grass. Prometheus sat beside me, watching me warily. “Want to talk about it?”

I shook my head, my limbs shaky. Revisiting my entombment was the last thing I wanted to do. I curled into myself instead, trickles of anxious sweat beading down my spine. “Why are you doing this?” I blurted.

“Why are you?”

Because Persephone is crazy with rage and wants to take everyone down
didn’t seem like an appropriate response.

Whatever Prometheus thought he saw in my expression made him chuckle. “I know you hate Zeus and Hades.” He shrugged. “Fine by me since it suits my purposes.”

He’d nailed my feelings for those two, and I was happy to let him think that was what had set off my hysteria. “I know your agenda,” I said. “You want to save humanity. But why?” Here was Prometheus, willing to talk to me in a way that Theo wouldn’t. Or maybe he just found it too hard after everything he’d been through.

Prometheus’ dark eyes were wistful. “Wouldn’t any parent do whatever they had to do to keep their kids safe? I was there for the birth of mankind. I nurtured them with the gift of fire and watched them achieve beautiful impossible things.” He wrapped his finger around a dandelion stem. “Terrible things, too. But so many of those, as misguided and immoral as they were, came from a place of hope. Of believing in a better tomorrow and fighting to the death to achieve it.”

“You don’t want the gods messing with that,” I said.

His expression hardened. “I don’t want gods killing humans in the name of bloated egos and power plays because they fail to see their worth. I want humanity left alone to succeed or fail on its own. That is their right.” He yanked the weed from the ground and flung it aside.

“But,” I fumbled for a way to say this delicately, “you already paid a price. Being chained to the rock just for giving them fire. Imagine the consequences if we fail this time.”

His smile dazzled me. “Which is why you won’t.”

There it was. The pure faith that connected this Titan and my human friend. “How can you be so sure?”

“Because you are prophesied.”

Huh? I was confused. In this enchantment, Cassie hadn’t dropped her “one above one below” prediction yet. I plucked a wet strand of grass from my leg, searching for a way to have Prometheus clarify without giving away knowledge I shouldn’t even have.

“Why do you think Zeus let you stay here?” Prometheus waved a dismissive hand. “If he’d wanted you out, he would have marshaled all of Olympus to bring you back. He knew it was foretold that one of his children would overthrow him. It was a closely guarded secret.”

My mouth was dry. I couldn’t believe that Theo had never mentioned this. I mean, sure, it made sense, explained why he’d been willing to lose his powers over me. But still. You’d think it might have come up in conversation. “
You
found out about it.”

Prometheus nodded. “And more. Zeus was never entirely sure which of his children it was going to be. When I learned that you had a way of stopping him and Hades?” His smile turned ruthless. “Let’s just say I called in some favors to verify it was you.”

Still … “Prophesied doesn’t mean guaranteed.” Zeus himself had said as much.

He stretched out his legs. “I know you’re nervous, Persephone. You’re hesitant to let me in on the exact nature of what will take them down.”

It wasn’t nerves. It was secrets. Persephone didn’t want him to know about Kai’s involvement in all this. Or her imminent betrayal of Kai and Demeter.

“But you’ve trusted me with your safety,” Prometheus continued. “My one job is to get you out of here tomorrow night. I’ve secured us passage. Once we’re out and you accept that you’re safe in my hands, you can fill me in on the next stage.”

I thought all this through. If Persephone had needed Prometheus to get her out of the Underworld, then she’d known that her pendent wouldn’t work. She’d might also have known that even Kai wouldn’t be able to help with that.

Theo had said he’d been supposed to meet Demeter on the night Persephone had been killed. I was willing to bet she was the secure passage. Which meant he’d struck the deal to exit to her temple grounds before.

Except, back then, Kai would’ve had to go with Persephone. She’d still needed him to do the love ritual. So she couldn’t have harmed him until afterward. But once she’d killed Kai, there would have been a witness. The very being who had spirited them out.

Prometheus.

I dropped my head. Felt ill. Persephone had been planning to betray Prometheus, too. My resolve hardened. That hadn’t happened, and it sure as hell wouldn’t happen this time as long as I stayed in control. More reason to have Prometheus get that truth spirit here and break this enchantment. I spoke up. “Prometheus—”

“That’s right,” he said. “You had something you wanted me to do.”

I did, but first I wanted him to know exactly where he stood with me. I took his hand. “I trust you,” I said insistently. “More than anyone.”

He didn’t break contact. Instead, he squeezed my hand tighter. “I will see you through this, keep you safe no matter what.” His eyes were solemn as they stared into mine. “I swear.”

It was a super intense and highly charged moment.

Which was pretty much the worst possible way that Kai could have found us. “What have we here?” His voice was a smooth purr. It caressed my skin like silk, then slid under it like ice.

I’d never heard this voice before. It terrified me. Because after that horrible night two months ago, I knew how mad Kai could get.

This sounded worse. Felt worse.

Prometheus let go of me and pushed to his feet.

Leaving me scrambling, brushing the dead grass from my dress. “Nothing,” I said.

“What are you up to, kardia mou?” Kai’s breath was warm against my ear as he twined around me in a tight circle, like a cat.

I shivered.

His hand caressed my hip for a fleeting second.

I shrugged, bored, and played the same “dislike” card that Prometheus had pulled out when Thanatos had interrupted us on the soccer field. “Nothing. He’s a jerk.”

Kai paused and placed his index finger against his lips. “Hmmmm. Thing is,” he gave me a sweet smile. “I don’t believe you.”

Yeah. I wouldn’t have either. This was bad. Dread to the tips of my toes, bad. I folded my fingers over my sweaty palms and opened my mouth to speak but something cut me off.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Prometheus give an exasperated shake of his head and turn to leave, but Kai shot a blast of black light and totally eviscerated the ground beneath Prometheus’ feet. He stumbled, barely staying upright.

“Another inch and it’s your legs,” Kai said, not taking his eyes off me. He flicked a hand. “Imprison him.” His tone of voice didn’t change. But his eyes flashed with the same fathomless black that I’d seen in the barrier around Nyx.

A dozen Pyrosim showed up to form a fiery guard around Prometheus. They arranged themselves in a tight flaming square, completely blocking him in.

“I’ll take you down with me,” Prometheus swore as he got to his feet. The minions were pressed too close for him to do anything other than stand, if he wanted to remain untoasted. His skin flushed red from the heat. And maybe his anger.

Kai laughed. “Try it. I dare you. I’ll bury you so deep that you’ll be forgotten.” There was absolute promise and sneering certainty in his voice.

It made Kai sound more like his father than I’d ever heard him.
That
was terrifying.

I whipped my eyes away from Kai, so he couldn’t see my panic.

Prometheus walked backward, facing me through the flames of his prison as the Pyrosim marched him off. “Believe,” he mouthed.

I grabbed Kai’s arm, more than ready to beg. “Don’t take him. Please. It’s not what you think. There’s nothing going on between him and me. I’m not even his type.” I didn’t want to accidentally out Prometheus if Kai didn’t know.

“You think I’m worried about that?” he scoffed. “But there
is
something going on with you. You’ve been different lately.” He bit down on the edge of his bottom lip, lost in thought. “I figured I was imagining things, but the way you acted yesterday and today? Holding me at arms’ length?”

Annoyance flared hot and hard inside me. “Is this because I wouldn’t sleep with you? Why would I want to with all your passive-aggressive games?”

Kai went poker-faced. “At least I wasn’t manipulating you.”

“Please. That’s your middle name.” I remembered a fraction of a second too late that Kyrillos had never manipulated Persephone. Kai had messed with Sophie. And right now, Sophie failed to exist.

He inclined his head. “If that’s how you feel, then perhaps this is our cue to end all our partnerships.”

I grabbed his wrist. “No. What? This is our chance. We have to help humanity.”

Kai’s face broke into a very cold smile. Almost snake-like. I’d sprung his trap. “That confirms you’re working secretly with Prometheus.” He brushed my hand off, his knuckles grazing my skin. “Because we both know you don’t give a damn about humanity.”

“That’s not true!”

“I wonder,” he murmured.

My eyes closed against this onslaught of emotion—the feel of his lips humming against my skin; the seductiveness of his misguided words. I was losing myself. My brain couldn’t process everything that Persephone and I felt toward Kai. Anger, attraction, revenge, desire.

My eye twitched. If only I could smack myself upside the head and reboot. Or end this enchantment, get out of here, and start dealing with the regular teen variety of angst and hormone fueled attraction.

“Were we really going to rule together? Or did you have a very different agenda?” Kai asked. He lifted his face to bore into me with his eyes.

Harder to say whose jaw was tighter at this point. His, given the way it looked, or mine, given the way it felt.

He cocked his head to the side. “Why did you get my father to throw a party? A
masked
ball. Why would you want to avoid being seen as we head into the equinox?”

I pushed against his arms, sending him back a couple of steps. “Are you kidding me? I was defending
you
, idiot. Trying to get your horrible father to treat you properly. Which, of course, he twisted into this stupid idea of a—”

“Stop lying to me.”

I jumped at the fury in his voice, shrinking back at the flat blackness in his eyes. I kept a careful watch on him as I spoke. “I’m not lying!”