Page 10 of Hell Hath No Fury (Tear Down Heaven #4)

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B EX HAD NEVER BEEN to the Hells in this lifetime.

She was pretty sure she’d never been in any lifetime because Gilgamesh had made them after he’d used Anu’s crown to banish her from Paradise.

Drox would’ve been able to tell her for certain, but for once, Bex was glad to be alone in her head.

She didn’t want anyone to know that she was actually kind of excited to finally see the place she’d fought against all her lives.

She didn’t want to insult Lys by looking eager, either, so Bex kept her face locked in a furious scowl throughout the entire banishment, which did feel uncomfortably like being dragged.

It reminded her of the force that had pulled her out of Heaven after Enki’s death, except this time, instead of falling with a weight tied to her feet, Bex felt like she was being sucked down a drain.

They all were. She could feel her demons trembling around her as an inescapable force pulled them faster and faster through a yawning emptiness Bex recognized as the gap between worlds.

Gilgamesh must have put his city back in its original position, because the journey was much longer than when she and Adrian had crossed it on his tree.

She was starting to worry about oxygen when the sucking pressure suddenly spat them out.

The first thing Bex checked when they landed was her feet.

They’d been planning this assault since the first day they’d arrived in the Blackwood, but while everyone else seemed confident that Anu’s banishment was tied to the name she’d lost when War tore off her horns, Bex had had her doubts.

She definitely didn’t feel like Rebexa anymore with no fire, no sword, and no ability to even touch her empty forehead without brushing the void that still lurked like a pit trap deep inside her.

Still, thinking something probably wouldn’t happen wasn’t the same as actually being safe.

She’d helped plan every step of this assault, but Bex hadn’t known for certain that she wasn’t going to arrive in the Hells and fall straight back down to Earth until her new boots hit the ground and it didn’t crumble.

It took three solid breaths before the relief that she wasn’t falling subsided enough for Bex to actually raise her head and look around. When she finally managed it, what she saw was not what she’d imagined.

Humans always described Hell as a flaming pit that reeked of sulfur, but the place they’d landed on looked more like a mountain cliff.

The ground that hadn’t broken beneath her combat boots was actually a wide stone ledge that looked over—not the terrifying void she’d ridden Adrian’s tree through or the infinitely dark riverbanks where Nemini had caught her after she’d fallen off the walls—but a very high-up version of the sight she’d seen when she’d first stepped onto the golden chain that used to tie the Seattle Anchor to Heaven.

It was beautiful. Thinking that made her feel like a traitor, but there was no denying it.

Over the edge of the cliff where they’d landed was a deep blue sea dotted with hundreds of tiny green islands, each with a glittering golden chain that ran up into the air like a wire.

But while those were obviously the Anchors, Bex couldn’t see where they attached.

All the golden chains went past their position to vanish over the slope above them, which curved outward from where they were standing like a giant overhang.

The longer she stared at it, the more Bex felt that wasn’t right.

The sweep of rock above their heads that blocked the sky wasn’t an overhang or a cliff or some kind of rock formation.

The entire mountain they were standing on was upside down, with the broad base above their heads and peak way down below.

The flat top—or bottom—must be the plain that Heaven sat on, which explained why all the chains went up there.

But while she could see all the bridges to Heaven hanging above her like glittering golden contrails against the pale-blue sky, the Rivers of Death that usually flowed below them were nowhere to be seen.

She was still looking for them when her ears picked up the distant sound of roaring water.

Following the sound took Bex closer to the cliff edge. Much closer than Iggs was comfortable with, given how he was hovering, but it worked. The moment her boots touched the lip of the stone ledge they were standing on, Bex saw the Rivers of Death glittering in the distance below.

Like everything else up here, they looked dazzling beautiful through the rosy lens of Gilgamesh’s Paradise.

All that bright-blue water shining with souls was nothing at all like the terrifying freezing reality she’d fallen into, but they did still follow the chains.

Or, rather, the chains followed them, rising together from the glittering ocean dotted with the circular islands of the Anchors far below.

They climbed most of the distance as a pair but split apart just before they reached the downward-pointing peak of the upside-down mountain.

As Bex had already noticed, the golden chains kept going up toward Heaven, but the rivers veered off just before they reached Heaven to pour into a dark hole near the top of the upside-down mountain like a waterfall in reverse.

It hurt her brain to watch. Water was not supposed to move that way.

No one must’ve told the rivers that, though, because they were gushing like floodwater in a thunderstorm.

She was leaning farther out to see if she could get a look inside the cave all that magical water was vanishing into when Lys grabbed her shoulder.

“Could you please step away from the cliff edge?” they whispered, using their wings as a counterbalance to pull Bex back. “You’re going to make Iggs hyperventilate.”

Bex nodded and stepped away from the ledge at once.

“How real is all of this?” she asked, waving her hand at the dazzling archipelago of Anchors sparkling in the blinding white light that came from no sun she could see.

“It feels like there’s actual rock under my feet, but I know the Rivers of Death don’t look like that, so is this all just an illusion? ”

“No idea,” Lys said as they let go of Bex’s shoulder.

“It’s looked like this for as long as I’ve been alive, but I know the mountain we’re standing on isn’t actually wide enough to hold all Nine Hells, and the flat area up top definitely isn’t big enough to hold the entire White City plus the remains of the Riverlands. ”

“So it’s fake,” Bex concluded.

Lys shrugged. “I don’t know if that matters when it comes to Gilgamesh. Limbo also makes no sense, but it was still real enough to imprison an entire race of demons.”

“I prefer to think of what we’re seeing as an interpretation,” Kirok offered from where he was standing next to Iggs far away from the cliff edge.

“Gilgamesh rules it now, but this realm was originally created by and for the gods. It was never meant to make sense to mortal minds. That said, while the scale might not be accurate, most of the physical landmarks are as they appear. The Rivers of Death really do flow in through the bottom of the Hells, and Heaven truly is above us, which is why the chains keep going up.”

Bex lifted her eyes hopefully to the glittering chains passing over their heads, which looked no thicker than power lines even though she knew they were actually big enough to drive a truck down. “Do you think we could jump up there and grab one for a straight line into Heaven?”

“I tried that once, actually,” Lys said with a laugh.

“But either the chains are a lot farther away than they look or they’re not actually here at all, because the one time I said ‘screw it’ after a banishment and tried to fly up to them, my wings got so exhausted that I almost fell out of the sky before I even got close. ”

Bex scowled. She’d really been hoping for a shortcut, but Lys was the only one of them who could fly aside from Adrian’s broom.

If they couldn’t reach the chains, then operation “Stairway to Heaven” was out.

That was probably a good thing since walking up a golden bridge into the heart of Gilgamesh’s city while the Anchors were still on lockdown sounded even more dangerous than their actual plan of sneaking into the Hells.

And speaking of plans, since they were currently standing on the barren side of a dark stone mountain with no threat in sight, Bex decided it was a good time to make sure all their new additions were up to speed on exactly what it was they were about to attempt.

“Okay, everyone, listen up,” she said, holding her hands over her head.

“We got ourselves banished to the Hells for three objectives. One, retrieve my hand with my ring so that Drox and I can get back to cutting slave bands and freeing demons. Two, rescue Adrian and return him to his coven. And three, find my horns so I can get my powers back.”

“Four, kick butt and take names!” Iggs added, reaching back to pat the knapsack of endless weapons that Felix had given them. “It’s time Heaven remembered we’re the rightful people of Paradise.”

“I’m sure you’ll get plenty of chances for that,” Bex promised, pulling the box of comms out of her backpack and handing it to Lys so they could start passing out the sleek black earbuds.

“Just don’t forget that this is an intrusion and retrieval mission.

I want to smash the Hells as much as the rest of you, but if we draw too much heat and get ourselves killed, it’s over.

I need you all to keep a cool head and stay on target. Got it?”

“Yes, my queen,” replied everyone except Boston, who was busy digging through his cat pack.