“I’m back!” Boston cried as he galloped down the stairs. “The bull is delivered. What did I miss?”
“Nothing much,” Adrian joked, pointing the Blade of Envy at the hole he’d cut in the air.
“That doesn’t look safe,” Boston observed as he clambered up Adrian’s coat to his shoulder. “Are we really going in there?”
“I am,” Adrian said. “But you don’t have to. I’m sure you already heard Iggs yelling about it, but Bex is sending all herdemons back to Earth to defend the Blackwood. You’re free to go with them if you—”
His voice cut off as he felt the thump of Boston’s lashing tail hit this back.
“Adrian Blackwood,” his cat said stiffly, “I am your familiar. It is my sworn duty to assist you in your work no matter what. Also, as was just established five minutes ago, you’d be dead without me.”
“That I would,” Adrian agreed wholeheartedly. “But I still wanted to give you the option.”
“Your consideration is appreciated but unnecessary,” Boston assured him. “I already made my choice eighteen years ago when I became your cat. Now let’s get moving before the others leave us behind!”
He leaped off Adrian’s shoulder as he finished, landing on the chain with the flawless grace of a curious cat.
His witch wasn’t nearly so brave. Adrian took one look at that enormous drop and whistled for Bran. His broom appeared at once, shooting down the stairs from the room where he’d set it down to tend to Iggs.
He grabbed hold of the raven-carved broomstick the second it got close, but while Adrian was overwhelmingly relieved to have Bran back, he wasn’t sure he’d get to use him. The hole he’d cut made it look like the twisting chains were going up through empty space, but when Adrian poked his broomstick through to check the flight conditions, he discovered he’d cut into yet another illusion. There onlyappearedto be tons of room. In reality, though, Gilgamesh’s chains were tightly surrounded by an invisible wall, almost like they were running up the inside of a pipe.
That made a lot of sense, considering the entire purpose of this space was to run chains through the palace without being seen. They were basically crawling up the wiring on the inside ofGilgamesh’s walls. The unexpectedly tight quarters didn’t seem to bother the others, but it left Adrian with little room to fly. He’d been hoping he could take everyone up on Bran’s raven, but it looked like there wasn’t even enough space to fit his broom form without risking damage to his bristles.
That was bad news. Adrian was no slouch climber, but the chains were very tall, and the drop wasdefinitelyfatal. Climbing seemed to be the only way, though, so Adrian grabbed Bran’s leather strap out of his pocket and slid his broom onto his back with a sigh. He was about to hop through the hole and grab onto the chain like Bex had when he realized he was still holding the Blade of Envy.
That was an easy choice, at least. Adrian didn’t even hesitate before he dropped the white sword on the ground. Leaving the Blade of Envy behind was a risk, but whatever Leander said about rank, he was fed up with her constantly chewing on his hand. Bringing a princess who hated their guts on a secret mission sounded like a terrible idea in any case, so Adrian happily chucked her, taking a moment to wrap his bleeding palm with a handkerchief before he reached through the hole to grab the chain and start climbing after Bex and the others.
And behind him on the cracked floor of the arrivals room, unseen through the already closing cut in the world, a man’s scarred, olive-skinned hand reached out of nowhere to pick up the crying sword Adrian had left behind.
CHAPTER 14
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“SO, YOU’VE GOT THEpowers of all nine queens now?” Adrian asked, looking up at Bex from his precarious hold on the chain several links below.
“That seems to be the case,” Bex replied, doing her best not to sound overconfident as she hauled herself up the gigantic ladder of twisted sin iron. “I can also use powers from normal demons. I’m pretty sure I could even grow wings like Lys’s if I tried.”
“Then why don’t you?” said Boston, hopping casually from link to link like they weren’t all dangling over a miles-high drop into a sea of souls. “I’m no expert on demon magic, but now seems like a good time to spontaneously develop flight.”
“I agree,” Bex said as she reached for the next handhold. “The problem is I don’t know how to use it. Lys makes flying look easy, but I’m pretty sure if I sprouted wings and tried to take off, I’d just end up plummeting to my death. Same goes for shapeshifting. Again, Lys makes it seem so simple, but spontaneously rearranging your organs doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that should be attempted without alotof practice.”
“You probably should leave that one alone for now,” Adrian agreed, but his eyes still shone with excitement. “What about the others, though? Have you tried any of them?”
“Just Fear’s scales, Sorrow’s sorrow, and the Queen of Pride’s ability to make people kneel so far,” Bex reported. “I’m sure I can do more, but it’s hard to figure out what’s available,since I don’t feel any different than I did before War tore my horns off.”
“What do you mean ‘hard to figure out’?” Leander demanded from his safe perch on the inside of a giant link twenty feet above them. “You already know what powers each type of demon possesses. Can’t you just do that?”
“Can you do a card trick after only seeing it once?” Bex grumbled, focusing on her hands as she hauled herself up to the next ledge. “Just because I know something’s possible doesn’t mean I know how to do it. It’s not like these new horns came with a manual.”
The prince shook his head and made himself more comfortable on the link twenty feet above the one Bex was currently hauling herself over, which was just obnoxious. Bastard had been using hisFifty Steps of the Pilgrimspell to avoid climbing the slippery, poisonous sin iron. Bex respected the ingenuity, but it wassuperannoying that he could just sit up there acting all superior while the rest of them struggled.
She’d thought about asking Adrian if they could use his broom, but she figured the witch wouldn’t be climbing if flying was an option. Space wassupertight in here. It might look like the chains were hanging in empty air, but every time Bex stuck her limbs out too far, she bumped an elbow or a knee against an invisible barrier that felt as hard as a steel pipe. It was like they were following the chains up a drain spout, and the higher they got, the more the walls closed in, leaving less and less room for Bex to squeeze her body through as she pulled herself into the seemingly-infinite dark.
“I hope it’s not too much farther,” Adrian panted below her. “All this sin iron is making Bran sick. I can feel him shaking through my back.”
“I’m not feeling so great myself,” Boston confessed, lifting his paw to examine his toe beans, which definitely looked darker than usual.
“I don’t understand,” the cat grumbled, glaring at his feet. “I’m a Blackwood just like Adrian,andI’ve endured all the same poison training. Why is he tolerant to sin iron and I’m not?”
