Page 28 of Hell Hath No Fury (Tear Down Heaven #4)
“They did change,” Bex said, keeping an eye on the shadows where she’d last seen Nemini.
“But they didn’t die. The whole tribe is locked up below us.
That’s why the Lowest Hell is so bad. Gilgamesh used the vortex of fear and suffering caused by the loss of the pride demons’ names to create a prison no one could escape from.
He’s also collecting sin with their unconscious bodies because he’s a greedy asshole who never met a demon he couldn’t exploit.
There’s no bottom to his behavior, and I got so mad about that that this happened. ”
She raised her left hand triumphantly. When no one reacted, she explained, “It’s glowing.”
“Is it?” Lys asked, squinting against the light of Desh’s small lantern.
“It’s a lot harder to see when it’s not pitch-black,” Bex admitted.
“But it’s definitely there.” She looked at her barely-glowing fingers with a grin.
“You know what this means, right? My fire’s not entirely gone!
Even without my name, I’ve still got a few embers left.
That’s how I convinced the panicked pride demons to let me through and it’s how we’re going to get everyone else out as well. ”
“How?” Iggs asked nervously. “I mean, it’s not exactly a bonfire.”
“It’s not,” Bex agreed, lowering her hand.
“But this light still lets me navigate the Lowest Hells without getting sucked in. So long as I can do that, we can win, because Desh was right. There is an army down there. Banishments to the Lowest Hell must drop everyone in the same place, because I saw a huge pile of demons. If even half of them want to fight, we should have a distraction big enough to empty Heaven itself.” She turned back to Iggs.
“How many guns are in that bag Felix gave you?”
“Enough to cause the guards upstairs a major issue,” Iggs said proudly, patting the ancient knapsack he hadn’t let out of his sight since they arrived.
“Great,” Bex said. “Start unloading. Kirok, you get the rope and be ready to pull me up. How many demons do you think you can lift at once?”
“Depends on the demon,” the general said, furrowing his bronze eyebrows. “I’d say no more than three Iggs-sized individuals at a time to avoid exhaustion.”
“I can manage that,” Bex said as she rechecked the knot around her waist. “Three tugs will be the signal to reel in. I’m going to be walking around down there, so make sure you give me plenty of—”
She cut off when Trinaeous, who’d been lying as still as a fallen statue since he came out, suddenly arched off the tunnel’s wet floor like he’d been electrocuted.
He rolled onto his side next, wrapping his scrawny little arms—which must not have regenerated at all during his time in the Lowest Hells—around his huge body with a sob.
“That’s normal,” Desh assured them before Bex could say a word. “Like I said, coming back is a shock. Also, most demons don’t get the big banish under happy circumstances. Put those two together and you’ve got a lot of issues to work through.”
He reached out to pat the war demon’s shaking shoulder. “He’ll be better once he’s had his cry. I’ll explain the situation to him when he’s ready. You go back down there and get us more soldiers.”
Bex nodded and walked to the edge of the hole where General Kirokaltos was standing ready with the other end of the rope.
Iggs had already moved farther down the tunnel and was covering the ground in weapons from Solomon’s Armory while Lys organized them into rows.
It was everything Bex could’ve asked from her demons, but there was still one matter she hadn’t addressed yet.
Motioning for Kirok to wait, Bex turned away from the hole again and walked several feet back down the tunnel to the shadow where she’d last seen Nemini.
To her surprise, the void demon was visible again.
She was crouched beside Boston, holding up a battery-powered camping lantern Bex remembered Adrian using a few times so that the cat could see the circle he was making out of individual fir needles on the tunnel floor.
“Hey,” Bex said as she crouched beside her. “Told you I’d come back.”
“I’m glad to have been proven wrong,” Nemini replied in her usual monotone, and then she sighed. “I’m sorry for what I said before.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Bex said, watching Boston as he painstakingly nudged a needle into place with the tip of his claw.
“I understand now why this place freaks you out so much, though I still don’t get why you thought I’d think less of you.
If anything, I’m even more impressed that you managed to land on your feet while the rest of your people kept falling. ”
“That’s nothing to be proud of,” Nemini muttered. “I was saved because you found me, but nothing can save them.”
“I will,” Bex promised, clenching her barely-glowing fist. “I know I told everyone to stay on mission, but I can’t ignore this. I don’t know how to fix what Gilgamesh broke yet, but I swear to you, Nemini, I’m going to find a way to save your people before we leave the Hells.”
“I know you’ll try,” Nemini said. “You always try. That’s why I chose to stay with you.” She looked down at the pile of deep-green needles Boston had made at her feet. “You’re the sort of queen I always wished Pride could be.”
Bex wasn’t sure how to interpret that, but she didn’t know how to interpret most of what Nemini said.
Her void demon didn’t sound upset anymore, at least, so Bex left her to it, squeezing her shoulder one last time before walking back over to rejoin the group by the hole where Iggs was breathlessly describing what sort of badass demon he thought Bex should bring up next.