reinforced everything. How, she didn’t know. The prison wassupposedly bound to Tartarus, the Greek god of Confinement who’donce kept guard over the Titans, and when he’d begun to weakenfor no apparent reason, the realm had weakened, as well. Everythingin it became structurally unsound. But now, Tartarus was missing. TheTitans didn’t have him and no one knew where he was. There wasno reason the realm should be as strong as it was in his absence. Thewalls and floor were comprised of godly stone, something only specialgodly tools-tools she didn’t have-could break through, and yet,even without Tartarus’s presence, there was not a crack insight. The thick silver bars that allowed a glimpse of the guard’sstation below had been constructed by Hephaistos, and only Hephaistoscould melt such a metal. Unfortunately, he resided somewhere else. Aswith Tartarus, no one knew where.

Still,without Tartarus, she should have been able to bend that metal. Shecouldn’t; she’d already tried.

“Couldyou settle the hell down?” Erebos grumbled from one of thecots. From his dark hair to his dark skin, from his handsome featuresto his strong body, he was the picture of unhappy male, all of thatunhappiness pointed at her. “We’re trying to plan anescape here.” They were always planning an escape.

“Besides,”he continued, “your ugly face is giving me a headache.”

“Gosuck yourself,” she replied.

Thoughshe’d been the one to hurt him all those centuries ago–unintentionally –he’d repaid her a thousand times over.Purposefully. Not emotionally, but physically. He liked nothingbetter than to “accidentally” trip her, bump into her andsend her flying, as well as to eat what little portion of food wasmeant for her before she could fight her way to the front of theline, starving her. If she hadn’t been wearing the collar, henever would have been able to do those things. She would have been