Page 34 of Hell Hath No Fury (Tear Down Heaven #4)

“Well, that’s certainly a load off my mind,” Bex grumbled, rising to her feet. “But I’m not giving you my sister. If she’s the price of your help, you can go back into that pit.”

“ No! ” Leander cried, lurching forward to grab her boots. “Please don’t misunderstand! I’m not asking you to give me your sister like a prize. All I want is a chance to see her. The real Mara, not my father’s doll.”

His mirrored eyes flashed as he looked around the tunnel packed with demons.

“You’re here to destroy the Hells, right?

I can help you! I was the prince of this place for centuries.

I know everything there is to know about its security, secret passages, checkpoints, whatever you need.

I’ll help you break into Heaven as well, if that’s your intent, and all I ask in return is that you free my Mara.

Give me hope that I’ll finally be able to meet her face-to-true-face, and I swear, I’ll do anything you ask! ”

Lys had managed to pry the prince’s fingers off Bex’s boots by the time this speech was over, but when they started to shove him onto his back, Bex shook her head and crouched down beside him instead.

“You would go that far?” she asked. “Betray your own family?”

“Of course,” Leander replied, his gaunt face collapsing into a deep scowl.

“I love your sister, and I hate my father. All his sons do. Even Crown Prince Alexander only serves because the alternative is so much worse. I would have betrayed him and escaped centuries ago, but we couldn’t leave so long as he had control over Mara’s idol. ”

Bex frowned. “Idol?”

“The white bodies he makes to hold the demon queen’s hands,” the prince explained.

“Gilgamesh carved obedience into them with every tap of his chisel. Mara held onto her truth better than the rest of her sisters, but all the princesses were warped by the process in one way or another. That’s why they act so terribly, but Gilgamesh’s bone idols were only made to control their sword hands.

The rest of their bodies are still alive, just like yours. ”

He looked pointedly at the stump on the end of Bex’s right arm before she grabbed him by his silken collar.

“Where are they?” she growled.

“I don’t know,” Leander said, lowering his eyes.

“Mara and I were trying to discover that when we got caught the first time. Father locked her in the Crown Prince’s tower as punishment and sentenced me to be the overseer of the Hells.

I did that job flawlessly for centuries in the hope of one day seeing her again.

Capturing you was supposed to be my chance to prove my loyalty and earn her back, but we both know how that ended. ”

He sighed and looked up at Bex again. “That’s why I want to help you now.

Before Father cast me down here, Alexander, my eldest brother, told me that Mara was being rebuilt and her memories destroyed.

I told Gilgamesh to his face that I would never serve him again if he did that, and he replied that he didn’t care.

He told me he’d already found a new prince, one with the potential to be even better at sorcery than I was, which meant my obedience was no longer necessary. ”

Leander clenched his hands to bloodless fists.

“I served that monster for centuries, and he threw me away! Gilgamesh goes on and on about how he’s working for the good of all mankind, but the only good he actually cares about is his own.

Even his grudge against the gods only came about because of the death of his beloved Enkidu, but I don’t need to indulge his grievances anymore.

I’ve found my own great love, and I’ll do whatever it takes to return her to life.

Actual life, not the white mockery my father made.

If that means helping you destroy Heaven, then I’ll carry the torch that burns it to the ground.

I don’t give a damn about the war or the gods or who controls death.

All I want—all I’ve ever wanted—is for Mara to stop crying. ”

“That’s a lot to ask from the Queen of Sorrow,” Bex said, looking up at the dripping ceiling stabbed through with sin-iron bolts. “But we could use an inside man.”

Bex could tell from Lys’s scowl that they were supremely unhappy with that decision. There were others around, though, so they kept their mouth shut. Desh wasn’t nearly so tactful.

“Are you out of your royal mind?” he shouted, shoving his way to Bex through the now very crowded tunnel. “You can’t trust him ! That’s the prince who pulled me out of the Lowest Hells so I could betray you!”

“Because I knew we couldn’t defeat the Bonfire Queen without trickery,” Leander explained, keeping his mirrored eyes on Bex.

“Unlike the rest of Heaven, I’ve always respected her as a dangerous and clever foe.

That’s why I’m so confident in offering my assistance now.

If there’s anyone who can defeat Gilgamesh and free my Mara, it’s you. ”

“Stop calling her yours,” Bex snapped, then she shook her head. “But we’re in no position to turn down help.”

“Are you sure about that?” Iggs asked nervously. “Deception is the Eternal King’s favorite tactic. This whole thing could be a setup.”

“It’s a risk,” Bex acknowledged, keeping her eyes locked on Leander.

“But so’s this whole mission. We all knew we’d be gambling when we came here, but we still jumped in with both feet because risk brings reward.

Trusting him is just another roll of the dice, but it’s a roll I feel comfortable making because if there’s one thing I believe about the Prince of Sorrow, it’s that he loves my sister.

I saw him give up victory against me on the chain to get her help when she was wounded.

I’ve never seen a prince do that for his princess before.

I’m not saying that’s enough to put him on the team, but I am willing to accept his help on two conditions. ”

“Name them,” Prince Leander said.

Bex raised two fingers into the air. “You already offered the first one, which is to be our guide through the Hells. Fortunately, the second condition is going to make that task a lot easier.” She leaned forward with a smirk.

“I want you to use your teleport spell to take me directly to my missing horns. Do that, and I swear I’ll help you get Mara back. ”

Bex would be able to get all her sisters back if she had a pet prince smuggling her into all of Gilgamesh’s secret places. She was already picturing the sweet, sweet justice that would rain down when all of Ishtar’s daughters were reunited, but Leander was shaking his head.

“I can definitely assist you with the first, but the second is impossible,” he said. “Gilgamesh has shut off all teleportation within his domain. I know because I’ve been trying to teleport away from you since I woke up, but I keep hitting a block.”

“Could that just be a you problem?” Lys asked skeptically. “You were banished for being a traitor. Maybe Gilgamesh just locked you out.”

“That’s not how the spell works,” Leander replied, lifting his chin.

“All sorcery functions on an individual basis. So long as I’ve got quintessence in my blood, there’s no spell I can’t cast, including teleportation.

The only thing that could stop me is a block placed over the entire system by Anu’s crown, which sits on Gilgamesh’s head.

” He nodded at Bex. “The shutdown probably triggered when you entered the Hells. Since the Bonfire Queen is Gilgamesh’s last true enemy, he’s commanded every grain of sand in this place to reject you. ”

“It’s not that,” Bex said. “The magic here hasn’t reacted to me since I lost my name. If it did, I wouldn’t be able to stand here.”

“Well, something happened,” Leander insisted with a huff. “Gilgamesh wouldn’t ban teleportation without extremely good reason. Do you know how many stairs are in his palace?”

“I bet it happened when the princess saw us,” Lys said. “There’s no way they just let us escape. We must be under some kind of lockdown.”

“Why would they lock down teleportation in response to us, though?” Bex asked. “I’d think Gilgamesh would want to give his princes more freedom to chase us down, not less.”

“Not when his newest prince is your boyfriend,” Lys said, wiggling their eyebrows suggestively.

Bex’s cheeks heated, but Lys made a good point. If princely teleportation was an option, Adrian would absolutely use it, which was probably why Gilgamesh had taken it off the table. She was still chewing on all the implications of that when Leander spoke again.

“I can’t teleport you to your horns,” he said apologetically, “but I do know where they are. Gilgamesh keeps all the trophies he stole from the gods—including the crowns of Ishtar’s queens—in the vault beyond his throne room.

That’s most likely where your horns are being stored as well.

I can take you right to it, but I’ve never figured out how to open the door. ”

“We’re pretty good at cracking safes,” Bex assured him with a smirk. “And I definitely like the idea of going straight to a vault over searching the entire palace.”

“ If he’s telling the truth,” Lys added.

“I swear I’ve told you all I know,” Leander said, bowing his head again. “I can lead you straight to the treasury door, but getting there will be perilous. Gilgamesh’s throne room is located at the pinnacle of the Highest Heaven. It’s as far from this place as it’s possible to get.”

“We’ll climb that mountain when we reach it,” Bex said, looking over her shoulder at the hole in the floor.

“For now, I’m going back down to get more demons.

If we have to go all the way to the tippy top of Heaven, we’ll need a distraction big enough to empty the entire palace, and the only way to do that is to move in numbers Heaven can’t ignore. ”

“I’ve still got plenty of guns,” Iggs offered. “But are you sure you don’t want to take a break first? You’re looking pretty tired.”