CHAPTER 2
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“You think you’re livingyour worst nightmare, cousin?” Loki chuckled. “This is only the beginning.”
His handsome face, which seemed to be carved out of dark gold, hovered above me. His curly, dark hair spilled over his broad shoulders. Even in the dim light, I could make out his lush eyelashes, his strong cheekbones, and cynical lips that held the sensuality of the Underworld.
The demon prince was as I remembered, but his eyes were different. They weren’t pits of infinite darkness born to devour the light this time. They were piercing green like mine, sparkling with cruelty and amusement.
I held his gaze, paying no mind to his taunting.
His demonic, seductive power couldn’t touch me either.
Now that I wasn’t dead, I must get acquainted with my new environment, process it, and figure out my next move.
Pain battered at me like unceasing waves crashing on the shore, but I ignored it. I tried to block out my unrealistic longing for my demigods as well.
I was in enemy territory, surrounded by powerful, vicious beings.
“What are you doing here, Loki,” I asked in mockery. My voice was still hoarse, but words flowed out easier now. “Where’s your daddy? He dragged me down here. I thought he wanted a chat.”
He smiled at me. “That’s my girl. They haven’t broken you.”
“I’m not your girl. Never will be.”
“I thought your first question would be how long you’d been down here.”
“That too.”
“How much do you remember?”
I looked at him blankly as something dark flashed in his eyes. “What kind of game are you playing? I don’t have time for that shit.”
“They dissected you,” he said with a sigh, “reveled in your pain, and then put the most potent spells on you to bind your power.”
I didn’t remember any of that.
The last things I recalled before waking up in the coffin were a blade plunging into my heart, the devastated roars of my demigods, and the agony of the world in their eyes.
“I couldn’t stop them,” Loki continued. “I had to watch them cut you open again and again to search for the source of your power.”
That was why everything in me had screamed in pain when I’d woken up. Without clarifying it with Loki, I knew “they” meant Lucifer and Ares.
The fuckers had caused such misery in my life.
I summoned my power.
A spark of ember stuttered in my deep well, then slumped beneath layers of thick, cold ash.
“It was just as I thought,” Loki said with satisfaction. “You evacuated your consciousness when they tortured you. They brought you up from the coffin, lifted you in the air with iron chains, and nailed your wrists to the wall. While you were spread-eagle they cut you open. You bled out. In the end, you still healed. You still regenerated. But you don’t remember.”
A flitter of pain and envy passed by his gorgeous face, as if he was speaking from experience.
“I hope I can learn how you did it,” he whispered. “Your survival instincts kicked in and shielded you from being forced to witness the most inhuman treatments.” His dark green gaze pierced me, but his voice softened. “They failed to take your power, Celeste.”