The Old Wives said nothing in reply. They simply stood on the steps, watching Leander’s back as he vanished through the palace doors. A few seconds later, Bex ran after him, chasing nervously after Adrian’s brother as he turned the corner and came to a sudden stop.
“Hey,” she whispered, her head turning frantically between the plaza outside and the prince in front of her, who stood with his fists clenched and his shoulders shaking like he wanted to scream. “Are you—”
“I have nothing more to say,” he informed her crisply. “Go ahead and find the others. I’d like a minute alone.”
Bex held up her hands at once, backing away from the former Prince of Sorrow like he was an unexploded bomb before she turned and hurried deeper down the gold-decorated hall that her grinning demons were gleefully tearing apart.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
It didn’t take long to find Iggs and Adrian. Bex only had to turn one corner and there they were, together in the middle of a huge hall that looked like a ballroom that had been set on fire. Iggs was still in his big red form, lying on his back with Adrian right beside him and Boston floating above his head on Bran, keeping watch from above.
“Hey!” Bex shouted as she jogged over. “Man, am I glad to see…”
Her voice trailed off in horror as she got close enough to see what had been hidden by Adrian’s back.
“Iggs!” she screamed, sprinting the rest of the way to his side. “What happened to you?”
“I’m fine,” her demon croaked, opening one swollen eye to give Bex a gap-toothed grin. “It was only a few sorcerers.”
“Afew?” Bex repeated, staring at his body, every inch of which was covered in third-degree burns, stab wounds, and foot-wide bruises. “You look like you got hit by an entire Anchor all at once!”
“The hallway was pretty packed,” Iggs admitted with a wince. “But I was already in a full rage by that point, so I just went for it.”
“He took them all on,” Nemini said, appearing out of the shadows behind the shattered door to Bex’s left. “The war demons were quite impressed.”
“Hells yeah, they were impressed,” Iggs said proudly, raising his battered arm. “The demons of Wrath are second to none when it comes to—”
“Stop moving,” Adrian snapped in his terse doctor voice, reaching up to snatch Iggs’s arm back down before returning to the green salve he’d been smearing frantically all over Iggs’s torso.
“Will he be okay?” Bex asked nervously.
“He’ll be fine if hestops moving,” the witch growled as he started rubbing the salve in with both hands like Iggs was a lump of bread dough. “Believe it or not, this is already much better than he looked when I arrived. Demonic regeneration is truly a miracle. He should be back on his feet in two hours if he can just hold still and not interrupt the process.”
“And I keep telling you, we don’thavetwo hours,” Iggs growled back. “Look over there.”
He jerked his head toward the other end of the room, pointing with his horns, since he couldn’t move his hands. When Bex tore her eyes off his mesmerizingly horrific injuries long enough to see why, she spotted a huge stone staircase leading down.
“What’s that?”
“The entrance to the chains,” Iggs explained. “The sorcerers I fought were just the rear guard. By the time we made it into the palace, most of Heaven had already gone down the chains back to Earth.”
“So?” Bex said, failing to see the problem. “I don’t care if they run. Fewer enemies is better for us, and the residents of Heaven have always been cowards.” She frowned. “Honestly, I’m most shocked that Gilgamesh had allowed it. I thought he’d order his followers to fight to the death, not buy them time to escape.”
“They’re not escaping,” Adrian said, keeping his eyes on his work. “They’re the counterattack.”
He lifted one green-smeared finger to point at the enormous pile of empty golden chests lying along the burned room’s wall.
“Those boxes were filled with quintessence the last time I came through here. Normally, the residents of Heaven are too dependent on the magic of Paradise to leave it. With that much quintessence, though, they can do anything. Go anywhere.” Hecurled his salve-covered hand into a fist. “I can already feel them through my tree. They’re attacking the main Blackwood.”
“What?” Bex said.
“Gilgamesh is attacking the Blackwood,” Adrian repeated, looking up at her with wild eyes. “He didn’t just seal his palace to keep us out. He was guarding his advance. Other than the sorcerers who stayed behind to support the Prince of Fear, this whole fortress is empty! He used the time we spent getting ready to move his own people—the original army that conquered Heaven—into position to attack our forest!”
“No,” Bex said, stumbling backward. “That can’t be right. Why would the witches be here if that was happening? Doesn’t your aunt see the future?”
“They’re here because they made a choice,” Nemini answered before Adrian could. “Gilgamesh’s primary goal is to stop us from interrupting him. That’s why he’s attacking the Blackwood after five thousand years of ignoring it. He’s trying to get us to turn around.”
“He’s doing a damn good job!” Bex yelled in a panic. “If what Adrian’s saying is true, I just sent all our wounded into a war zone!”
