1 The force of the blow shot me out of the circle. My body crashed into the concrete wall, three ribs broken this time. Blood trickled down the back of my neck, tickling my skin, my head wound closing quickly. Instead of standing, I leaned back and rested my shoulders against the cool wall. My patience had evaporated a long time ago. It had been five days and I’d had enough. “Get up and do it again,” a commanding voice ordered me for the tenth time that morning. I spread my arms wide. “What’s the point? I already told you I don’t care if the circle holds me. All I need to do is get down there and back. I don’t see why this is still an issue.” “And I’ve already told you that the circle is the only protection you’re going to have in the Underworld.” Tally’s neatly clipped nails drummed along her hips. Her long frosty-blonde hair was tied back in a low ponytail, a military fatigue cap pulled tightly down around her eyes. She was clad in black, right down to her Nike cross-trainers. How could someone so small still look tough in yoga pants and tennis shoes? “When you get yourself into trouble—which by the way is a for sure rather than a maybe—the circle will be the only safe place you’ll have in Hell. And in case you’ve