I could do this.
With a deep breath, I grabbed the bars again and bent them outward, inch by inch, until a narrow gap formed. Just big enough, maybe.
I started with my arm. Then my shoulder.
The second I wedged forward, white-hot pain erupted in my bones like they were being ripped apart from the inside. Agony twisted through my muscles, latched onto my tendons and squeezed.
I screamed. Reflexively, I yanked my arm back. But it was too late.
My skin sizzled. Steam curled from my flesh, and a sharp hiss filled the air.
Panting, I cradled the limb to my chest. There were no visible wounds, but it felt like I’d been seared down to the marrow.
Slowly, I exhaled as my power kicked in, starting the healing process.
Of course he’d prepared my prison, knowing my strength.
Hades, the Devil had prepared for everything.
No materializing objects in the cell.
No fading through the walls.
No exit unless he allowed it.
I was honestly surprised he hadn’t blocked my ability to heal.
Even if I escaped the cell, his domain was the real prison.
I was trapped.
“You can’t keep me here forever!” I shouted, but the silence that followed was thick—unchanged, unmoved. I hadn’t expected a reply. Still, it stung.
I slid down the wall and dropped onto my ass, legs folding beneath me.
I should be used to cages by now.
My father coddled me all my life, sheltering me from the worst the world had to offer.
But this was different.
The Devil didn’t just imprison me—he cornered me, on every level. Physically. Mentally. Spiritually.
This wasn’t a cage.
It was hopelessness dressed as stone and silence.
I wrapped my arms around my knees and stared at the bars. He could do whatever he wanted with me. He had told me that from the beginning.
He wanted me to witness the fall of the human world—helpless, useless to do anything. A front-row seat to the apocalypse, just for me.
Could I really escape?
My jaw clenched.
If he were with my family right now, I hoped they sliced him to pieces.
Eventually, the pain in my arm stopped. The steam from my skin faded. A small comfort, but a reminder that at least my healing still worked.
