My Ex From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy, #1)

You can lead a nymph to water but you cannot make her think (Part 3)

"Ye of little faith." Theo shook his head at us. "We're not going to have to get anywhere near a Gorgon because I have another way. Check it, yeah? I've got a source."

We stood up and followed Mr. Naiman back toward the gym.

I could only begin to imagine. "Let me guess. This fatal poison is what was used on both Hades and me. But it stays in the blood for a long time, so we sneak back to the Underworld, acquire Hades' blood with said poison still in it, put it on some sort of stabby thing and presto. Dragon be gone."

Theo looked at me with admiration. "I was thinking that you could use your persuasive charms on Kai to get it for us."

"Get bent." I retorted.

"I'm kind of impressed with how you figured that all out," Hannah said.

"I'll tell you." Theo beckoned her close. "It's because it's a load of rubbish. Sophie's twisted mind running rampant with neuroses."

"Tabling the fact that you're a jerk for that Kai crack, I wasn't poisoned with Gorgon blood?"

"No way. That stuff is instantly fatal. I wouldn't have had any time to put your soul anywhere. By the time I found you, it would have been too late."

"That was stupid. Why poison me with something on a timer? It's like those villains who spill their entire plan to the hero, giving them time to get away."

"If I ever decide to poison you, I promise I'll make sure your demise is instant," he replied. "Remember, when we got back from Hades, I told you the knife you'd been stabbed with was enchanted. Whoever cut you didn't just want you dead. They wanted you to suffer, as well. It was a fluke I was even there. No one knew I was supposed to meet with your mother." He pushed his glasses back up his nose. "Come to think of it, the palace was oddly empty, which meant that some kind of diversion had been arranged. Ask Kai about that one."

"And Hades?" Hannah asked. "Why take the chance that having him suffer would foul up his death?"

"Hades is one of the big three, along with Zeus and Poseidon. I'm not positive that even Gorgon blood would be instantly fatal to him. It would take something massive to off them. In all my years, I've never come across anything that could do the job."

Hannah bounced up and down excitedly as she walked. "Then it was a message. Someone showing that they could get to him. Make him vulnerable and worried. Maybe the seeds were a gift? Like a pair of gloves, but the insides were lined with crushed glass and poison so the wearer put them on and bam! Snuffed out." At our curious expressions, Hannah shrugged. "I've been reading a lot about the Borgias."

"Sure thing, psycho. Who's your source for the Gorgon blood, Theo?"

"No one. We're not using Gorgon blood."

"But you said—"

"I said it would be brilliant. I also said I had another way. To kill Delphyne. Not sure why you're so obsessed with Gorgons."

"Tell me the way," I said wearily, stepping back into the smelly warmth of the gym.

"You. Shouldn't be much of a problem to take her out."

"Aim for the eyes or the soft underbelly," Hannah added thoughtfully. "Those are your best targets."

"It can't be that simple," I protested.

"You're a real cynic, aren't you?" Theo rolled his eyes at the look I shot him. "Fine. There is the matter of the box."

"There we go. What box?"

"The enchanted one. For Delphyne's head. After you decapitate her."

I felt queasy. Killing with my awesome powers from afar, excellent. Getting up close and personal to saw through something? Not so much. "I need to cut off her head?"

"After she's dead. See, Apollo already killed her once."

"And yet she's here. That bodes well," I snarked.

"His problem," Theo continued ignoring me, "was that he didn't properly finish her off."

"You have that in common." Hannah smiled brightly at me.

"Yeah. Some things just don't have the common courtesy to stay dead," Theo agreed.

"I think we have you to blame for Sophie," Hannah pointed out to him. "I could have had a lovely roommate all these years. Maybe with a boat. I always wanted a friend with a boat."

"See if I save you, Nygard. Where do we find this box?"

Mr. Naiman gave a sharp blast on his whistle. "Stations, people! One minute vigorous activity for each exercise. On my count."

"Nysa. A nymph," Theo replied as we made for the hand weights.

He was looking at me expectantly. I called him on it. "Am I supposed to know her?"

"Yeah. Wondering if you remembered her."

"Sorry. I'm sure she's very nice," I said, picking up a couple of five-pounders.

Theo picked up a set of ten pound weights and laughed as Mr. Naiman blew his whistle.

We met Theo's very nice nymph at 2am the next morning. "She some kind of vampire nymph? Can't keep daylight hours?" I was tired, shivering despite the many layers of sweatclothes under my jacket, and would have liked just one Greek figure to behave normally.

I was also somewhat edgy since we were waiting near the bank of the creek and even though Theo had assured me a thousand times that the portal was safely shut, I continually worried that Cerberus was going to poke his triple-headed ugly mug out and finish me.

One worry led me to another and soon I was thinking about what Theo had given up. "Do you ever miss it?"

He stared off into the sky, up at the few visible stars. I worried that maybe I'd overstepped and he wasn't going to answer. "You know how people who've had limbs amputated can still feel them? Phantom limbs. They itch and they tingle and the person swears that arm or whatever is still there?"

I nodded.

"I swear I can still feel that part of me. Sixteen years since I was a Titan, and every single day I wake feeling dread and shock at what I've lost."

"Then why?"

"Because when you've been around forever, you have to find something outside yourself to believe in or go mad. I believe in humanity. I believe in you."

My palms were sweaty and my heart was racing. "What if I'm not worth it?"

"You have to be." He gave me a crooked grin. "Because you're going to have to compensate for Kai."