Read Online My Life From Hell by Tellulah Darling - Free Book Online Page A

he was gawking at. My breath caught. “Hannah, I’m feeling wrong feelings.”
    “Indeed,” she murmured.
    Even the eye roll Theo shot us could not detract from the uncomfortable reality of how amazingly GQ incredible he looked.
    He sported a black skinny suit thrown on over a black striped tone-on-tone T-shirt. He’d lost his glasses for the night and slicked down his usually dark spiky hair. Very Mad Men .
    I’d seen Theo in suits before. Most recently at our school’s Winter Formal. And he’d looked very handsome. But more “good boy for cleaning up so nicely and even buttoning up your collar.” Nothing like this. Looking at Theo right now, so sleek and tailored, I realized this was the first time I’d seen him with some confident swagger.
    I’d seen many sides of my friend; snarky, annoyed, loyal, and sadly—lately—far too serious. But Theo had never given off that vibe of supreme conviction that I was used to from other gods. An arrogant sense of self. Which made me wonder what he’d been like as Prometheus. And how much he’d tempered his personality to better fit in as a human. Being around Festos, maybe Theo was showing his true colors.
    And those colors ran the full spectrum of man-candy edible.
    I swallowed hard. Twice. And continued to stare dumbly at him.
    “You never looked like this for us,” Hannah sputtered.
    By this point, Festos had limped over to Theo. He smoothed a lapel down and gazed at his boyfriend. “This one’s all mine.”
    Hannah cocked her head toward the handsome couple. “Real hardship living with that,” she said to me.
    “I despair,” Theo said as he grinned across the room at us. He took Festos’ hand. Hannah and I took that cue to also link ourselves to Festos, and in the blink of an eye, we’d left Seattle behind as he transported us away.
    Almost immediately, we found ourselves outside, under a starless night sky. Before us lay a black infinity pool full of flat rocks that pulsed with a gentle light. The rocks marked a path toward, well, even more darkness.
    “You’re sure this is the right place?” I asked.
    “Oh, ye of little faith,” Festos said. “Come.”
    Festos jumped from rock to rock across the pond with surprising agility, given his twisted foot and the fact that he’d left his cane at home.
    The stones didn’t sway at all but I was still glad I’d worn low heels as I made my way across. I yelped as I saw something slither in the water, rippling the still surface.
    Theo glanced down. “A little something for unwanted guests.”
    Even though I was apparently worthy of attending Nyx, I reached the ground on the far side with a sigh of relief. Now that I was up close, I realized I’d been completely mistaken about the darkness ahead. There wasn’t just night before me. More like an absence of everything, woven into a pulsating barrier.
    “Yeah, so that’s creepy.” I craned my neck up, attempting—and failing—to see where the barrier ended. I looked down and scanned the section in front of me. There didn’t seem to be a door or a gate. “How do we get in?”
    I poked gingerly at the barrier, felt the energy pouring off whatever it was, and decided I really didn’t want to be touching it after all. I tried to pull my hand away.
    But I was stuck fast.
    And that’s when the barrier pulsated outwards and slithered over my arm.

Five

    I shrieked, trying to tug myself free with all my might.
    Festos sighed and placed his palm against the barrier.
    I shivered involuntarily but it didn’t rip his hand off. Instead, threadlike strands of fiery purple and orange seemed to swim up from the depths of the barrier and wriggle their way toward Festos. The strands merged to form a glowing “N” under his palm.
    I was able suddenly to pull my hand away.
    Hannah gasped.
    “Such theatrics,” Theo said.
    “I know,” said Festos with a saucy grin, choosing not to interpret Theo’s comment as a slight. Part of the wall slid noiselessly away to