“I have no idea,” he whispered back. “I was being boiled up until just a few minutes ago. My mother told me they’re readying the rootway to evacuate everyone who can’t fight back to Earth, but I don’t know the plan aside from that. Since the Old Wives brought everyone in the entire forest, I presume they’re here to fight, but I don’t…”
Adrian’s voice trailed off. He’d been talking very fast, trying to relay all the important information as quickly as possible, but the moment he mentioned the evacuation, Bex’s entire face lit up like a sunrise.
“The witches are going to help my people escape?” she asked, her fiery eyes shining. “They’re going to get them to safety?”
Adrian had barely started his nod when Bex covered her face with her hands. She stayed that way for several seconds, but though her shoulders didn’t so much as quiver, he could smell the salty tang of her tears. So could the rest of her crewfrom the looks on their faces, but Bex had always hated crying in front of others, so they all dutifully pretended it wasn’t happening. Adrian did the same, though he didn’t see what she had to be ashamed about. Bex had spent almost two hundred lifetimes working to save her people. Of course the relief would feel crushing when it finally happened. The demons weren’t evacuated yet, though, which meant they still had work to do.
“I need to coordinate with my coven about what the plan is from here,” he said, drawing attention away from Bex to give her an excuse to keep her head down. “There’s no way Gilgamesh can ignore a direct attack on his fortress, so we should probably expect some sort of retaliation soon. I’ll take Bex with me so she can speak to the Old Wives directly. Lys, can you start organizing the demons to make sure those who need the most help get out first when the rootway opens for evacuation?”
Lys shot him a look so scathing, Adrian swore he could feel their eyes carvingI don’t take orders from youinto his skin. To his enormous surprise, though, the demon didn’t actually say the words out loud. They just nodded and turned to address the others.
“Nemini, you stay with the queen until she orders otherwise. I’ll take point on organizing the evacuation. The quicker we get everybody who can’t fight out of here, the sooner those of us whocanfight will be free to do so. And speaking of fighting, Iggs, do you have any guns left in that goblin bag of yours?”
“I’ve got everything we need,” Iggs promised, patting the knapsack of Solomon’s Armory, which never seemed to leave his shoulder. “I’ve been waiting for this day my whole life.”
“We all have,” Lys said, shooting him a sharp-toothed smile. “I’m putting you in charge of the defense team. Go round up everyone who can still hold a weapon and get them armed. Iwant a wall of demons ready and waiting when Gilgamesh finally decides to get off his throne and hit back.”
Iggs saluted and rushed off to do as Lys commanded. Lys followed right on his heels, hopping behind him in short flaps from their injured wing. This left Adrian standing alone in front of the Hells’ Gate with Bex still hiding her face and Nemini giving him the flattest of all flat looks. Even the Morrigan seemed to have flown away while he wasn’t looking. He was wondering if he should say something to break the awkward silence when Bex finally lowered her hands.
“Let’s get away from the square,” she said, her face hard and determined like the last five minutes hadn’t happened. “If a counterattack is coming, I don’t want it anywhere near the tree we’re going to be using as an evacuation ladder. Where’s the Blackwood leadership?”
Adrian had no idea. He was about to suggest returning to his cabin, since that was the last place he’d seen his mother, when Boston poked his cheek with a paw. When he looked down to see why, his familiar nodded at a stone circle that was suddenly blocking the wide, elegant boulevard that led out of the square toward the palace.
The standing stones must’ve popped out of the ground like a mushroom ring, because Adrian was positive the circle hadn’t been there a few minutes ago. He could already see the points of dozens of black witch hats moving over the tops of the rocks, though, and his face split into a grin.
“They’re over there,” he said confidently, dropping his broom to the ground so Bran could change into his wider, much-more-comfortable-for-three-people raven form. “Shall we?”
Bex nodded and climbed onto Bran’s wing without another word. Nemini got on right behind her, sitting in her usual position at the raven’s tail. Adrian got on last, steppingonto the ridge of Bran’s back before tapping his foot to launch them all back into the air.
CHAPTER 7
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BEX COULD HAVE DIEDfrom embarrassment. She never used to be a crier, but here she was, breaking down in front of Adrian,again. He would never judge her for that, of course, but Bex was judging the crap out of herself. She’d finally landed a real hit on Gilgamesh and secured freedom for her people. Now was the most important time of all her lives tokeep it togetherand be a queen, but she just couldn’t get her stupid body to stop.
I don’t see why you hold yourself to these absurd standards,Drox said inside her head.As we saw during your battle with the Prince of Sorrow, suppressed emotions are weaknesses easily exploited by a knowledgeable foe. Expunging them in the company of trusted allies is therefore a sound tactical move that a wise leader should employ.
That was one way to look at it, Bex supposed, but Drox’s military assessment of the value of tears didn’t stop her from grinding her palms into her eyes as Adrian flew them over the now intensely chaotic plaza toward the incongruous new standing stone circle that had suddenly appeared on the main road to Gilgamesh’s palace.
It certainly looked like a witch’s invasion camp. The trees in this part of the forest were miniatures compared to Adrian’s skyscraper-sized Douglas fir, but they were still as big or bigger than the tallest trees in his forest back on Bainbridge. They were thick, too, transforming the once blindingly white Heavenly boulevard into a secluded grove. Moss grew on every paving stone, and water dripped constantly down the fern-coveredwalls of the massive apartment blocks, which now looked more like crumbling marble cliffs.
It was the complete opposite of the normally bone-dry and colorless Holy City, which meant she should’ve loved it. Now that she’d defied her mother, however, Bex had a different opinion. As much as she’d hated Gilgamesh’s monochrome architecture, there had been a point to it. All that dry white stone had maintained Paradise as a land of death, not the fertile Riverlands that the Anchors still mimicked. Bex had denied her mother the demons’ fire, but that didn’t mean the old rules didn’t still apply. If Ishtar—a goddess of life and fertility as well as war and death—got her claws into all this vegetation, she’d be able to pull herself back up no matter what happened with Gilgamesh.
That thought was scary enough to make Bex forget all about a few embarrassing tears. She had the upper hand right now because Ishtar was weak, but if her mother found the strength to rise again, everything could flip. They had to beat Gilgamesh before that happened, but Bex wasn’t even sure what the victory conditions were anymore.
How can you think such a thing?Drox demanded as Adrian’s broom set them down in the moss at the circle’s edge.The goal is what it has always been: destroy Gilgamesh and retake Paradise.His voice grew smug.We already leveled one tower. Just keep swinging me and we’ll bring the whole castle down in no time.
“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,” Bex whispered, looking down the straight road ahead of them at the fortress that still rose over the city like a white-and-gold mountain.
The dust from her earlier attack had finally settled, revealing movement on the palace’s battlements. The defensive ramps were so delicate and golden that Bex had assumed theywere purely decorative. Now, though, there were figures lined up on the walkways that spiraled around the bottom of each tower.
Bex cursed under her breath. Even at this distance, she could make out rows of the same golden archer constructs that had shot at her the first time she’d come to the Holy City. Now that the big shield was out of the way, she could also see dozens of lion cannons positioned on the roof of the main floor all the towers branched out of.
That was the most frightening sight of all. Bex didn’t know if the cannons were out of range or if Gilgamesh simply hadn’t given the order to fire yet, but there were as many lions facing them now as there’d been when Heaven opened fire on the Seattle Anchor. Even with the extra firepower from her new horns, Bex wasn’t sure if she could block that many shots. Her best move would be to charge in and melt the cannons like she’d done before. There was no way Gilgamesh didn’t know that, though, which meant he’d probably already set up a counter for—
Bex.
Bex froze, causing Adrian, who’d been helping her off the broom, to look up in alarm.
