Page 78 of Hell Hath No Fury (Tear Down Heaven #4)

Captain Roga looked deeply skeptical, but he must not have wanted to rebel against two queens in one day, because when Adrian finally made it all the way up to Bex without doing anything princely like threatening to gut them all, he eventually ducked his horns and turned to yell at his men.

“Squadrons three and four,” he bellowed. “Go to where the prin… where the queen’s companion described and offer whatever help you can. Squads one and two, go tell the forge workers they can finally rest. We’re not slaving anymore!”

An enormous cheer went up at that as the war demons ran off on their assignments. Bex was starting to think this might actually all work out when the captain dropped back into a bow.

“If you would permit it, Great Queen,” he said solemnly. “I must thank you one more time for my own sake. Kirok was my combat trainer when I was rising through the ranks. He was a great warrior and an honorable demon, and he deserved better than this.”

They both turned to look at the bloody stain that was all that was left of Kirok’s body, and Bex sighed.

“I wish he could have had a kinder ending,” she said.

“But I disagree that this wasn’t what he deserved.

Kirok died bravely fighting for what he believed in.

He said what no one else was able, and without his sacrifice, we wouldn’t be standing here right now.

” Her face split into a smile. “I think he’d be proud to see what his death accomplished, so please don’t say it wasn’t deserved.

He’s the reason I was able to stand against the Queen of War, and he deserves all the credit I can give. ”

The captain dropped his head again, but not in a bow this time. “Then I was wrong,” he whispered in a voice that shook with real emotion. “I will remember him as you say, Great Queen.”

“Thank you,” Bex said, reaching out for Adrian, who’d just made it to her side. “Now if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I need to sit down.”

The war demon looked shocked, but he moved out of the way at once, clearing space for Bex to sink to the floor in a controlled collapse.

“Whoa,” Adrian said as he went down with her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m amazing,” Bex said, giving him a lopsided smile.

“I mean, I can’t feel my legs, and my whole body feels like it just came out of a blast furnace, but we’re alive, and we won !

The Queen of War got her butt kicked so hard she had to run home to Gilgamesh, we’ve got help coming for the people evacuating from the flood, and we freed the Hell of War.

” Her smile grew wider as she looked down at the war demons running to and fro across the tower.

“You know what the means, right? We freed all Nine Hells!”

She threw her arms up for a whoop but stopped when it made her dizzy.

“I think you should just sit there for a minute,” Adrian said as he eased her back against the wall.

“It’s too bad you couldn’t keep the Queen of War’s sword,” he said as he settled in beside her. “It was terrifying watching you fight barehanded.”

“Havok would never serve me,” Bex replied with a snort.

“And I wouldn’t take him even if he did.

Drox will always be the only sword for me.

” She looked down at her ring with a sigh.

“He’s going to be sad he missed this when he wakes up.

I finally managed to do all the stuff he was always yelling at me to do. ”

“It was very impressive,” Adrian agreed, putting his arm around her shoulders.

“And highly effective, thank the Forest. I had some last-ditch ideas for sorcery if things went really bad, but I’m very relieved I didn’t have to use them.

I’m not nearly as good with my father’s magic as I am with my mother’s. ”

“That’s fine,” Bex said as she relaxed into him. “Being bad at sorcery is a sign of good character. I just wish you didn’t have to know it at all.”

Adrian looked like he was still deciding how to respond to that when they were interrupted by the beep of Bex’s comm.

“I’m here,” she answered at once.

The speaker in her ear exploded into static from Lys’s enormous sigh of relief. “Thank Ishtar,” they said. “I feared the worst when I heard that giant bell. Where are you?”

“In the tower,” Bex replied as her face split into a grin. “I won.”

“I knew you would,” Lys said, which was a blatant lie, but Bex was too happy to call them on it.

“It’s not just that,” she continued with an even bigger smile. “I won won. I beat the Queen of War so hard she turned tail and ran! All the war demons are free now. I just sent a bunch over to help you, so make sure you tell everyone not to shoot them when they show up.”

There was a long, shocked pause, and then Lys’s voice came over the speaker again in a whisper so full of hope it shivered.

“Does that mean it’s over?”

“Yep,” Bex replied proudly, craning her neck back to look up the spiral of the broken stairs. “All Nine Hells are ours now, but I don’t want ’em. We’re getting everyone out of here ASAP. You keep pulling our people out of the water. Adrian and I are going up to check out the situation in Heaven.”

Adrian blinked like this was news to him, but the comm in Bex’s ear fell into a long, terrified silence.

“You’re going into the Holy City?” Lys squeaked at last. “And you’re only bringing Adrian ?”

“He’s a prince,” Bex reminded them. “There’s no one better suited for the job. Just keep our people moving. I’ll see about securing us a way back to Earth.”

Lys nervously mumbled something affirmative-sounding, and Bex cut off the call before they got any more worked up.

“An exit back to Earth is going to be hard,” Adrian warned as he rose to his feet. “The chains are the only sure path, and they’re sealed at the base of Gilgamesh’s castle.”

“That’s fine,” Bex said as she grabbed his offered hand to haul herself back to her feet. “I was headed there anyway.”

Her witch laughed at that before his face grew worried again.

“ How are we going to do it, though?” he asked nervously.

“Heaven’s much more heavily guarded than the Hells were, and you’re carrying a lot of liabilities.

Most of the demons you rescued look more like concentration camp victims than soldiers.

How are we going to transport them safely through Gilgamesh’s warlock city? ”

“I have no idea,” Bex confessed. “That’s why we’re going first to scope the situation. Whatever’s up there, though, we’re going to break it, because there’s no way in the Hells—or the ruins of the Hells—that I’m leaving any of Ishtar’s people behind.”

“I know you wouldn’t,” Adrian assured her quickly. “I only brought it up because I wanted to make sure you knew what you were walking into.”

“I’ve always known,” Bex said, flashing him a smile.

“But if I was the sort who quit just because something was impossible, I would’ve died for good a hundred lifetimes ago.

” She turned back to the stairs and started climbing faster.

“We’ve bashed our way through everything else Gilgamesh has thrown.

I’m sure we’ll find a way to beat this too.

It’s that or give up and die down here, so we might as well try.

Who knows? Maybe we’ll catch Gilgamesh by surprise for once. ”

“Anything’s possible,” Adrian agreed, pausing to let Boston—who was racing up the stairs behind them—catch up. “He has been very distracted lately, and I’m certain he didn’t expect you to win just now.” His smile grew wicked. “Maybe it will work. Hubris is famously the downfall of kings.”

“Then let’s go make sure he gets his,” Bex said, reaching back to offer him her hand.

Adrian grabbed her fingers with a smile that made Bex’s heart skip a dangerous number of beats. She was still trying to get her breath back when he ran past her, pulling Bex up the final spiral of the broken staircase that led to the enemy’s Heaven.