“Do your legs not work?” Adrian asked, suddenly nervous.
“Nothing works,” Leander confessed in a pained voice. “I was able to push through for Mara’s sake, but now that she’s gone…”
His voice trailed off as he looked down at his ruined body, and Adrian sighed.
“You can answer my questions from there, then,” he said, crouching down beside his brother as he pointed at the fight that was still raging across the throne room. “How do I help Bex beat Alexander?”
“I’m not sure you can,” Leander replied sadly. “Alexander’s loyalty has always made him Father’s favorite, but he’s never had a talent for sorcery. To correct this flaw, Gilgamesh adjusted Alexander’s body to send his quintessence inward. All princes are stronger and faster than the human limit, but Alexander is in a class by himself. That’s why he was given the Sword of War. He might spend all his time behind a desk, but he’s the fastest and strongest of all Gilgamesh’s sons and the best swordsman aside from the king himself.”
He looked back down at the bloody hand clutched against his chest. “Alexander’s the one who taught me how to use a sword when I first arrived in Heaven. Mara belonged to another prince back then, but when I fell in love, Alexander was the one who convinced Father to let me wait for her.”
Leander smiled. “All Celestial Princes are brothers, but Alexander was the only one who ever acted like it. That’s why Gilgamesh trusted him so much. No matter how bad things got, Alexander always saw us as a family, and a good son never disobeys his father.”
“I wish he’d disobey a little,” Adrian muttered, tapping his wooden pinky finger nervously as he watched Bex take yet another horrific blow across the shoulder. She’d been getting hit like that since the fight started, and while the new wound repaired itself just like all the others, it took a terrifyingly long time. Long enough to make Adrian shoot back to his feet.
“Nemini,” he said, glancing at the queen who was, of course, standing right behind him. “Can you help Bex?”
“If I could, I would’ve done so already,” the former void demon replied in a flat voice that somehow still managed to sound accusatory. “But I’m not fast enough for that fight. If I went in there, I’d just get hurt and distract her.”
That was also Adrian’s worry, but, “How areyounot fast enough? You were just teleporting all over.”
“It’s not teleporting,” Nemini insisted, reaching up to touch the giant crown of her horns. “Even with my name restored, part of me will never forget being nothing. Nothing is always present in the places we’re not looking, but while Sorrowful Mara was trying not to see me so she wouldn’t hurt me, the Crown Prince’s one eye is sharper than most people’s two. He’s always looking everywhere, even behind him, which makes it impossible for me to sneak in without getting stabbed.”
“What about if youdidget stabbed?” Adrian asked desperately. “I can heal you, so you wouldn’t die.”
“Even you couldn’t heal that,” Nemini said, pointing at the black blur that was the Crown Prince’s sword. “Bex did a lot to break us free, but we’re still Ishtar’s creations. Even if her sword is in someone else’s hands, our flesh will still refuse to heal what our goddess cuts. The only reason Bex isn’t dead is because she’s using Greed’s power, which reverses damage instead of trying to heal it.” Her lips quirked in a small smile. “I’m actually very impressed she figured it out, but I don’t have a power like that. I don’t even have Pride’s power anymore or I’d already be making the Crown Prince crawl on the ground.”
Adrian cursed under his breath. So much for getting help. It was really starting to look like they’d have to rely on Bex to win this battle by herself. He’d normally count that as a sure bet, but even Adrian, who’d never swung a sword in his life, could tell that this fight was going very badly for her. If she didn’t find a way to tilt things back in her favor soon, Bex was eventually going to hit a wall she couldn’t climb.
Just thinking about that made Adrian feel helpless, which, ironically, was what gave him his next idea.
“Could you drop him into the void?”
Nemini frowned in thought. “Probably,” she said at last. “Princesses are immune because their egos are overridden by Gilgamesh, but princes are human. Very proud humans, which means they fall far. The trouble is making the connection. To expose the Crown Prince’s illusion of ego, I’ll have to touch him with at least one whole hand. That means getting close, which I’ve already explained is a death sentence.”
“Not if he can’t see you,” Adrian countered excitedly, digging into his pockets for more raw spell materials. “And before you say it won’t work, I’m not talking about your nothing movements. I’m referring to good old-fashioned sneaking.”
Nemini’s frown curved deeper at that, but Leander was the one who spoke next, which was a surprise because Adrian thought he’d already passed out.
“How is she going to sneak up on two people fighting in the middle of an open room with no cover?”
“We don’t need cover,” Adrian insisted, motioning for Boston—who’d already realized what he was planning—to start moving the fir branches he’d used for the sap trap into a wider circle. “This is witchcraft.”
“Don’t witch spells take a long time?” Nemini asked.
“Not this one,” Adrian promised, keeping his eyes steadfastly on his work as the fight across the throne room grew more and more dire.
CHAPTER 16
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BEX WAS LOSING.
It wasn’t as overwhelmingly obvious as the drubbing the Queen of War had given her over the Holy City, but the tide was definitely against her. Slowly but inexorably, she was losing ground, and since she’d sent all her demons away to Earth, she had no way of regaining it. She still didn’t regret her choice—their army would do more good in the Blackwood than they would’ve up here, not to mention they had amuchhigher chance of surviving that fight than they would’ve storming Gilgamesh’s palace—but it wasn’t looking good.
The nonstop usage of the Queen of Greed’s power had left her exhausted, but Bex still hadn’t managed to put a single scratch on her enemy. The Crown Prince was simply too good, and his sword was too strong. A more tactical fighter would’ve given up and retreated ages ago, but the demons of Wrath had always been stubborn, and there was nowhere to go even if she had wanted to run. The only way any of them lived was if she got through this, so Bex gritted her teeth and kept pushing, methodically testing the prince’s guard for any hint of weakness. She was still searching when she made the mistake that almost ended her for good.
Like everything in this fight, it was a matter of inches. She’d been retreating, leading the prince around the giant golden throne in the hope that having something in the way might compromise his perfect guard, when her boot slipped off the edge of the raised dais. She recovered her balanceimmediately, but the gap had already opened, allowing Prince Alexander to stab Ishtar’s sword past Drox, under Bex’s arm, and into her stomach.
