Page 42 of Hell Bound

Modesty be damned; she wasn’t worried about my tits, and I wanted a fucking answer. “Since the moment I arrived I’ve been a prisoner. I have no power here, I’m assaulted at every turn whether it’s physical or verbal. I just risked death so I could escape this fucked up place. So please, enlighten me:howdo I think I’m better?”

Tavila snapped her jaw shut hard enough to make it pop.

Sveva had cowered back the moment my voice rose above a conversational level, and I almost felt bad. She hadn’t done anything to me, so I didn’t want to upset her, but it couldn’t be helped.

“Well? Answer me, dammit! I’m not going to sit here and let you run your fucking mouth if you have nothing to back it up.”

“You may be at a disadvantagenow, but before—”

“Before doesn’t matter, Tavila! I don’t live there anymore. I don’t knowher!”

“That doesn’t heal this!” She yanked the neck of her dress aside to show the wound that I’d supposedly given her in my past life. “It doesn’t take away the times you humiliated me in front of the nobles of Ardent, laughing at my prospects. I only hadoneviable option to make a good match, and you took that from me, too!”

“Asmodeus?”

“Yes!”

“Are you out of your fucking mind? How can I make it any clearer that I don’t want him?”

“You don’t now, but you agreed to marry him after he was already betrothed to me. You could have had anyone, become Queen of the Ardent Court like you were supposed to, and I could have been Asmodeus’s queen. I would have finally commanded respect.” She sneered at me with pure loathing. “And now look at me. A damned chambermaid for a mortal queen who isn’t fit to lick my boots.”

“Tavila, stop!” Sveva had jumped to her feet and pulled Tavila back. It was a good thing, too, since she looked about ready to strangle me with her bare hands. “Go get the queen’s night clothes prepared and I’ll finish here.”

Tavila looked like she was going to argue, but thought better of it at the last second. With one last scathing glare, she stomped out of the bathroom. I sank back into the tub, fury riding me hard.

No matter what past Tavila had with former Lilith, Iwasn’t her. She was more than welcome to Asmodeus, the Infernal Court, and everything that came along with them.

All I wanted was my freedom.

Unfortunately, that seemed to be the only thing that no one could help me with.

Sveva lathered and rinsed my hair as I stewed. I was well and truly fucked. I was a human girl surrounded by demons with super powers, terrifying beasts that lived in the forest, and what I was pretty sure was a lake full of blood outside my window.

There wasn’t a single odd in my favor.

How long would it take me to devise a plan to escape? And what were the chances that I would actually survive long enough to come up with one?

Deasley. He liked me, had said we were like brother and sister. And he’d been in Miami to surveil me. That meant there was a way to the human world.

If I could just get there, I could hide myself away forever. I hadn’t bothered before, I didn’t know I needed to.

Now? I would become a ghost. I’d live in a cabin in freezing mountains and become a lumberjack—lumberjill?—if I had to.

Even the theoretical loneliness of that made my heart twist. No one to share my days with, no family to connect with. No one to fall in love with.

I’d never even come close, but I’d always dreamed it was a possibility. Something I would find one day, that I would recognize once it presented itself to me.

Now what? I would either live trapped in Hell for eternity, or I’d return to an isolated life I’d never wanted.

“I’ve finished, my lady, if you’d like to get out.”

Unavoidable defeat weighed heavy on my shoulders as I stood and stepped over the edge of the tub. Water ran down my body in torrents as Sveva reached for a fluffy towel. When they hit the floor, the water droplets instantly turned to steam.

Note to self: I need heated marble floors in my isolated lumberjill cabin.

When the majority of the water was dried, Sveva slipped a deep, burgundy robe onto me and sat me at the vanity, just like the first night I’d arrived. This time, however, she applied lotions and oils to my skin instead of layer upon layer of makeup.

When my hair was no longer sopping, she brushed it through and put it in a single braid down my back.

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