Garden of Serpents (The Demon Queen Trials #3)(14)

When he’d shut the door behind me, I’d felt relieved.

My room faced the sea. In here, oak bookshelves lined two of the pale stone walls, and a few candle flames cast warm, dancing light over the room. A bed stood by the open balcony doors, covered in a cream duvet and enormous pillows. A wood table stood next to it, and a brass lamp for reading.

When I surveyed the whole room, my heart squeezed hard in my chest. On one of the walls hung two portraits of my parents, taken from their mansion in the Asmodean quarter.

In a daze, I walked closer to them, staring. Before me was the father I’d never known, Duke Moloch—the same red hair as mine, fading to blond around his chin, plus high cheekbones and dark brown eyes like mine. Next to him, my mother looked out over my head, her dark hair piled high—elegant in a way I’d never known her.

The gilded frames looked brand new.

Why, exactly, would Orion reframe these and bring them here? He hadn’t known I was coming tonight, I thought. He must have left the festival after the trial and rushed around to get this room set up.

I stared up at Mom. Of course Orion was trying to make me comfortable. He would do whatever he could to get me to let down my guard.

When I glanced at the bedside table, I saw a pen resting beside a small pad of paper, which seemed like an odd touch. But when I moved closer to it, I realized it wasn’t just any pen. In a daze, I traced my fingertips over the little glittery rainbow symbol on the side, slightly worn with time. Here it was—my lucky pen. I’d been carrying it the night I’d met Orion. Which meant, of course, that it hadn’t been very lucky at all.

Still stunned, I turned it around in my fingertips. He’d kept it all this time? I’d even asked him for it in the prison cell, and he hadn’t given it back.

All these charming attempts to win me over…

I dropped it on the table and turned to eye the rest of the setup.

On the wall overlooking the sea, light streamed through a glass door. When I looked outside, I had a view of a balcony made of sand-colored stone. Beyond a low stone wall, the dark silver-flecked sea stretched out forever, blending into the night. Gorgeous.

I opened the door and stepped out into the salt-tinged air. As a demon, my vision was so much better, and I could even see stony islands far out to sea, silvered in the moonlight. The waves pounded against the rocks below me. Tucked in one corner of the balcony, a small, heated pool released curls of steam into the dark sky.

When I peered over the balcony, I found soldiers lining the shoreline. Who did they expect to be coming out of the water? If I had to guess, Orion had probably told them to report to him if I flew off this balcony.

With a sigh, I crossed back into my new room and shut the balcony door, then ripped a piece of paper off the pad. I scribbled a note to Orion:



I don’t need this anymore.





With the note finished, I pulled the door open. In the dark palace hall, two guards stood across from me. I walked up to one of them and thrust the note and pen into his hands. “Please give my regards to the king when you return this pen to him.”





*



The morning sun washed over me as I walked through the meandering streets of the Luciferian Quarter, looking for somewhere to get breakfast. A servant had knocked on my door this morning, offering to bring me food, but I wanted to get out and stroll around in the daylight.

On one side of me, a canal ran between stone walls, sparkling with gold morning light. On the other side, vine-covered stone homes lined the cobbled road, their roofs sharply peaked. I paused to look in the window of a shop selling curiosities and magical items for witches—a human skull, vials of blood, and large books of magic, their spines etched with silver writing.

Mortal witches learned magic from demons at Belial University and at universities in other demon cities. If a mortal became very, very good at magic, he or she could become a witch.

And for the next trial I had in mind, we would be summoning a powerful dead witch from the underworld. Thus, I had nine days to master necromancy.

I pulled the door open, listening to the tinkling of bells as I stepped inside. The walls in here were painted black, and bell jars lined crooked shelves—stuffed birds, a brass hand with contorted fingers, and jars of herbs and potions.

A mortal man with a long beard sat behind the counter, staring at me. “Shadow scion…” he muttered.

When the bells chimed behind me, I turned to see Kas in the doorway, leaning against the frame. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing tattoos of stars on his forearms. His chin was tilted down, and a smile ghosted over his lips. A lock of his messy blond hair fell before his eyes. “Shadow scion,” his deep, rough voice rumbled over the room. “We’ve been looking for you.”

My eyebrows rose. “We?”

He turned to step outside and held the door open for me. “Shai and Legion. Breakfast awaits you.”

I followed behind him, squinting in the bright sunlight. “Do we have plans?”

He turned back to me with a little smile. “We do. I’m making us pancakes and coffee, and then we’re going to figure out how to make you queen.”

Intrigued, I walked beside him. “You told me not to trust you.”

“Absolutely do not.” His eyebrow quirked. “But I’m going to help you anyway.”