Elvirund | ✔️

Chapter Twenty Four

When I next awoke, I couldn't open my eyes. The air was thick and heavy, and I couldn't breathe either. Slowly, I managed to pry my eyes open, blinking in a desperate attempt to prevent them from drying out completely. I was getting used to the soreness in my arms. Worse, I was getting used to Gehenna.

"Even one night's sleep let me forget how much I hated this place, but good morning."

"Like I would know if it was morning. I can hardly remember where I am."

I smirked and closed my eyes again. I didn't want to see her, nor did I want to have to look at everything around me. I couldn't discern the smell of blood anymore, and I could feel nothing past the shoulder in my right arm. Every movement, even the slightest twitch, sent waves of pain through my shoulder. Wonderful.

"Well, I'm glad you're having a good day."

My voice squeaked and rasped, the hot air making it no better. What a time to be alive. It obviously wasn't my place to judge. Of course not.

"I'm not, but that's irrelevant. Let's see how bitchy I am today." Her laugh was dry.

I heard a soft sizzle, then a splash. In the moment that I saw the iron spike glowing with heat, I felt more terror than ever in my life before that; even liquid nitrogen hadn't petrified me at this level. While it couldn't melt through me, this would certainly leave a mark. Even my heat tolerance didn't extend that far.

"Do I spread the pain, or do I concentrate it?"

"Either works. Just kill me already."

Caphriel shrugged and stepped forward until she was standing just in front of me. The iron dipped dangerously close to my face, then to my left arm, and either would have been sufficiently painful but she cackled and brought the metal down sharply onto my right arm instead. There was a crack as, simultaneously, the bone snapped and my skin reacted to the intensity of the heat.

"Eat this, you worm," she hissed in my ear.

I crumbled with an inhumane shriek, deep crimson cracking my vision and sparks dancing at the corners of my eyes. When I mustered the courage to turn my gaze to my wound, puffy pink welts rose where the iron had burned me, and any areas that the nitrogen from the day before had touched me were an ashy gray. It felt as though at any minute my right arm would just crack off, and some part of me wanted it to happen. I couldn't move, being chained to the wall, and even the chains had built up heat from the surrounding atmosphere. I very much wished I had the strength to rip myself away from the wall, then immediately rip my arm off.

"It seems condensing the pain provides much more reaction that I expected."

"You're mad."

I thought I imagined it, but I heard a soft sob from Caphriel. Seconds later, I knew I had imagined it because I felt a whip sting my lower abdomen. The next hit nicked me in the arm, eliciting another cry from me.

"How do you want your death now, princess?"

"I'm not a princess. And I want it bad."

Through gritted teeth, I endured just a few more whiplashes before I couldn't take it anymore. My shoulder sent ripples of pain coursing through the rest of my body, and my vision periodically went black for seconds at a time. Soon enough, I gave up fighting and faded from consciousness.

When I awoke, I didn't even bother opening my eyes. For all I knew, it had only been a couple hours and it was still the same day. I heard Caphriel quietly breathing, almost as if she was asleep, and I sighed to myself. This was a tiring existence. I had nothing to look forward to, nothing to dread. Everything was spontaneous and nothing was spontaneous. There was no telling what I would feel if I dared move my shoulder. My breath came in gasps and short coughs, an acute stab to every nerve in my body.