I froze the rage that threatened to erupt from my every fiber. I needed cold clarity to deal with my enemies, and they were plenty.
Ares and Lucifer had stolen the elemental’s power, and they’d tried to do the same to me. Yet they’d failed.
Why?
Had my spirit managed to escape while my enemies brutally violated me, so my soul wouldn’t be scarred?
My eyes dipped down. Numerous white and red scars crisscrossed my chest. Loki hadn’t lied. Every inch of me had been sliced open. Only now was I mentally returning to review what horrors had been done to me.
“They tried everything to force your consciousness to surface and bring you to the present to watch what they were doing to you,” Loki said, studying every subtle expression on my face. “You beat them. You found a way to persevere yourself and remain unbroken.”
The fuckers wanted to break me to serve their purposes. The sadistic war god had first attempted it when he’d held me captive in his castle.
I let out a peal of hoarse laughter. Those dipshits would never get anything from me.
My thoughts drifted to my demigods, and another wave of angst assaulted me.
I didn’t matter. All that mattered was that they lived to fight another day.
“How long have the two punks kept me here?” I asked.
“Two moons,” Loki said.
I tried not to blink. It’d been two months since I’d been dragged to Hell.
No one had come for me.
It wasn’t that I expected a rescue, but it still hurt like a punch right through my guts to know that everyone had abandoned me.
No, they hadn’t abandoned me. The demigods had seen with their own eyes that I’d fallen under my own sword.
They believed I was dead.
I’d revealed my dirty origin. I’d said my goodbyes to them. There was nothing left after that. I doubted the demigods would welcome me back from the grave.
All that was left to me was revenge.
“It’s been two weeks in Earth time,” Loki said casually and carefully, as if he wanted to stoke the fire of hope in me when there was none. He’d seen the light dim to nothing in my eyes. This fucker didn’t miss anything.
I worked on my magic again stealthily. I needed to break this bind and escape this prison. When I did, I would kill the prince first, then slay the rest of his crew, who were posted outside the door. As my consciousness had returned, I’d felt the pulses of powers inside three beings—one demon, one witch, and one dark mage.
I bet they’d assisted the devil and the god in opening me up.
Once out of here, I’d slay every fucking being in my warpath until I cut down Lucifer and then Ares if he was still in the realm.
However, the bloodbath as I left piles of bodies behind me was pure fantasy at the moment.
I couldn’t move a fucking toe.
Loki tugged up the corner of his lips in dark amusement as if he saw all the schemes and images rushing in my head and yet indulged me.
“Venom and spells from both Lucifer and Ares have soaked into your bloodstream,” he informed me as he adjusted the gold cuff at his wrist. “They can’t kill you, but they bind your magic. You won’t be able to use your power against my father while you’re in Hell.”
“I wasn’t expecting you to be such a jubilant messenger boy,” I said. “I thought Hell’s prince had better things to do.”
He grinned, showing off his white teeth, sexy and predatory. Other women or demonesses might swoon, but not me.
“What do you think are better things to do?” he asked in his typical purr.