Page 51 of Hell Hath No Fury (Tear Down Heaven #4)
That should’ve been all there was to it. The fire of life was defined by its all-powerful drive to spread and grow. It should have raged into her hand like a grass fire entering a fresh dry field, but something was pushing it back. When Adrian gave the thing a poke, he realized it was quintessence.
Thick, concentrated quintessence had been pumped into every one of the hand’s blood vessels and left to solidify there like cement.
Adrian probably should’ve expected something like that in hindsight, but the extent of the intrusion was still a shock.
His father’s magic had invaded every cell, conquering the hand the same way he’d conquered Paradise.
Pulling it all out again would require more sorcerous skill than Adrian possessed, but he hadn’t come to this as a sorcerer.
He was here as a witch of the Great Forest, and the Blackwood knew better than any that the best way to rejuvenate a rotten forest was to burn it.
The moment he realized what he had to do, Adrian reached back down the connection to Bex’s fire, but not to grab another pinch.
This time, he let the whole thing go, turning himself once again into a conduit for her flames.
They seared through him just like they had on the day he’d put her in the bonfire his forest had built, but this time Adrian knew what to expect.
This time, he was ready, grabbing the flames as fast as they came in and shoving them down his arms into the hand he was clutching between his fists.
The result was just as dramatic now as it had been the first time.
The moment he sent the fire into it, Bex’s severed hand burst into flames.
The flare was so bright that even Bex looked away, but as the quintessence saturating its flesh began to char and boil away, the hand itself lost its dead, passive limpness and began to twitch.
Bex gasped at the same time. Her eyes—which were glowing like torches again, thanks to her rekindled fire—grew huge as her flaming hand ripped out of Adrian’s grasp and shoved itself back onto her wrist of its own accord.
The wound closed up a second later, the scar burning off her wrist like a piece of string in a furnace.
When the flames finally died back down, there was no sign that she’d ever been injured in the first place. Her hand looked just like it always had, beautiful and strong as Bex clenched it into a fist.
“Thank you,” she whispered, clutching her restored fingers to her chest with a ragged breath. “ Thank you. ”
“You’re welcome,” Adrian whispered back, pulling her against him with zero guilt this time.
Not that healing her hand made up for letting Gilgamesh play him, but it was so nice to be part of a team again.
Finally, finally , Adrian felt like he was back on the right track, which was almost as amazing as the feeling of Bex’s warm body resting against his chest.
He really hadn’t paid enough attention to that.
A critical lapse for a Witch of the Present, and one Adrian was overjoyed to remedy.
He’d just given himself over to the sheer pleasure that was the smell of Bex’s hair in his nose and the feeling of her fire-warmed body seeping through his clothing when he heard something beep.
“Sorry,” Bex said, breaking away from him slowly, but still much faster than Adrian preferred, to press a finger against the familiar-looking device wedged into her left ear.
“I’m here.”
The reply was too quiet for Adrian to hear who it was, but the fact that Bex could still talk to anyone was incredible.
He’d been the first to point out that the Bonfire of Wrath only burned things she was mad at, but it still seemed unbelievable that the comm’s black plastic hadn’t melted from all the heat earlier.
Same for Bex’s clothes, which also looked completely untouched by the raging inferno.
She was even wearing her signature leather jacket, a beautifully nostalgic touch that almost made him choke up.
Adrian was still getting the feeling under control when Bex’s face lit up in an excited smile.
“Are you sure?”
Adrian still couldn’t hear the other person’s reply, but it must have been good because Bex’s smile widened into a beaming grin.
“That’s fantastic! Stay right there. We’re on our way.”
“Who was that?” he asked when she let go of the comm button.
“Iggs,” Bex replied as she whirled and started running for the stairs. “He’s found our wrath demons!”
Adrian hadn’t known they were missing, but he didn’t waste Bex’s time with questions.
He just ran after her toward the distant column of the warlocks’ white security tower.
He was struggling to move his feet through the calf-deep water when Bex suddenly turned back around.
Adrian thought there must have been something she’d forgotten to tell him, but then he realized Bex wasn’t looking at him.
Her glowing eyes were fixed on the silent crowd standing all around them.
Adrian went still. He’d been so focused on Bex, he’d completely forgotten they were surrounded by an audience of chained demons.
In his defense, it was so dark and smoky down here that he could scarcely see.
The demons were just shadows crouching in the filthy water that covered the floor of this place, watching in eerie, nervous silence.
Not watching him . Even after Boston caught up to Adrian on Bran’s broomstick, the three of them might as well not have existed.
Every eye in the Hells was locked on Bex.
Then, like a signal he couldn’t hear had just been given, every single one of the demons bowed.
The wave of lowering heads spread through the giant cavern like a ripple.
Even for an outsider like Adrian, it was a silent, profound gesture, but the one who got hit hardest was Bex.
“I know,” she told them in a shaking voice that sounded so much smaller than the queenly voice he remembered.
“I know what he did to you, but I’m here now, and I promise it’s almost over.
My demons are in the tower getting the keys to unlock your shackles as we speak.
Just wait a little longer, and I swear on Ishtar’s sacred name, you will be free. ”
Adrian smiled, waiting for the cheers of joy, but no one in the cavern said a word.
He didn’t know if that was because they didn’t believe her or if the demons here were simply too beaten down to know what hope was anymore, but all Bex got back were silent stares.
She met them dead-on, holding her hornless head high.
“You will be free,” she said again in a voice that shook with fury. “Ishtar’s Bonfire of Wrath is going to burn everything Gilgamesh has built to the ground. This fire was just the start. There’s a lot more coming, so hold tight. My people will be coming with the keys soon.”
Again, there was no answer, but Bex didn’t seem to mind this time.
She just dipped her head to the silent crowd and started marching back toward the central tower again as fast as her legs would carry her.
She was so fast that Adrian was forced to get on his broom to keep pace, waving for Boston to make room as he hauled himself onto Bran’s back and flew after her.
“Are we really doing that?” he asked quietly when he caught up. “Are you actually here to free everyone and burn Heaven to the ground?”
“That wasn’t the original plan,” she admitted, her face set in a determined scowl as she sprinted across the flooded floor filled with silently watching demons.
“In hindsight, though, it was probably inevitable. I should’ve known there’d be no way I could enter the Hells and not feel the need to tear it all down, so yeah. We’re doing this.”
“I’m glad,” Adrian told her with a smile. “What’s our strategy?”
“I have no idea,” Bex confessed. “I’m kind of winging it at the moment, but I do have something for you.” She dug her newly-reattached right hand into the inside pocket of her bomber jacket. “Your aunt asked me to give this to you when I found you.”
Adrian’s stomach dropped several inches. “Which aunt?”
“The one who looks like a teenager.”
That was a very small relief. Considering how long his Aunt Lydia held grudges, anything she sent would probably come with sharp teeth and a taste for Adrian’s bones.
Aunt Muriel’s witchcraft was more abstract, though that didn’t make it any less lethal.
As Adrian had just been freshly reminded with the Morrigan incident, the Witch of the Future’s plots were only good if you could survive them.
The object in Bex’s hand didn’t look dangerous, though.
It didn’t even feel magical when he picked it up, causing Adrian’s healthy paranoia to collapse into befuddlement.
“I don’t understand,” he said, holding up what appeared to be a completely normal acorn. “What’s this for?”
“I was hoping you could tell me,” Bex replied, resuming her breakneck pace toward the tower. “Your aunt was kind of light on details.”
“She always is,” Adrian muttered, turning the acorn over in his fingers. “Considering how much is at stake, you’d think she’d be a little clearer, but I guess I’ll figure it out when the time comes.”
“That is the way of the Witch of the Future,” Boston agreed as he climbed up the back of Adrian’s coat to resume his favorite perch on his witch’s shoulder. “Perhaps you’re supposed to perform a divination to determine its use?”
Adrian winced. “I think I’d rather be surprised. Divination takes time and materials we don’t have, and my readings always turn out wrong anyway.” He tucked the acorn into his coat’s quick-draw chest pocket. “Let’s just play things as they come.”
“Spoken like a true Witch of the Present,” Boston said, patting Adrian on the cheek with his paw as Bran flew them swiftly over the water, following close behind Bex as she ran for the hole the princess’s tackle had knocked through the side of the warlocks’ white tower.