Goddess Bound: Goddess Series Book 6 (Young Adult / New Adult) (4 page)

And Kate was the key to the life she wanted.

Chapter Five

Two weeks. Gods, it had been two weeks since the night Legacy and Kate had covertly entered the den and witnessed Adin and River talking about rescuing her from Seth. She’d grilled Kate that night—and several nights thereafter—about her family, trying to find a connection to the gods that would unlock the secrets of their escape. But nothing had helped. By all accounts, Kate’s parents were completely mortal. As were her grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. Legacy hadn’t found anything that connected Kate to Greek mythology. And that sucked. Big time.

After climbing Kate’s family tree and falling swiftly to the ground, Legacy dusted herself off and tried something different. Since learning about Kate’s family wasn’t going to be the key to their freedom, she decided to focus on Kate instead. Going by what she knew of new gods and goddess, her captive mate had theoretically ascended on her eighteenth birthday, which meant she should have some kind of special ability. Maybe it was her special ability that’d help them get away. When Seth had been out on his twice daily expeditions—or whatever it was he did when he left suited up for battle with his guards—she and Kate had utilized that private time to find and awaken her godly ability. Unfortunately, whatever that ability was, it wanted to stay buried deep inside her.

“Try it again,” Legacy said as she walked around Kate to face her frustrated friend. Kate sat in front of a bowl of water with her fingers in it.

“I’m turning into a prune.” She pulled her wrinkled fingers out and wiggled them in front of Legacy.

“If only. At least then maybe your special ability of turning into food consumed for regularity would mean I’d feed you to the demon dog and could make my escape while he’s squatting with the squirts.”

Kate giggled. “That’s so gross.” She put her shriveled fingertips back into the water and glanced up at Legacy. “Besides, that dog hasn’t done anything to us. That’s just mean.”

Legacy shook her head. “You can’t be serious. Giving that dog the green apple quickstep would be kind compared to what could happen to him when we break free.”

“You are touched.” Kate rolled her eyes. “Why would you think anything would happen to Cerberus when we get out?”

“You’re supposed to be thinking about freezing that water,” Legacy chided.

“I’ve tried making it move, heating it up, freezing it, and making it disappear. This morning, I tried doing the same thing to the air. Last night, I tried to do those things to you. Yesterday morning, it was with a plant. The day before, the bedroom door was the object of my attention. Nothing is working.”

“Well nothing is going to work with that attitude. You have to believe you can do it, Kate. I’ve told you that.” Legacy took a deep breath and readied herself to talk some sense into her, but then stopped herself. She remembered River’s stunt in the parking lot at school several months ago and the other times he’d sparked emotion within her to push her ability to the forefront. It’d worked for her then, so maybe it would work for Kate now. Heck, at this point, it wouldn’t hurt to try. She put her hands on her hips and glared at her. “Then again you were never one to stand on your own. You’ve always just been Ellen’s lackey, and she’s nothing but a hot mess. I shouldn’t be surprised you can’t do something on your own. Something that should be second nature to you by now.”

“Now wait a minute.” Kate jumped up, splashing water on Legacy in the process.

“Oh look, you did make the water move. It’s about damn time.”

“Screw you! I’ve been trying my best.”

“Whatever. You’ve just done a piss-poor job of following my directions. You still haven’t found the inner strength to take the initiative. You’re nothing but a pushover. Gods, Kate, you haven’t even stood up to Seth for macking on that god groupie. Instead, you just clam up and sulk. Not that he cared. He’s probably hooking up with her again right now.”

Kate screamed as she charged Legacy. She threw her arms up and pushed with what seemed to be all her strength…which wasn’t much. Legacy felt bad for being so mean, but desperate times called for desperate measures and all that. At least now Kate was reacting with emotion and not the stoic manner in which she’d approached the other tests. Legacy knocked her hands away and dealt a little shocking blow at the contact.

“Ow!” Kate growled, and pushed Legacy again. She very lightly shocked her again. “You’re cheating!”

“No, I’m not. I’m using my ability. Just like you should do if you don’t want me to kick your ass.” Legacy shocked her again, this time a little harder. Kate gasped, then fisted her hands and roared as she shook them. Instantly, her hands lit as if they were torches.

“Oh my gods!” Legacy blew toward Kate’s fists, her friend’s hair whipping back as if she were in a convertible car going top speed. But the flames continued to burn. “Does it hurt?”

Kate shook her head wildly. “Um, no, but it feels very weird. Tingly, I guess.”

“Sorry, I didn’t know this would happen when I provoked you.”

“Can you make it stop?” Kate waved her hands, and Legacy dodged to the side.

“Watch where you point those things. No, I can’t make it stop. I only forced you to do it. You have control of it. Just believe in yourself and that you can put out of the flames, and that should work.”

She whimpered, but nodded before shutting her eyes. Her hands fisted tighter and then she opened them quickly. As soon as her fingers were spread, the flames disappeared and her eyes opened. Legacy commanded her hands to be cold and wrapped them around both of Kate’s hands to soothe her. Kate winced.

“Jeez! You’re hands are like ice.”

“Yeah, I can make them hot or cold. When I first found out about my heritage and coming abilities, one was always hot and the other was always cold. It took several months before I figured out how to control the temperature.”

“Wicked.”

Legacy chuckled. “I know, right? Totally awesome.”

“Well it’s nice and all you trying to cool my hands down, but they aren’t burning.”

She let go and stepped back. “How do they feel now?” she asked as she rubbed her hands together, enjoying the warmth she allowed to flood them.

“Normal.” Kate shrugged. “I guess that solves the mystery of my ability.”

Legacy nodded. “Yep. I’m not sure how we’re supposed to utilize it. I doubt we’re supposed to set the underworld on fire. Seems kinda counterproductive to start a fire in Hell.”

Kate smirked. “True.” She sat down. “But it isn’t exactly Lucifer we’re battling, or his homestead we’ve crashed.”

Legacy sat down beside Kate. “Yeah, I know.”

“I take it the cheesy P.S.A. you gave me about believing in myself right after you pissed me off was part of some grand scheme of yours to get me to discover my ability?” Kate asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Um, yes, sorry about that. The idea to push your buttons just sorta came to me, and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

“Wouldn’t hurt—”

“Hey,” Legacy cut off Kate’s comment that was sure to be a rebuttal to Legacy’s reasoning. “It worked. We don’t have a whole lot of time here. You can hate me later. When we’re back home.”

Kate took a deep breath and rubbed the back of her neck. “Whatever. So what now?”

“I wish I knew. It’s not like we can take this new knowledge and ask someone or Google it. Do you feel like trying to make your hands flicker again?”

Kate raised her hands and shut her eyes. A few seconds later, flames grew out of her fingertips. She fisted her hands and the fire completely engulfed them. Then she opened her eyes, shook her hands, and the evidence of her special ability disappeared.

“Good,” Legacy breathed.

“It still doesn’t answer the
burning
question.”

“Ha. Ha.”

Kate laughed. “Better to joke about it than freak out about it.”

“Very true. Okay, so you can turn your hands into balls of fire. Maybe you’re supposed to burn anybody who tries to stop us from running away. Or kill Cerberus since he, it, whatever, will be the only obstacle between us and freedom if we flee while Seth is out during one of his daily expeditions.”

“Again with you and animal cruelty. What’s up with that? You’d think since you’re like this Mother Nature person, you’d have a love of all living things. The only dog I’ll be roasting is a hotdog when we get back home.”

“Where do you think hotdogs come from? Fake cows and pigs? Or are you only opposed to killing animals if they become your food? Either way, that three-headed
thing
isn’t natural. It’s a guardian of the underworld.”

“And your original goddess was queen of the underworld. That’s not natural either. None of this is normal.” Kate stood and faced Legacy. “My point is I don’t want to kill anything if we don’t have too, especially not a defenseless dog.”

“A defenseless dog? Really? Have you not heard it speak when it’s talked to you?” Legacy stood up and pointed her finger at Kate. “Take your blinders off. That thing works for Seth. It does whatever that guy wants. Don’t think if Seth ordered it to slaughter us it wouldn’t. It’d tear us apart in a heartbeat.” And what if it came down to Kate hurting Seth…would she be able to do that, especially since she was putting up such a fight when it came to hurting a creature of the underworld? Legacy wanted to ask her that. But she feared the answer.

“I know! But you’re automatically assuming that my ability was bestowed to cause harm. I don’t know if I can kill…” Kate trailed off and looked away. Legacy realized this wasn’t about the dog. Not really.

“We might not have to kill Seth,” Legacy whispered. Kate gasped and stared at her. “I know I said he’d have to die. And he still might. I’ll be honest, he’s better off dead. If we get out of here without killing him, he could still come back and take me.”

“The element of surprise is gone,” Kate said without any emotion.

“Yeah, I know.” But there was also something about Seth that just didn’t feel right. Legacy couldn’t put her finger on it, but she’d keep that little uneasy feeling to herself. “I learned a hard lesson about revenge. Our goal should be to get out of here, not kill him. If it happens while we try to escape, then I’m sorry it had to be that way, but we should focus on getting away.”

“Okay.” Kate nodded, but still looked a little troubled, if not defeated. “But what if this
ability
I have is really meant for something different?” Kate’s shoulders relaxed. “I just don’t like the idea of causing unnecessary harm. I get that it may come to that, but could you at least consider other possibilities too?”

Legacy stared at Kate for several seconds then she backed up and sat back down. “Like what?”

Kate eased back onto the side of the bed and brought her bent knees in front of her. “I don’t know. Like maybe to provide warmth?”

Legacy shook her head. “Earthly comforts and issues don’t bother us here. We haven’t been hungry or cold. Unless it’s meant to keep us warm while we’re en route back home, but that doesn’t get us away from here.”

Kate licked her lips as she nodded. “What about light?”

“Hmmm…could be. But the sky is just the grayish color all the time.”

“True, but what if our escape route consists of tunnels or dark areas, and I’m meant to guide you through them?”

Legacy’s lips quirked into a half-smile. “Now
that
is plausible. When you were being all depressed and I was looking for a way to communicate with the outside world, I did find a few doors that led to underground areas, but it was too dark for me to explore them.”

Kate’s eyes sparkled. “See! Maybe that’s it.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out.”

The bedroom door flew open, and a seething Seth stared at them. “Only one way to find out what?”

Crap! With the excitement of learning Kate’s ability, they hadn’t actually been keeping quiet. If Seth had been standing outside the room, he could have heard everything. He could be asking them that just to set them up. Well, Legacy wasn’t going to sit here and go down without embracing her snarky side.

“Only one way to find out if you do have any balls. See, I think living with the undead has zapped your soul and your package. If you were a real man, you wouldn’t have played with Kate’s heart and gotten her mixed up in this mess.”

Seth’s cold eyes grew wider, and the blankness of them filled with something tangible…something emotional…something Legacy could only describe as
hurt
. Oh yeah, there was definitely something off with him. “I—” Seth shook his head, and just as quick, the emotion was gone. He leered at Kate. “She’s intimately aware of what I’m sporting below, aren’t you, baby?” Kate looked down and Seth glared at Legacy. “I’m up for whatever game you wanna play, cupcake.” He turned and walked to the door. He grabbed the side of it and turned to face them before stepping out. “But it’s in your best interest to get comfortable being here. Neither one of you is going anywhere. Not for a long time.” He started to walk out.

“Oh love muffin?” Legacy said in a sickeningly sweet voice. His back visibly stiffened as he halted.

“What?” He didn’t turn around.

“Since we have to get comfortable with our surroundings, I think Kate and I will explore our lovely estate tomorrow. Since I’ll be queen and all soon, I need to become familiar with my royal subjects.”

He looked over his shoulder. “Whatever floats your boat, cupcake. Just don’t wander too far. Evil lurks out there.”

And it doesn’t in here?
Evil was everywhere in this place, but she thought it best not to correct him. “Sure thing, love muffin.”

Seth growled and slammed the door as he left.

Kate looked up. “Why did you do that?”

Legacy shrugged. “The attitude? To throw him off his game a little.”

“Oh. And the announcement that we’re going to be out exploring? Why give him the opportunity to keep track of us?”

At that, Legacy smiled. “Covering our bases. We have three tunnels to explore tomorrow during his scheduled trips. We don’t know where they lead, so if we end up being seen walking around somewhere we’re not supposed to be, then hopefully Seth will think it’s because we’re out familiarizing ourselves with the realm.”

“And if we find a way out of this hellhole?”

“We take it.” There was no room for second guesses or for over analyzing their options. They had to be ready to flee if they found the way that lead to their freedom. And they had to be willing to run because if they were caught attempting to escape, they might not have another chance. She looked at Kate sternly, making sure she understood how serious this was. There could be no room for debate because their lives literally depended on their success. “And we don’t look back.”