Garden of Serpents (The Demon Queen Trials #3)(11)

Kas turned away from him, stalking back to the festival. I felt a twinge of disappointment. It would actually be nice to have a group of friends for once.

I cut Orion a sharp look. “This is a little stalkerish, don’t you think? Following me and chasing off my new friends?”

He cocked his head. “Everyone hates our kind. We are the last two left, and I’m not letting anything happen to you. Besides, I need to show you to your new room.”

“You’re not letting anything happen to me?” I started walking quickly, even though I had no idea where my new room was. “Not long ago, you kicked me out of the city and left me to fend for myself, with no magic, surrounded by demon hunters who want me dead. And I’m supposed to suddenly believe you care about my safety?”

“I didn’t leave you,” he said smoothly. “I had guards watching over you. First in the hotel, then in Shai’s aunt’s house.”

I swallowed hard. “Guards?”

“Anna, with the pink hair. And her cat, Taffy. I thought you would have noticed them.”

“Hmm.” Don’t trust him, Rowan. I’d come prepared for his charm, and my iron defenses would withstand it. “So nice of you to look out for me. And yet, you killed my half brother Cambriel, knowing that all I wanted was to avenge my mom.”

When he met my gaze, his large blue eyes gleamed. “I made a promise, too, Rowan. A vow to all the Lilu dead that I would avenge them. It’s why I must be king. And I knew you’d try to stop me, but I made an oath of vengeance to Ashur before I watched him dragged to his death. I promised it to the memory of my mother. To each of them.”

I inhaled deeply. “But that’s not what’s best for the demons who live. Starting a war with the mortals.”

Silence stretched out between us, and I listened to the sound of the Acheron rushing past. “I went to find you, Rowan,” he said at last. “When you were still in the underworld, and I finally realized you weren’t Mortana. I woke one night with this terrible realization that you’d died. Not Mortana, but Rowan. And I felt like my heart had been ripped out.” He touched my elbow, leading me away from the river and under a dark archway.

A shiver of pleasure rippled through me from the point of contact, where his fingers were brushing against the back of my arm. Clearly, his incubus magic was still affecting me, because desire swept down into my belly and settled there, making it hard to concentrate. “Okay,” was all I could muster.

“Why would I feel your death, Rowan, unless we were connected? We are the twin stars. Our fates are entwined.”

My heels clacked over the stones and echoed off the narrow alley. Iron defenses. “I’m not giving up the trials, Orion, if that’s where you’re going with this. Where are you taking me, by the way?”

“To your new palace.”

“Palace?” I repeated.

“In the Luciferian Ward, near me.” He turned to look at me, his eyes piercing the dark. “Listen, when I thought you were dead, I traveled to the underworld. I was desperate to find you again if I could. And I really didn’t know I could feel like that anymore.”

“Like what?”

With a sharp intake of breath, he looked away. “Anything,” he said vaguely. “I didn’t know I could feel anything for the living. And after I passed through Purgatory and found Tammuz, he knew exactly how to get inside my head. He knew exactly what to say, because it had been my mantra for centuries. He knew all along exactly what I’d experienced with Mortana. Tammuz didn’t lift a finger to stop it because the chaos delighted him. He played us both, don’t you think? He just wanted to be entertained.”

“What did he say to you?” I asked.

Orion stopped walking and turned to me. “He said, ‘Orion, don’t you know that you should never let yourself hope?’ He knew that was the lesson I’d learned from Mortana. Letting myself hope was what killed me slowly in the dungeon. Mortana used to promise me I would be released, only to laugh in my face every time I believed her. But maybe it’s time I stopped taking my lessons from her.”

“Does that mean you no longer want revenge?” As soon as the question was out of my mouth, I was already wondering if I was simply falling into Orion’s seductive trap again.

Instead of answering, he led me into an alleyway that opened into a rounded courtyard where myrtle trees bloomed. Their crimson petals scattered over the stones like drops of blood. Here, the air smelled of salt and lemons. It smelled like home to me.

On one side of the courtyard was what I could only assume was the palace—three stories, with turrets and narrow, glowing windows. A few chimneys rose from the roofs, and the star of Lucifer was engraved above enormous oak doors. Buildings ringed the courtyard—stone with steep peaked roofs, some with balconies. Cute place.

Orion turned to me. “I made a promise to Ashur that I would get revenge. I didn’t specify what it would be. But I believe the demons must be free, or it could happen again.”

“Setting the demons free would start a war.”

He studied me. “You mean the mortals would start a war. But we would win. And it’s my responsibility to protect demons, not mortals. If mortals want to engage in a suicide mission just because we’re no longer trapped in here, then that sounds like their problem.”