Stone, rough under her back. Appalling heat. Acrid smoke stung, watering her eyes. Flickering firelight dazzled her, and a horrid stink turned her stomach. Coughing, she started to rise. But chains yanked her wrists and ankles tight. Her heart skittered, and she looked down. Chained to a slab by rusty manacles. Crimson staining her clothes. Rusted iron walls, splashed with blood, looming into the distance where a huge fire burned in a vast red-hot pit. Angry red flames leapt, and evil shadows danced like ghouls. And over her leaned a monster shaped like a man. Lank white ringlets, streaked dark with ash. Sullen red eyes. Plump cheeks, wobbly jowls, sallow unhealthy skin and a muscle-run-to-fat body in a garish white suit. Gina inhaled his rank stink, unwashed flesh and rotting food, and gagged. The demon prince of gluttony, in its human form. She was in hell. Literally. Instinctively, she strained for her magic, but Luka's betrayal ached fresh in her heart, and doubt wracked her soul. Her bloodstone sputtered, and its light died.
