“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,somethinghappened,” 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 princesmore 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 Idoknow 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.”
“Ifhe’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.”
Bex felt like death warmed over. She’d felt that way since she’d lost to the Queen of War, though, so she just shook her head. She was picking up the rope to get back to it when she heard the unmistakable sound of a cat clearing his throat.
Bex looked up at once to see Boston perched on the carved wooden beak of Adrian’s broom, which was floating over the crowd of demons so the familiar wouldn’t have to dodge legs or get his paws wet walking on the tunnel’s damp floor.
“If I may interrupt,” Boston said with great self-importance. “There’s been some interesting developments with my finding charm.”
“Did you find Adrian?” Bex asked, whirling around to give the flying cat her full attention.
“That is the spell’s entire purpose,” Boston replied, leaning forward so Bex could see the witch-shaped leaf effigy he’d made earlier, which was now hanging from his fluffy neck on a string. “As you can see from the way it’s turning, Adrian is on the move. Has been for some time, actually, but I didn’t say anything sooner since there was a chance the quintessence in his blood was throwing off my readings. At this point, however, I feel safe in saying that he’s definitely moving toward us.”
“Towardus?” Bex repeated, shocked. “You mean he’s coming down to the Hells?”
Boston nodded, but Bex still couldn’t believe it. “Are you sure?” she asked. “Because that makes no sense. Adrian’s a known demon sympathizer. Why would Gilgamesh let him come down here?”
That seemed like an obvious disconnect to her, but Boston responded with a scoff.
“Have you forgotten whom we’re talking about?” he demanded with an affronted lash of his tail. “Adrian is a fully initiated witch of the Blackwood Coven! Gilgamesh likely didn’t ‘let’ him go anywhere. I’m sure the Eternal King tried his best to cage him in, but just like the forest he’s named for, my witch cannot be contained.”
He tapped the pointed-hatted leaf figurine hanging from his neck with an excited paw. “I bet he’s got a finding spelllooking for me just like I’ve got one looking for him. He probably started making his way down here the moment he saw us arrive, but he’s been picking up speed over the last fifteen minutes.” Boston’s furry face grew worried. “I know you want to keep building up your troops, but this might be a matter of some urgency. I request that we pause our efforts here and go meet him just in case he’s on the run and needs our help.”
Bex had zero objections to that. She’d thought they’d have to sneak all the way into Heaven before she saw Adrian again. Rescuing him before they’d even left the Hells would be a game-changing stroke of luck. Just thinking about the possibility was making her giddy, but Lys was shaking their head with a scowl.
“How are we getting to him?” they asked, finally removing their knife from Leander’s neck so they could stand up and address Boston directly. “Whether Adrian’s sneaking in by himself or marching down here with Gilgamesh’s blessing, there’s only one way into the Hells from Heaven, and that’s through the central stair.”
“So what?” Bex asked, refusing to let go of her hope. “We were headed there anyway.”
“Yeah,afterwe caused a distraction and cleared out security,” Lys reminded her. “The whole reason we’re doing this is to kick off a prison break big enough to get the Hells prince out of our way, but he’s not going to take the bait if the newest prince—who’s famously in love withyou—happens to show up right when things go south.”
Bex’s whole face flushed again. She didn’t have time to be embarrassed, though, because Lys had a point. She hated thinking of Adrian as Gilgamesh’s anything, but he definitely counted as a VIP. If a rebellion kicked off while he was in the tower, the warlocks would rush him to safety first and ruin everything. If they didn’t run the distraction, though, the only other possibility was attacking the tower head-on.
“Why don’t we?” Iggs asked, reading the dangerous line of logic right off Bex’s face. “I know you don’t have your horns or sword yet, but I just spent the last hour arming a hundred of the saltiest demons I’ve ever met. It’s not just the ones who used to run with you, either. There are demons here who stood up to Heaven all on their own and got damned for it. That’s a hell of a force to fight back with, especially since we’ve got a prince of our own now.” He looked down at Leander. “Can you still cast spells with a single word?”
“Absolutely,” the prince said, rising to his feet. “Sorcery is in my blood. Even Gilgamesh can’t take that away from me so long as I’m alive.”
“Then we can do it,” Iggs concluded, turning back to Bex. “This is the guy who punted me off the top of Pike Place Market with a flick of his finger. If we’ve got himandAdriananda tunnel full of armed demons, a single prince won’t be able to stand a chance against us no matter how crazy his princess is.”
