CHAPTER 15 #4
“Of course there’s a way,” the princess said, giving him a smile so warm and genuine that it made her carved face look almost real.
“All princesses love their princes, but I loved you more than I was made to from the very beginning. I loved you so much that Gilgamesh considered it a flaw and tried to fix me, but he could never make it go away, because it wasn’t a princess’s love.
It was mine. I wanted you for myself, Leander, and that’s why I’m not afraid.
I know that whatever form I end up in, there will never be a version of me who doesn’t love you. ”
Leander didn’t make a sound, but tears were rolling down his face by the time she finished.
“Is this—” He stopped to swallow. “Is this really what you want?”
“Yes,” she said, her gold eyes moving nervously to the white hand that had almost broken free of the sap. “Keep your promise, Leander. Set me free. Break this prison Gilgamesh built and let me be myself again. Please.”
That “please” was the final straw. As soon as his princess begged him, Leander started muttering under his breath.
Adrian’s ancient Sumerian wasn’t good enough to follow what he was saying, but Mara’s must have been, because she started sobbing in relief.
Her carved body heaved against the sap prison as the spell went on and on, building in power until Adrian could feel it crackling over his skin like electricity.
Even Alexander glanced away from his fight with Bex for a moment, but he either felt no need to stop it or couldn’t take the risk, because the Crown Prince didn’t interrupt his brother as a crackling ball of power built in Leander’s hands.
It grew until it looked like he was holding a miniature black hole, spinning above his fingers with a high-pitched whine so sharp it felt like a knife was stabbing into Adrian’s ears.
Then, just before the noise became unbearable, the prince pointed the crackling ball at Mara.
“Royal Verse Fifteen,” he said in a shaking voice. “Heavenly King’s Eternal Banishment.”
Adrian ducked and covered as Leander finished, but there was no explosion.
All he heard was a pop as the crackling ball floating in front of the prince’s palm vanished, and so did the princess.
There was no shattering of enchanted ivory, no scream of pain.
The Princess of Sorrow was simply gone, and stuck to the sap where she’d been was a woman’s elegant hand with a thick black ring on its graceful finger.
Leander fell to his knees in front of it and dug his bloody hands into the sap to retrieve the only part his beloved had left behind.
This, of course, got him stuck immediately, but he didn’t seem to care.
He just knelt there, clutching the queen’s hand until Adrian finished unsticking Nemini and moved over to start rubbing solvent on his brother.
“You did the right thing,” he told him softly as he worked.
“It doesn’t feel that way,” Leander muttered, staying perfectly still even after Adrian got him unstuck. “She was my world, and I destroyed her.”
“You put her happiness above your own,” Adrian said, patting his brother on the shoulder. “That makes you her prince in a way Gilgamesh’s power never could, and I’m sure the real Mara will feel the same way when we bring her back.”
Leander’s shoulders were still shaking, but he nodded, clutching Mara’s hand to his bandaged chest like a talisman. He did not, however, stand up.
“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 are you not 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 you did get 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.