(Adelaide)
“Never,” she hissed. “Never.”
Her whole body shook. Something glinted at the far side of the room — tall, dark, framed by heavy curtains. A door. Or something like one.
She stumbled toward it, hope burning through her exhaustion. She shoved the curtains aside—A balcony.
A view of Hell stretching endlessly below, glowing rivers and jagged mountains and swarms of distant shadows. The sky was a roiling throat of smoke and ember, churning slowly like a living storm that had never once known blue.
Freedom. She grabbed the handle and pulled. It didn’t budge. She pulled harder. Put her whole weight against it. Nothing. She slammed her shoulder into it. Pain shot down her arm, bright and sharp, and the iron didn’t even tremble. The door didn’t even shake.
She screamed, a raw, furi
