Garden of Serpents (The Demon Queen Trials #3)(18)

“Go ahead.” Shai waved a hand at me. “Put it in psychology terms. I know you want to.”

I exhaled. “It’s like how creativity works,” I said. “There are the dreamlike states in your occipital cortex. That’s like the gods’ power, the raw, unshaped creativity. And your prefrontal cortex at the front of your brain needs to organize them into something meaningful.”

Legion stared at me, then blew a strand of black hair out of his eyes. “Sure. Whatever. Maybe just try the spell.”

He handed me the book, opened to a page with a short spell, and I took it from him.

I scanned the text, inhaling deeply. The Demonic alphabet was different than ours, and I had no magical ability to read it, sadly. Luckily, there was a phonetic translation on the right side of the pages.

“What does this do?” I asked.

“It’s a simple spell,” said Legion. “Just bringing clouds into the sky. Anyone should be able to do it.”

Shai glared at him. “It’s not that simple.”

Legion smiled at her. “In the future, I’ll remember that you have all the sensitivity of a mortal, and I will phrase my thoughts more carefully.”

“It’s okay.” She smirked at him. “Someday, I’ll learn to be condescending and emotionless like the rest of you.”

“But emotions and passion are our source of strength,” he murmured. “We just save them for the most important occasions. Like magic, and…other things.”

They stared at each other, holding eye contact for so long, it was starting to get uncomfortable.

“Right.” Kas sighed and pointed at the book. “Ignore them, and channel your emotions. As you read the spell, keep your intention in mind. Envision the clouds. You’re directing the magic of the gods. There are two fundamental pillars of magic, power and control. Understood?”

First, the power. That came from emotions, so I held the book open in my hands and envisioned Orion’s face. Always good for stirring up some feelings. Anger mixed with regret when I conjured the perfect contours of his face. My blood started to warm up, and I felt the air grow more humid around me. A faint glow beamed from my fingertips.

With my magic summoned, I started to chant the spell as it was written out, careful with my pronunciation.

But when I glanced up at the sky, I was frustrated to find that sunlight still streamed through the leaves.

“That was good,” said Shai. “Maybe just a bit more emotion.”

I stared at the book, summoning more magic. This time, I thought of Orion swooping down to murder Cambriel. Kicking me out of the city. My mind was aflame with a sense of loss.

Fire sparked in my chest, and it began coursing through my blood as I read the spell. Around me, the wind began to pick up, rushing past. My gaze flicked up again, still seeing blue.

I chanted the spell again and again, and in the hollows of my mind, I heard Orion speaking, his voice cold and emotionless: Escort this woman out of my realm.

As I read the spell, light started beaming from my body, illuminating the book’s pages. They began to flutter and flip in the wind. Magic crackled around me, and my chest beamed with power. The wind whipped at my hair, and iron-gray storm clouds spilled like ink across the sky. Lightning cracked the clouds, searing the air. As it touched down at the top of a nearby oak tree, an electrical charge sparked from the soil up into my feet.

“Rowan,” shouted Shai above the wind. “Too much! Too much!”

Above, the sky opened up, unleashing torrents of ice-cold rain and pelting us with hail. As the wind lashed the trees, leaves caught in the currents and tumbled through the air. The lightning strike had lit the oak on fire, and it blazed like an enormous torch under the dark sky.

“Fuck.” Kas pushed his dripping hair off his forehead. “We’re going to need to work on that control part.”





11





ROWAN





Soaking wet, gripping hot cups of tea, the four of us sat around the roaring fireplace in Kas’s home. He’d given each of us soft blankets with which to warm up. None of us had managed to stop the rain and hail, and it still hammered the windows, threatening to crack the glass. On the plus side, the ice storm had managed to extinguish the blazing oak tree very nicely.

The two men sat shirtless, showing off their muscles in the dancing firelight. Shai and I weren’t complaining.

“Why don’t we start next time with something less dangerous?” asked Shai.

“The floating paper,” said Legion. “It’s one of the first things students learn in magic school. A simple spell, and no trees will catch on fire.”

Kas slid me a devious look. “I wouldn’t rule it out.”

“We have time,” I said. “There are still nine more days.”

“You’ll be fine.” He nodded. “Only those blessed by the gods can get this far. At least, that’s how the story goes.”

“The story?” asked Shai. “You’re not a true believer?”

Kas shrugged. “The gods seem a little insane to me. Any being as old as time must be demented. I sometimes wonder what it would be like if we just voted for a leader instead of leaving it up to trinkets and the whims of the gods.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Legion.