CHAPTER 6 #3
“We did it!” she cried as golden fires flared back up all over her body. “Ishtar said it was impossible, but we did it! We did it! We did it! We did it!”
Her voice was borderline hysterical by the end, but Adrian didn’t want her to calm down. He just hugged her back, leaving the flying to Bran and the panicking to Boston as the four of them dropped out of the sky toward the grass-covered square.
They were still ten feet above the ground when Bex suddenly hopped off the broom.
She lit back up as she did so, exploding in a column of fire that missed Bran by inches.
She raised her sword at the same time, greeting the enormous crowd of demons, who were all screaming so loudly that their voices shook the ground.
There was so much chaos that Adrian didn’t realize the packed square was crammed with more than just demons until he set his broom down beside her.
“I don’t believe it,” Boston said, pushing the brim of Adrian’s hat down with his paws as he climbed onto his witch’s head for a better view. “Did your mother bring the entire coven?”
It certainly looked that way. It was hard to see through all the celebrating demons, but there was a torrent of Blackwoods coming into the square.
Black-dressed women were pouring out of the rootway and zipping through the branches of his tree on their brooms. From what he could feel through his new roots, they’d brought their support staff as well, all the partners and adult children and other family members who weren’t witches but still lived under the Blackwood’s protection.
It looked like a full-on invasion. Bex’s demons were still too excited about what their queen had done to pay the witches much attention yet, but the crow-shaped Morrigan was watching the incoming army with pride from her perch on top of the Hells’ Gate, completely ignoring the very angry-looking Lys, Iggs, and Nemini who were standing in front of her.
“Oh, ho, ho,” the Morrigan laughed, finally turning her beak to the demons, who looked like they were about to jump her. “You see? It turned out exactly as I said. Now get out of my sight before I change my mind about eating you.”
If she’d said that to Adrian, he would’ve scrambled away as fast as he could, but Lys had always been fearless. All they did was flip the giant crow off before leaping off the black cube and flying down to their queen on their dusky, still-bandaged wings.
“Bex!” they cried as they landed practically on top of her raised sword. “You did it!”
Bex responded with a whoop that made Adrian’s ears ring, grabbing Lys out of the sky and spinning them around.
It was absolutely not something she should’ve been doing given the state of Lys’s shoulder, which was already bleeding through the bandages again, but Adrian couldn’t bring himself to tell Bex to stop.
Lys was already falling to their knees on their own, staring up at Bex with an expression of holy wonder.
“I still don’t believe it,” they said, raising a trembling hand. “Your horns, your sword—Ishtar has given us a miracle!”
It might’ve been Adrian’s imagination, but he would’ve sworn Bex flinched at Ishtar’s name. Whatever the look meant, though, she hid it immediately. Or maybe the expression was shocked off her face when Nemini ran over to grab Bex’s head.
“You have a new name,” she announced, peering deep into her sister’s glowing eyes.
She said that like an accusation, and Bex flinched again. Before she could reply, though, Iggs elbowed his way in.
“Who cares about that?” he cried, giving his queen a crushing hug before whirling to point at the cloud of dust rising from Gilgamesh’s broken palace. “Did you see what she did to that tower?” He slammed his fists together with a fang-toothed grin. “Oh, it is on now!”
“Gilgamesh won’t know what hit him,” Lys agreed, looking more fired up than Adrian had ever seen them as they surged back to their feet. “So what’s the plan from here? Fly back up and chop off some more architecture?”
Both of those questions were aimed at Bex, but she turned to look at Adrian instead, grabbing him by his shirt sleeve and pulling him down so she could whisper in his ear.
“What is the plan?” she hissed. “The witches are here because of you, right? What are they planning to do?”
“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 crew from 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 carving I don’t take orders from you into 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 who can fight 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. I want 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, stepping onto the ridge of Bran’s back before tapping his foot to launch them all back into the air.