Prologue
“You insufferable demon,”I roared into the emptiness.
Blood gurgled in my throat. Acid burned my vocal cords. I thrashed like a savage against my chains. Against these damned bars.
“Let. Me.Out.”
I choked on the odorous scent of sulfur pressing into the cell. Gagged as the stench crinkled in my nostrils. I took heavy, labored breaths, utterly worn out from my last beating. My eyes watered with the effort. I wrapped my fingers around the thick, bloodstained bars.
If I could get out of here, if I made it to the Realm Portal, I would be free.
“ZEMSHAZA,” I thundered. “I know you can hear me!”
Black fissures swam in my vision. Darkness blackened my mind. My spirit vanished beneath the tide of midnight that swarmed my soul. I jerked uncontrollably, burning with rage. Like a creature formed from nightmares. Like an unintelligent beast, frothing at the mouth.
I blinked against the darkness, squinting at the hall beyond the bars. I narrowed my eyes into slits to see something,anything,in this infernal darkness. A sudden, unnatural,monstrous hunger for fresh blood burned through my veins. I shook myself, possessing my sanity once again.
“I am not a monster.”
The soft whisper tumbled from my lips beneath the pressing weight of eternal night. I wrenched my fingers from the iron bars, clamping them onto my winged ears.
“I am not a monster. I amnota monster.”
I had to say it aloud. I had to repeat it.
I had to remember.
Crackling fire tickled my ears, arresting my attention. Hunched over beneath the low ceiling, I craned my neck towards the bars of the cell. I looked up. Raven-black fire began licking the stone walls. My nostrils flared in panic. What kind of torment was this?
I snarled against the flames. Then slammed my body into the iron bars once again. Paranoia started kicking in. What if I didn’t make it out? What if I never made it back home? I howled in the dark, grasping for the stringed strands of my hair. I yanked, tearing at the braids. Tearing at my temples. Thrashing violently against myself. Inglorious stars. If I stayed down here any longer, I would lose my mind.
“Icannotdie down here.”
I whimpered the phrase like a solemn, broken mantra.
I rammed my body into the bars over and over.
The hèllish doors wouldn’t budge.
“Truly, I applaud your efforts.”
Zemshaza’s voice snaked into the miserable cell like an oiled serpent. The sound was broken, and guttural as if a thousand voices aimed to speak at once.
“I assure you,” the Fallen High King continued. “They won’t work.”
His voice penetrated into the cell without him physically appearing.
A beat passed. Silence descended like rain.
Then.
“Slave.”
Slave.
Like that was who I was. Like that was the measure of my worth.
Like it was my title.
