“Good luck,” the goddess said as she opened her talons, dropping the hornless queen like a discarded kill.
Bex fell with a scream. She tumbled in free fall for several seconds, too shocked to do anything except windmill her arms. Then her survival instincts kicked in and she blasted her fire,catching herself seconds before she crashed into the canopy of Adrian’s huge new forest.
The moment she was certain she wouldn’t plummet to her death, Bex changed the fire’s direction, rocketing over the crowd like a comet to land on top of the giant black cube of the Hells’ Gate, the only building left in this part of the city that hadn’t been swallowed by forest. She kept her fire blazing even after she set down, covering her body in the brilliant flames of Wrath as she straightened up to face her people.
And realized her mistake.
The plaza surrounding the entrance to the Hells was so packed with demons that she couldn’t see the end of them. The crowd surrounded her on all sides like a sea. A silent, terrified sea of faces all looking at her in desperation. No one cheered. No one yelled. They didn’t even bow. They all just stood there, holding their breath as they waited for Ishtar’s last queen to work a miracle, but Bex didn’t know what to say. Even if she had known, she couldn’t possibly yell loud enough to reach so many people with the mortal voice she had now.
That realization hurt even more than she’d expected. This was the moment when she most needed to be a queen, but Bex wasn’t larger than life anymore. Other than the fire burning on her skin, she was exactly as she appeared: a short, hornless, scrawny girl who didn’t even have a sword. Even if Drox had been in her hand, Bex had no idea how to explain what she needed. How in the world did you ask a crowd of hundreds of thousands of starving, terrified refugees to give you a new name? She was still struggling to think of where to start when the Morrigan suddenly landed beside her.
The goddess came down like a feathered meteor, blowing the demons standing in the front rows to the ground. The moment her talons settled on the black gate, though, she changed her shape, transforming from an aircraft-sized raveninto a tall, pale woman wearing bloody leather armor, a cape of black wings, and a crown of human bones. She looked absolutely terrifying, but that was nothing compared to thefeelof her. Even Bex had to fight the urge to flee before the force of nature the Morrigan had revealed herself to be. She was forcing herself to stay still and not make a fool of herself in front of everyone when the great and terrible goddess turned and spoke in a voice pitched for her ears alone.
“Good show, eh?”
Bex blinked in surprise, and the Morrigan’s blood-red lips curled into a smirk.
“I didn’t break my rule about never entering Paradise just to be informative,” she whispered as her eyes, which were still beady and black like a crow’s, darted over the terrified crowd. “My three favorite witchlings cut off their fingers to bring me here. A half-hearted display would shame their offering, so I expect you to do your part as well. Follow my lead, daughter of Ishtar, and together we shall see what your people really think of you.”
She spoke those words like a threat, but Bex just nodded and pushed her fear-dampened flames back to their normal roaring height. When she was burning bright again, the goddess lifted her arms and spoke in a ringing voice that thundered to every corner of Gilgamesh’s Heaven.
“Hear me, creations of my foolish sister!”she boomed. “I am the Morrigan, Triple-Faced Goddess of Prophecy, the Phantom Queen and the Battle Crow. I was the only god who did not join in the folly that was the creation of Paradise and thus was the only god who escaped its fall when Gilgamesh arrived to slay the rest of my kind. I swore ages ago that I would never set foot in the graveyard of my kin’s mistakes, but I have broken that oath and come here today to bear witness to the birth of a new age.”
She extended one sharp-taloned hand toward Bex.
“This is the Bonfire of Wrath,” she announced. “Ishtar’s Sword. For five thousand years, she has fought to free the children of Paradise from their enslavement. Many thought such a thing was impossible.Ithought it was impossible, but even after her treacherous sister tore the horns from her head, the Queen of Wrath did not abandon her fight. Together with her loyal retainers, she outwitted the Eternal King and tore down the Nine Hells of Gilgamesh. Because of her, the people of the Riverlands walk free upon the face of Paradise for the first time in fifty centuries!”
Her hand came down like an axe to clap Bex on the shoulder. “Such actions have made her worthy in my divine sight!” the Morrigan cried. “In honor of this victory, I have decided to grant her a boon. Speak, daughter of Ishtar, and if it is within my divine power, it shall be so.”
The promise cracked like lightning over the dead-silent square. Every demon in Paradise seemed to be holding their breath, including Bex herself. She hadn’t expected any of that, but the Morrigan was scowling at her like she was flubbing her line. That sent Bex into a panic for a second because she didn’tknowher line. Then the goddess flicked her black eyes pointedly toward the watching crowd, and suddenly, Bex understood.
“Great Morrigan,” she said in a voice she hoped was loud enough to carry to the buildings at the edge of the square, “I humbly ask that you restore my name.”
“Your name?” the goddess repeated in theatrical surprise. “How did you lose it?”
“It was stolen,” Bex replied, getting into the swing of things. “Gilgamesh took it when the traitorous Queen of War ripped my horns from my head. He has stolen all the queens’ names because he knows that we are his defeat. If I had my name, I could call the Blade of Wrath to cut open Heaven’sdefenses. I could cut the slave bands from every demon’s neck and set Ishtar’s children truly free! Gilgamesh stole my name precisely to keep me from doing these things. I cannot defeat him without it, so for my boon, this is what I ask.” She bowed her hornless head. “Please, great Morrigan, sister of my sacred mother, make me whole again.”
Her chest was heaving by the end. It took a crazy amount of breath to say all that so loudly. Bex had never realized how much she relied on the queen’s supernaturally booming voice until she lost it. She thought she’d done a good job at matching the goddess’s grand style at least, but she still didn’t know where this performance was going. The Morrigan had already told her she couldn’t replace Rebexa’s name, and sure enough, the goddess shook her head.
“I cannot.”
She’d known it was coming, but the rejection still felt like a slap. Everyone else must’ve felt the same way, because the crowd that had been watching in terrified silence up to this point suddenly gasped. Standing at the center with her bonfire roaring, Bex could feel their shock and dismay like a sword in her guts, filling her with real anger as she yelled back.
“Why can’t you?” she demanded. “I thought you were a goddess!”
“I am,” the Morrigan replied. “The problem is I’m notyourgoddess.”
That must’ve been the point she was aiming for this whole time, because the moment she said it, the Morrigan seemed to forget that Bex existed. She focused the entirety of her divine attention on the crowd instead, turning in a slow circle so that every corner of the packed square could see her terrifying face.
“Ishtar created her children for her own purposes,” she told them in a measured, calculating voice. “Were you creatures of the wilds, your names would be mine, but I cannot give youwhat does not belong to me. But just becauseIcannot restore the Bonfire Queen’s name doesn’t mean it’s lost forever.”
It didn’t take any acting for Bex’s voice to fill with hope. “How do I get it back?”
“You can’t,” the Morrigan said. “Buttheycan.”
She swept her hand over the crowd, which stepped back in alarm. The goddess’s black eyes narrowed when she saw it, and she bared her sharp teeth in fury.
“Do you think the queen should fight alone?” she roared at the demons. “You areallIshtar’s creations! A fraction of her divine power still resides in each of you. If it didn’t, you’d all be dust just like the rest of Paradise. The reason you were permitted to survive is because Gilgamesh needed that power to make his sin iron, but his greed shall be his downfall!”
