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

The Goddess of Love is in the house (Part 3)

"Please let me see Pierce," I cut in.

She held up a hand. "What I wanna know is what are you gonna do about Bethany? It's your fault that dragon found her in the first place and gave her ideas about gettin' above her station."

I thought about it. "I dunno. I could try and talk to this Jack Wing character."

A crafty look stole over her face. "I'll help."

"Oh no," Kai said.

"Shut it, Kyrillos." She pointed at me. "Get that big dope Jack to kill her campaign."

Kai clarified. "Jack a.k.a Hermes. Her current lover."

"Ex," she corrected in a hard voice.

"So that's what he's up to these days," Theo said. "All makes sense now."

I rolled my eyes for Hannah to see, but she was totally zoned, as if all her brain power was busy making mental tabulations on gods and relationships. Which it probably was.

"Oh, come on," I protested to the group at large. "Another god? You mean he's not some poor human under Bethany's influence. Great."

Although, that had to suck. Aphrodite's ex was the one that wanted to make Bethany a star. No wonder she was so pissed.

"I don't want no one worshiping her." Aphrodite was on the verge of stomping her foot and throwing a tantrum. "Jackie can do all the silly shows he wants but no helpin' anyone else to be adored."

"If he's doing this out of break-up spite, can't we forget about his co-operation?" Hannah asked.

Aphrodite blinked at her. "If he refuses, I'll be very displeased."

Hannah glanced at me. I was glad to see she looked as confused as I felt. "But you've broken up," she said. "Why would being displeased matter?"

"What does broken up gotta do with anything? I might not show him any more affection again."

"Dysfunctional and probably co-dependent," Hannah said so only I could hear.

No kidding. "What if he doesn't want any more of your affection?" I asked.

The look Aphrodite sent me almost fried me on the spot, combined with Kai's sharp nudge into my back; I backpedalled. "Sorry," I mumbled.

"It is a sad day when a man loses sweet Aphrodite's affection," Festos said.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Turned you gay."

"Sweetie, it doesn't work like—"

"Sure did," Theo cut in.

"Enjoying yourself?" Festos asked him.

Theo smiled. "Immensely."

"Rigardliss," Aphrodite continued, "Jackie ain't had his fill of me yet."

This all sounded messy. And possibly icky. Did I really want to get in the middle of it? "Can't you just go yourself? Cut out the middleman? I mean this basically sounds like I'm playing messenger."

Aphrodite gasped. "I'm a Goddess."

I didn't get to fire back, "d'uh Dingbat, so am I," because both Theo and Festos were shaking their heads "No" emphatically at me.

I bowed to their wisdom. "So you are. And I am always delighted to ruin Bethany's world. Just tell me where to go and provide me with safe passage. I've got that whole Zeus and Hades out to kill me issue."

She nodded and said "Normally, I can talk circles around those two. They're always givin' in."

"Out of exhaustion," Kai muttered in my ear.

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing and incurring Aphrodite's ditzy displeasure.

"But I don't think they'll listen to me this time. Just stay a step ahead'a them. You'll be fine."

That was helpful.

Hannah nudged me.

"At least let Hannah see Pierce again."

A slight hesitation, then another nod. "Soon as the campaign is dead."

Now for the big one. "Undo the arrow on Kai." I felt Kai's grip on me tighten, then relax and let me go. Oh, the force of will that must have taken.

Aphrodite pointed her gun at me again, kind of casually. "Your problem is you're too hung up on the past. You gotta move forward with yer life."

I heard Hannah give a smothered laugh.

"You got this cutie pie in love with ya, and instead of enjoying his company, all you do is whine." With a quick flick, Aphrodite opened the cylinder to reload.

"He's not in love," I said.

She peered at Kai. "Whattya talkin' about? Sure he is. Everyone knows Kyrillos loves Persephone."

"I'm Sophie," I ground out.

She waved the gun around. "Ya ya. That too."

That too? I took a deep breath, folded my fingers over my palms and looked slightly to the left of her in case I accidentally started blasting. Didn't want to go down in history as the girl who killed the Goddess of Love.

"Nope. It's just desire," I said with faked calm. "Kai is so resistant to the idea of being in love with me that your arrows don't work. Besides which, when he actually does fall so hard for me that he doesn't know which way is up, I want him to know he chose that of his own free will. That he chose me." I threw him a sweet smile.

"Chose you?" Kai got this look of "have we had this conversation before?" on his face.

My smile got tight.