“Answer, pricks!” Paxton roared. “My mate has a question for you!”
His fuming voice echoed up the dome, and dust fell from above.
Axel sniffed and sneezed. “Fuck. That’s bone dust. All the prisoners here are long dead. Tartarus let them rot. He must have not checked this dome for a long time. The Titans could sustain themselves without sustenance, but immortals like Sisyphus and Ixion still needed food to survive.”
I sniffed, then wrinkled my nose at the stench of death and decay.
“The gods sentenced us to the same fate,” I said, cold dread filling me. The image of my mates and me turning to piles of bones and dust in this dome made me shudder.
“Lamb, are you hurt?” Héctor asked across the dome.
“I’m fine. Are you guys all right?” I asked, sweeping a glance at all my mates.
“Yes, we are,” my mates answered.
“We need to break out of the Eternal Prison as soon as possible,” Zak said. “The longer we stay here, the slimmer the chance we’ll ever leave this place.”
“Let’s do this,” I said, throwing my hands up and letting my power blast the locks and the doors.
They didn’t budge. I tried again a few more times to no avail.
“My power is muted here,” I said, unable to hide the dismay and dread in my voice.
My mates grabbed the bars to try to bend them or pull them wider, trails of smoke rising from their skin where they touched the metal. The smell of burned flesh hit my nostrils.
“Stop!” I shrieked, hating to see my mates hurt. “If it could work, the Titans would have gotten out of their dome eons ago. We have to be smarter.”
Yet Paxton refused to give up. He clenched his teeth, ignoring the acid burning as he tried to pull the bars that separated him and me wider, so he could be with me in the same cell.
“Paxton! I said stop!” I yelled at him. “Why do you keep hurting yourself, idiot?” I rushed to him, prying his fingers off the bars.
He narrowed his eyes at me.
Maybe I could get the bars to bend?
I remembered that when I touched the bars that held my father, I got only a sting. The warded metal hadn’t burned me. Perhaps I could work around these bars. And as a Titan’s daughter, I had the strength.
I grabbed the bars, acid burn peeling my skin off my palms. I yelped and let go as it dawned on me that the Eternal Prison was designed to keep the convict behind the bars. I had suffered only a sting last time because I hadn’t been a prisoner, but now I was.
All of my mates were shouting at me to stay away from the bars, then Zak, Axel, and Héctor scolded and cursed Paxton for not protecting me.
Always the alpha males.
Yet we were all trapped here, helpless and powerless. Dread filled my entire being and ice clogged my veins. We’d all rot here, captives of the most legendary prison in the world. My mates would rot here. And Héctor was mortal. My heart stopped. He would die long before the rest of us, my worst nightmare come true.
Héctor sliced his palm with his blade.
“Héctor!” I cried.
“Don’t fuss, Lamb,” he said. “I’m working on runes to break the door. We’ll get you out of here.”
Héctor was a master at wards and runes. Mortal or not, he hadn’t lost his touch.
He dipped his fingers in his blood and started writing runes on the doorframe of his cell. A sizzling sound hissed, and the air smelled of burned flesh. But Héctor kept going.
I breathed hard, wishing I could be there to help him. At least, I could contribute my blood. Then Zak and Axel cut their palms as well and offered their blood for Héctor to use. My mates were working together again to get me out.
Paxton shrugged off his jacket, wrapped his hands with it, and grabbed the bars between us again to pull them wider. The fabric turned to ash as soon as it touched the metal. Paxton swore.