Page 61 of Hell Hath No Fury (Tear Down Heaven #4)

“It used to be,” Leander said as he hopped onto the hovering broom with the rest of them.

“After humanity’s explosive population growth during the industrial revolution, the demon population of the Hells was no longer able to filter sin out of the rivers as fast as it was coming in.

Gilgamesh didn’t want to bother expanding, so he pumped the excess into tanks out in the Goddeath Wastes instead.

They were designed to let the rivers stagnate, condensing the sins into a thick slurry that could be pumped back into the main river’s flow and increase sin concentration for more efficient collection. ”

“That’s horrible,” Bex told him after a shocked pause.

“That’s what you get when you have a frugal engineer for a king,” Leander said, looking nervously down at the pool of thick, oily sludge.

“Unfortunately, there’s no way to stop it.

Once Protocol Three’s been activated, all the sludge tanks get dumped and the deathly rivers start flowing again at full force.

That would not have been a problem a thousand years ago, but with Earth’s current population, I’d say we’ve only got a few hours before this whole place floods. ”

He wasn’t kidding. Bex could already see the torrents of freezing, deathly water gushing out of the bottom of every pipe like a broken fire hydrant.

The disgusting foamy water on the floor had already risen a foot while they’d been talking, and the fumes coming off it were strong enough to burn the inside of Bex’s nose.

If it was that awful to breathe, she couldn’t imagine what it must feel like on the skin, and she turned to Nemini in a rush.

“We have to get our people out of here. Can you order them to stand?”

“Of course,” the other queen replied. “But are you sure you want me commanding your demons?”

“I don’t care about that,” Bex insisted. “They’re too weak to stand on their own after what Gilgamesh did to them. If you don’t use their names to force them up, they’ll drown on their backs before they even get a chance to know they’ve been rescued.”

She looked over her shoulder at the filthy water pouring through the broken doors into the Hell of Wrath, and her hand shot out to grab her sister’s. “ Please , Nemini! Make them stand up!”

Nemini clenched her jaw and stood without a word, pulling in the deep breath Bex recognized as the same one she also took before she said something big.

“ Demons of Wrath, ” Nemini commanded in a queen’s ringing voice. “By my own sacred name Netara, I order you to forget your exhaustion. Rise to your feet and march up the stairs to join your fellow children of Ishtar. Your queen will meet you there.”

“Thank you,” Bex said as the ringing command finished, giving her sister a frantic hug before she leaped off the broom into the freezing, filthy water.

The concentrated sin started burning through her boots the moment her feet went in, but if her people were going to have to walk through this, then Bex was going to do it with them.

She could already see the skeletal wrath demons rising to their feet inside the Hell.

She was bashing her flaming shoulder against the busted doors to push them wider and make more room for the evacuation when Iggs splashed up beside her.

“You shouldn’t be here!” Bex yelled at him. “The sin’s still too strong! I can take it, but you—”

“If you’re here, I’m here,” Iggs said, transforming into his true, huge shape as he grabbed the mangled doors. “You never found my family in Limbo. That means they’ve got to be inside that Hell somewhere, and I’ll let this toxic sludge burn off both my legs before I leave them behind.”

There was nothing Bex could say to that. She just grabbed a door and started pushing with him, blasting her fire for extra power as she and Iggs forced the entrance all the way open to release the crowd of demons trapped inside.

They came out like an avalanche. Bex had had her doubts since ordering demons by their names only worked if they were physically capable of executing the command.

Adrian must’ve been right about the power of demonic regeneration, though, because while they looked like a parade of skeletons, the demons of Wrath didn’t slow down for anything.

They rushed past her and Iggs without so much as a look, driven by the single-minded purpose Nemini’s command had instilled in them to get up the stairs as quickly as possible.

“Thank Ishtar Gilgamesh never bothered to chain them,” Bex panted as the disgusting water poured over her feet. “If we’d had to unlock everybody, the flood would’ve been over our heads before we made it halfway.”

“I’m going to look for my family and help anyone who isn’t able to stand,” Iggs said as he sprinted past her into the Hell. “Tell Leander to put something over the hole we made in the stairs!”

“I will,” Bex called after him, but Iggs was already gone, his huge red body disappearing into the dark hole Gilgamesh had buried their people in.

Seeing it caused Bex’s fire to blaze up all over again, but she didn’t have time to lose her temper.

They still had another Hell full of demons to save, so the moment she was certain all the wrath demons were on their way to higher ground, Bex sloshed back through the putrid flood toward the rest of the team, who were still hovering on Adrian’s broom in front of the sealed doors to the Hell of Pride.

“Did you get everyone out?” Adrian asked when she got close.

“Working on it,” Bex replied, turning to face Leander, who’d also jumped into the water and was standing next to Nemini in front of the giant sealed doors.

“Hey, Leander,” she said. “Got anything in your spell catalogue that will fix the hole in the stairs so my demons can get past?”

She’d said that pretty loud, but Leander didn’t even turn around. Bex was about to ask him again, much less politely, when Boston suddenly leaped off Adrian’s shoulder.

“I’ll do it,” the cat said as he landed on the last still-dry step of the spiral staircase. “I know several bridge-mending charms, and it looks like you’ve already got your work cut out for you.”

“I’ll help too,” Lys said, flapping off the broom to join him.

“Are you sure you should be moving?” Bex asked nervously.

“They absolutely should not be!” Adrian yelled. “Lys, get back down here!”

“Sorry, darling, but you don’t give me orders,” Lys replied, blowing Adrian a kiss before holding out their arms to Boston, who jumped right in.

“Boston and I will handle the evacuation,” they said, flapping steadily despite the pain Bex could see on their face. “The rest of you make sure the pride demons get out before we’re all floating in the drink.”

“Got it,” Bex said. “Don’t push yourself too far, Lys.”

“I’ll sit down before I fall down,” they promised.

“But only just. I’ve been lying around this whole operation.

You can’t expect me to stay bedridden and miss the fight I’ve been waiting for my entire life.

” They smiled at her one last time. “I’ll be fine.

Just make sure you follow me soon, or I’m coming back down here to get you. ”

“We’ll make it,” Bex said, waving at Lays as they carried Boston up the center of the stairwell toward the broken section near the top.

“They’re going to reopen their wound,” Adrian growled.

“Probably,” Bex agreed. “But that’s the challenge of working with Lys. You can give them all the orders you want, but they always manage to get their own way in the end. It’s easier if you just learn to live with it.”

Adrian was still scowling, but he didn’t say anything else as he leaned down to help Bex out of the water.

She took his offered hand gladly. She’d been willing to stand in the sludge for her people’s sake, but she wasn’t going to hang out in it and burn all the skin off her legs if she didn’t have to.

She was delighted to let Adrian haul her onto his nice, dry, non-toxic broom.

But when she bent over to examine the holes the caustic sludge had burned through her fatigues, Bran’s wings tipped like a raft as Leander suddenly appeared beside her.

Bex lurched away with a yelp, nearly tumbling back into the water before she caught herself. “Don’t do that!” she yelled at the prince, clutching her heaving chest. “Seriously, what is your problem?”

“We all have too many of those to count at the moment,” Leander replied, his gaunt face deadly serious as he crouched down to look her in the eyes. “I need your help.”

Bex didn’t feel like doing anything for someone who’d just scared the life out of her and didn’t even seem sorry about it.

Leander had always been a strangely awkward man, though, and he had done a lot for them since she’d pulled him out of the Lowest Hells, so Bex forced herself to shove her ego and listen.

“What sort of help do you need?”

“I need it from both of you, actually,” Leander said, flicking his mirrored eyes to Adrian, who was hovering at Bex’s side. “I can undo the seal over the doors to the Hell of Pride, but in return, I need you to help me get someone out.”

“There’s no need to make it transactional,” Bex grumbled. “I was already planning to get everyone out.”

“I’m aware,” Leander said. “But I also know you’re in a hurry, and I believe these individuals will not be able to walk on their own even if the new queen orders them. They will likely be quite difficult to find as well, which is why I’m speaking to both of you.”

He stood up to face Adrian. “I know the witches of the Blackwood are adept at finding spells such as the one I saw your familiar using earlier. I want you to cast that same type of spell again using this.”

The prince flicked his hand like a stage magician.

When his palm came back around, he was holding a woman’s severed hand with a black ring gleaming on its third finger.

As always, Bex recognized her sister’s hand immediately, but she wasn’t sure which sister’s hand she was looking at until Leander spelled it out.