Page 140 of Hell Bound

My ring!

It was still on my finger, right where it belonged. I hadn’t taken it off again after Tavila’s theft, and if she noticed I got it back, she wasn’t stupid enough to say anything.

I thought it belonged to my mother, that my connection to it had been because I’d lost her so young.

But it had been a deeper, much older connection that drew me to the simple ring.

He’d made sure I had it even in the mortal world. That a piece of him would be with me even when my memories weren’t.

Despite my dehydration, there was no stopping the tears that leaked from my closed lids.

Something hit the floor in front of me and my eyes snapped open. It took a moment for them to focus, but when they did, I saw the back of a pale blue dress disappearing down the hall of cell doors.

I recognized that braid, even in the dark.

“Hana? Hana, wait! Please! Please, come back!”

But she didn’t. In seconds she was out of sight, and I might have believed it was just a hallucination if there wasn’t a small bag sitting just inside my cell.

Cautiously, I crept closer. The cloth was rough, so I couldn’t tell what was inside until I opened it.

In the dim light from the torches scattered through the dreary space, I saw something that made me weep.

Rolls and crusts of bread filled it, but at the bottom was something harder and heavier. I pulled out a familiar plastic bottle with a picture of a mountain spring on it.

Hana had risked herself to bring this, and the water was clearly Deasley’s contribution.

They still care.

I knew that, I swear I did, but a place like this could get to anyone. Not anymore, though. As I stuffed myself with bread and water, I swore a promise to myself and to my friends.

If I died, it wouldn’t be from lack of a fierce fight on my end. No more rolling over and accepting my fate.

No matter what, I won’t give up.

Chapter34

Lucifer

There was one set of quarters in the palace that no one ever entered.

They were dark, barely lit but for the red lanterns hanging from the ceilings, draped with crimson veils and thick with plush onyx carpets.

These rooms were reserved for the Tainted delegation. Even the maids hated to come in here; it was only when Asmodeus held one of his balls that they’d creep in, clean as quickly as possible, and scurry out.

They were also kept swelteringly hot, the atmosphere so thick that sweat dripped down my skin within moments of entering.

The air itself seemed to wind into my lungs like wet cotton, expanding and filling my airways as though trying to choke me.

In my wolf form, it was almost unbearable.

I couldn’t sweat, panting desperately for a gasp of cool air that would never come.

In the days that had passed since Sameera had fastened the collar around my neck, the barbed teeth endlessly gnawing at my throat, I’d realized that it was no ordinary spell worked into the leather.

As long as she held the leash, she had control over the curse and its chains. She now had as much authority over me as Asmodeus did.

She wasted no time in using it.

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