Page 59 of Hell Hath No Fury (Tear Down Heaven #4)

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I T WAS A WEIRD trip back down to the Lowest Hell.

Bex was used to being the center of attention, but as they climbed down the white spiral through the conquered Middle Hells guard tower, every eye was locked on Nemini, which was honestly kind of fantastic.

Bex had spent so long keeping her chin up and putting on a brave face that having someone else to soak up all those expectations for once felt like a vacation.

The only hitch was that all those watching demons seemed to be staring at the Queen of Pride in mortal terror, which wasn’t so great.

Bex wasn’t even sure what they were frightened of.

Other than her new giant horns, Nemini looked the same as she always did.

She was no longer surrounded by shadow snakes—a move Bex had never seen her use before, but didn’t know if that was because the snakes were a returned queen power or simply something Nemini had never felt the need to roll out during the twenty-four years Bex’s current incarnation remembered—and her yellow eyes were barely glowing.

She’d never say so out loud, but Bex didn’t even think the new Nemini looked all that queenly.

She just looked like herself, which was always a little unsettling but nothing to trigger a reaction like this.

You’d think she was coming down the stairs on a chariot drawn by demon-eating hydras from the way the crowd was plastering themselves against the walls.

“I don’t see what everyone’s so worked up about,” Lys muttered from their spot on Adrian’s broom, which the witch was graciously letting them use so the injured demon wouldn’t have to walk. “You’re much more impressive.”

“It’s not a competition,” Bex whispered, keeping her eyes on the crowd of demons, who seriously looked like they were about to jump out the windows to get out of Nemini’s way.

“But this is super weird. Nemini just saved all our bacon. They were cheering for her just a few minutes ago, so why does everybody look like they think she’s about to eat them? ”

“Probably because she’s an unknown,” Lys speculated, rubbing their bandaged shoulder with a wince.

“There’ve been stories about the Queen of Wrath coming to burn down the Hells since Gilgamesh made them, but the Queen of Pride is a new commodity, and the few legends that survive about her aren’t exactly friendly. ”

“But she saved us,” Bex insisted.

“So what?” Lys said. “You’ve saved tons of people, and most of them were scared of you after the fact. I was scared of you at first, because queens are freaking scary. You’re practically gods. It’s intimidating.”

It had taken Bex a lot of work to get the demons in the Anchor to stop flinching when she walked by.

“Nemini’s got it extra hard, too,” Lys went on. “She’s never had a warm personality, and that Medusa hairdo doesn’t exactly scream ‘compassionate ruler.’ Let’s just say I totally get why people are jumpy, though for my part, I’m pissed that she didn’t tell us who she really was earlier.”

“For all I know, she did,” Bex said sadly. “Nemini could’ve told me the truth dozens of times, but I always died and forgot.”

“ I don’t forget,” Lys reminded her, scooting to the edge of the broom raven’s straw wings.

“I understand why she wouldn’t tell you, but I’ve known Nemini since my first Bex kicked down the door and slit my warlock’s throat.

We raised you from a baby together three times .

I thought we were parent trench buddies, but she never even dropped a hint! ”

“Of course I didn’t.”

The sudden interjection made Bex jump. She hadn’t realized Nemini was listening, but when she looked up, the Queen of Pride was staring over her shoulder with somber yellow eyes.

“Telling you the truth would only have led to disappointment for both of us,” she told Lys quietly. “I was never the sort of queen you wanted to serve.”

“You still could’ve said something,” Lys grumbled, crossing their arms. “Though at least this explains why you only followed orders when you felt like it. And speaking of being a team player, can you get the lead out? I understand you’ve got to set a royal pace now or whatever, but we’re still in enemy territory. ”

One of Nemini’s snakes shot Lys a nasty look, but she did start walking faster, which was good enough.

“So what do we call you now?” Iggs asked nervously from where he was bringing up the rear with Adrian. “Do you have an official title or—”

“Nemini will continue to be fine,” Nemini replied.

“I have a name as all queens do, but since Ishtar only gave it to me to force my obedience, I’ve never been fond of it.

” She looked over her shoulder again. “Rebexa named me ‘Nemini’ a thousand years ago. She’s given me many names over the centuries since she always claims she has to call me something, but Nemini is the easiest for modern English speakers to pronounce, so let’s just stick with that. ”

She finished with a smile that made Iggs shudder.

“I think I liked her better when she was deadpan,” he whispered to Adrian. “At least then her snakes didn’t smile with her.”

“I’m more curious as to why she has snakes at all,” Adrian whispered back. “Are they common for pride demons?”

“They’re my sword,” Nemini said without looking back this time. “My divine weapon was shattered at the same time as my horns, but unlike Ishtar’s crown, Enki’s loyal blade continued to follow me even though it was in pieces.”

“Our swords are always loyal,” Bex agreed, glancing at Drox’s quiet ring. “And would the rest of you please knock it off? This is Nemini, not some stranger. If you’ve got a question, just ask. Don’t whisper it behind her back.”

She glared at her demons until they fell silent. When everyone looked properly chastised, Bex resumed descending the stairs with a huff.

“Thank you,” Nemini said.

“Thanks nothing,” Bex replied irritably. “That was ridiculous. They’re acting like being a queen turned you into an alien.”

Nemini shrugged. “I’m a very different queen from you.”

“But not from yourself,” Bex insisted. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re still the same Nemini I’ve known since I was a baby, just with big new antlers and a bit more animated.” She smiled. “Maybe you’ll actually laugh at my jokes now.”

“If you say something funny, I’ll let you know.”

Bex gave her an astonished look. “Was that a joke?”

Nemini answered with a silent shrug, proof that a crown didn’t change everything.

They’d reached the floor of the Middle Hells by this point.

General Kirok was still right where he’d been when Bex came through earlier, keeping an eye on the captured war-demon guards and struggling to impose order on the absolutely massive crowd that had gathered around the tower’s base.

Desh’s key team must’ve been hard at work because everywhere Bex looked, there were unchained demons.

The flooded floor around the tower was already packed, with more arriving every second.

There had to be a small city’s worth of people watching as Bex and Nemini descended the final step.

“How many demons do you think are down here?” she whispered to her sister.

“I don’t know,” Nemini replied, reaching up to touch her snakes. “My sword hasn’t spoken to me since I broke it, so I can’t count their names or cut their slave bands. The Hells are home to the vast majority of our kind, though, so I’d estimate several hundred thousand.”

“It’s higher than that,” Lys said, floating over on Adrian’s broom to butt into their conversation.

“The Middle Hells are home to both Greed and Lust, which are the two most populous breeds of demon after War. Fear and Envy are in the middle, with Sorrow and Hate bringing up the rear. I don’t know how many Pride demons there were, but Bex has been saying there were a hundred thousand Wrath demons trapped in Limbo since I met her. ”

“There’s a lot less now, after what Gilgamesh did,” Bex said angrily, clenching her fists.

“But they still survive,” Lys said, giving her a hopeful smile. “Put them together with all the other demons, and the total population of the Hells is likely close to a million.”

Bex whistled. A million demons. That wasn’t much by human population standards, but it still sounded like an impossible number in more ways than one.

“How are we going to get them all out of here?”

“Who knows?” Lys said, then they smiled. “But I’m sure we’ll figure it out. If we could manage an Anchor, we can do this.”

Managing the Seattle Anchor had hardly gone smoothly, and twenty thousand demons was a lot less than a million.

Bex didn’t want to rain on Lys’s optimism, though, so she kept her mouth shut and turned her attention to Kirok, who’d stepped forward to meet them at the place where the Middle Hells’ staircase transitioned into the Lower.

“Great Queens,” he said, lowering his horns once to Bex and then again to Nemini, which seemed to freak the former void demon out more than anything else so far.

“What’s the situation?” Bex asked, reaching out to squeeze Nemini’s hand before the crowd noticed her trembling.

“I’ve interviewed all the war demons who surrendered after their warlocks were killed,” Kirok reported.

“And?” Bex asked.

“And it seems that the reason security in the Middle Hells is being neglected is because Gilgamesh has been running the forges in the Hell of War at full capacity for the last seven days. Apparently, the Eternal King personally rearranged the work schedule so that the stronger, more experienced demons would be on the forges while the younger, weaker demons were sent down here for guard duty.”

Bex frowned. “I’m guessing that’s not normal.”

“It’s the opposite of standard procedure,” Kirok confirmed. “I thought the children we talked to when we first arrived were an anomaly, but with a few notable exceptions, all the demons working in the Middle Hells appear to be as young or younger.”