Hades
"But Angela—"
"Angela was thrown there to die," Cain said. "But it rained. And somehow—somehow—she survived. She crawled out of that pit and walked. Kept walking even as her body continued to transform. And then there was a mudslide. It swept her into the tunnels before they were sealed."
I couldn't speak.
"She walked for weeks," Cain said. "Slowly changing. But without the daily experiments, without being prodded and cut open and violated every single day, she managed to hold on to herself. Hold on to her humanity. Just barely. Until the smugglers found her and brought her to me."
He paused, his throat working.
"I found her... interesting," he said softly. "A woman with dark fingers, bleeding sap, vines growing from her scalp like hair. She was the most unique person I'd ever seen. We became friends. And then—" He stopped, his voice catching. "Somehow, I started to fall in love with her."
My chest ached.
