Page 33 of Hell Hath No Fury (Tear Down Heaven #4)

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B EX HAD LOST COUNT of how many demons she’d hauled out of the Lowest Hells, but it had to be over a hundred.

After the first few successful trips, she’d untied the rope from her own waist and started looping the passed-out figures together like a string of onions.

It was undignified, but it worked. Between her speed and General Kirok’s hauling capacity, they were a demon-lifting machine.

In no time at all, their section of the Founders’ Tunnels was packed with demons of every sort.

Like Trinaeous, most came out sobbing or screaming, but as Desh predicted, they got themselves back together in short order.

Bex was sure there was a lot of trauma suppression going on, but any demon disobedient enough to get themselves damned to the Lowest Hell was a fighter, or at least ready to get some revenge.

At least, that was Bex’s understanding of what was going on.

She only came up from the Lowest Hell when she needed a breather from the crushing panic.

It was never as bad as the first time, but while knowing there was at least one queen still alive and trying to help had gotten the pride demons to unclench a little, nothing was actually fixed yet.

They were still falling through an endless void, and while the banked-ember glow of Bex’s hand made it possible to move around, she could only stand being down there for about fifteen minutes at a time before their fear grabbed her again and she started falling with them.

Every time it happened was a brush with disaster.

Bex was all too aware that she was also nameless.

If she forgot her purpose even for a second, the desperately grasping pride demons could easily drag her back down the hole that still existed inside her own soul, only this time Nemini wouldn’t be there to help.

If she didn’t keep going down, though, the demons she could rescue would stay trapped in the Lowest Hells forever and their plan would fall through.

That made the risk worth it in Bex’s mind, but she still kept her descents limited.

She’d given her phone to Kirok so he could tug the rope at fifteen-minute intervals to signal when it was time for her to come back up.

By alternating short dives with breaks to eat and recover, Bex was able to fill the tunnel with rescued demons without losing her soul.

She’d just gotten the signal that her fifteen minutes were up yet again when her faintly glowing fingers closed around a body that didn’t have horns.

Bex stopped short. She’d been grabbing demons off the top of the pile both because they were easier to reach and because newer banishment victims were more likely to speak modern languages and understand how to use Iggs’s guns.

The hornless body was on that same top layer, but unlike the demons in work jeans, body armor, and mass-produced suits that Bex had been pulling out for the last hour and a half, this man’s clothes were extremely old-fashioned.

They reminded her of the handmade stuff Adrian wore, only in white silk instead of black-dyed linen.

She was wondering if the poor demon had been in his pajamas when his warlock chopped off his horns and damned him to the bottom of the Hells when she felt the darkness start to wrap around her head again.

That was her hard limit. Without wasting another second, Bex tossed the hornless body she’d been examining under her arm and ran back to the rope dangling behind her.

Three hard tugs got them both lifted into the air, and not a second too soon.

By the time they made it through the hole in the ceiling, Bex could barely see Lys’s flashlight through the darkness swimming across her vision.

“I’ve got you,” Lys said as they grabbed Bex by the waist and hauled her onto the tunnel’s damp stone floor. “You still with us?”

Bex nodded, too overwhelmed to speak. She had to stop cutting it so close.

Just because she’d figured out how to skate the edge didn’t mean the Lowest Hells were safe.

If she screwed this up, she’d be lost and her demons would be trapped down here.

It was totally unacceptable behavior from someone still claiming to be a queen.

Bex was still beating herself up about it when she realized the entire tunnel had gone quiet.

“What in the Hells is that?” said Iggs, breaking the silence at last.

Bex could only blink in reply. She was still lying on the floor of the tunnel where Lys had laid her, but the figure lying beside her—the one she’d hauled up in a hurry when she’d realized she was out of time— wasn’t a demon in human form who’d been banished in his pajamas like she’d assumed.

He was actually human, and one Bex recognized.

His face was even more haggard than the last time she’d seen it, and he was dressed in dirty white silk instead of golden armor, but there was no mistaking him.

That was the son of Gilgamesh she’d fought on the chain when they’d freed the Seattle Anchor, the one who’d claimed to be in love with his sword, the Prince of Sorrow.

Bex scrambled away with a gasp. Her booted foot hit the prince’s body in the process, almost knocking him back down the hole before Iggs grabbed him.

The save must have been pure reflex because Iggs tossed the prince away again a second later, throwing him back to the ground with a curse.

Lys had their sin-iron dagger out by that point and was about to slit the unconscious man’s throat when Bex said, “Wait.”

Lys stopped with a confused look. Totally understandable since this was the prince who’d stabbed them in the heart with that exact weapon.

For once in her life, though, Bex wasn’t ready to slaughter a son of Gilgamesh outright.

He might be the child of their hated enemy, but so was Adrian, which threw a wrench in Bex’s long-held belief that all princes were inherently evil.

If a son of Gilgamesh could turn out like her witch, then maybe this one could be reasoned with, especially considering where she’d found him.

If any prince was going to be open to the idea of betraying his father, it would be the one Gilgamesh had thrown away.

That was Bex’s hope at least, but she kept her hand on the hilt of her explosive short sword as the prince began to stir.

The void left by the Queen of Pride’s loss must not have had as strong a hold over human minds because he came out of it much more quickly than the demons she’d rescued.

There was no screaming or sobbing, either.

The prince just opened his mirrored eyes with a sharp breath, staring up in confusion at the circle of demons standing over him before his gaze finally landed on Bex.

“It’s you.”

The words sounded more surprised than malicious, but Lys had never been one to give the benefit of the doubt. The prince’s mouth had barely finished moving before they were behind him with their sin-iron knife pressed into his neck.

“I surrender!” the prince cried, throwing up his grimy hands at once. “Please, Queen of Wrath, hear me out! I can help you!”

Bex didn’t buy that for a second, but she did hold up her hand to stop Lys before they added a new window to his windpipe.

“Why should I believe you?” she asked as the lust demon grudgingly relaxed their blade. “The last time I saw you, you were trying to kill me.”

“Because that was my order,” the prince explained as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. “I was only doing as my brother commanded, but I bear you no personal grudge.” He bowed his head low. “Please, great queen, hear me out.”

Bex sighed and waved for him to go ahead.

“My name is Leander,” the bowing prince said solemnly, “and I was betrayed. I only fought you because my brother promised to return my beloved to me if I won, but when I failed at the Anchor, Gilgamesh showed no mercy. He stole my princess and cast me into the deepest Hells. He said he’d be back in a few centuries when I’d reevaluated my priorities, but I never will. ”

He lifted his head a fraction to look at Bex with furiously gleaming eyes. “I will never serve that man again. He’s the one who hurt my Mara in the first—”

“ Your Mara?” Bex snarled, baring her teeth. “ My sister is a daughter of Ishtar that your father kidnapped and brainwashed!”

“I know,” Prince Leander said, lowering his head again as his fingers curled into fists against the stone.

“I’ve always known my father’s crimes, but I wasn’t strong enough to defy him by myself.

I thought I could appease him and win her freedom that way, but Gilgamesh cares for nothing but his own power.

He’ll never let any of us go, but you are Mara’s sister.

Even when she was trapped inside a prison of bone and sorcery, you recognized her and tried to save her.

That’s all I’ve ever wanted, so please, Queen of Wrath, let me help you! ”

He bowed deeper at the end, but Bex wasn’t convinced. “I understand hating Gilgamesh, but what about your home? If you help us, you’ll be turning against Heaven as well, because when we bring back Paradise, we’re not leaving a single stone of this place intact.”

“That white necropolis has never been my home,” Leander insisted as he straightened back up into a sitting position. “Mara and I always planned to escape to Earth together when the war was over and Gilgamesh stopped paying such close attention to his princesses.”

Bex scowled. “You mean after you helped him defeat me.”

“It was the only end we knew how to reach,” Leander explained apologetically. “We never wanted to hurt you. You were the only sister Mara remembered fondly, but we both knew there was no way for us to be together in peace so long as you were leading the rebellion against Heaven.”