Everlasting Fate (Third Book)

Chapter Nineteen

Hell, One Week Later

I awoke to the scent of decay and fear swimming in the warm muggy air. My hands and feet were chained to some unbreakable force. They were chains that even I, a God, couldn't seem to break. I yanked on them with all of my might and still they didn't budge from their place buried deep in the wall. I couldn't move much or breathe correctly. My energy levels were waning; I felt as weak as a human. My back seared with fiery pain and I realized I had deep open slices on my back from beatings I didn't recall. I looked up, straining my neck to see where I was at. It was like a dark red-brown cave, but it was massive with a dripping ceiling that stretched upwards for eternity. There wasn't a source of light anywhere, but the cave seemed to glow with a dim red light. A drop of moisture fell onto my bare arm. A chill gripped my spine as I stared at the crimson dot on my arm. I realized it was blood. My stomach churned nervously. This is hell. In the distance I heard the sizzling of fire and screams of agony and hateful laughter.

"Lucy!" I called out, but my voice was raspy and dry, and barely a whisper. "John Ethan!" I managed a hoarse screech. My vision was hazy but it was like I was secluded in a cell in the cave that was almost completely enclosed by cave walls. There was an opening where a door or bars might have been, but since I was chained it didn't matter that it was wide open. The tempting urge to escape through that opening kept repeating in my brain. But the panic quickly coursed through my veins as I wrenched the chains and they didn't move. I was trapped, imprisoned in hell.

"You can't leave until those chains are removed. They're as indestructible as Atlantean life cuffs." A man appeared in the doorway. It wasn't Lucifer, surprisingly. His accent was ancient and thick, Russian in nature. He was tall like an angel, but yet his aura said he was human and extremely dangerous. He had rich coffee black hair that reached his chin and was slicked behind his ears. His blue grey eyes were precise and cunning. He couldn't be more than twenty years old but yet his aura said he wasn't from this century.

"Why am I here?" I barked at the man.

He moved into the cell and scrutinized my face. He wore a black button down shirt with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows revealing sleeves of tattoos and dark designer jeans. Blood splatter stained his forearms and hands. He was my tormentor. I gritted my teeth and threw myself at him, jerking the chains violently. The chains finally ripped out the wall and I tackled the man against the cave. I wrapped the chains around his neck and squeezed the air out of him. He fought me, gasping for air.

"Enough!" Lucifer's sinister voice commanded the chains; they loosened around the man's neck and fell to the ground. "He's a God, you moron!" He chided him.

"Let me go, Luci." I snarled at the incarnation of evil itself. "And release the Rooks."

"Who said they were still alive?" The man beside me spat at my feet.

I lifted the chains to whip him with them when I was yanked back by the chains so hard that I was thrown onto my back. The wind was knocked out of me and black splotches dotted my vision. I coughed and quickly jumped to my feet.

"Tell me you didn't kill the Dark Queen's parents? You can't be that suicidal or that stupid." I glared angrily at Lucifer.

"Lord Dante is a spirited Dark Lord, is he not?" Lucifer's evil smile sickened me. "But he only means to threaten you. The Rooks are still alive, for now."

"What do you want with them or me?" I asked.

"You're simply a token of fear; if a God can be swept away off his guard and tricked so very easily, than any deity can be. Fear is a beautiful thing. And the Rooks, oh the Rooks, they're leverage if my plans don't succeed." Lucifer was being very forth coming, which meant that he wanted me to repeat this knowledge, furthering the notion that I was going to be released.