Garden of Serpents (The Demon Queen Trials #3)(23)

The door burst open, and a muscular frame stood silhouetted against the hallway light.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Orion’s voice came low and controlled from the doorway, and his eyes were on Jasper.

Jasper’s eyes glowed from the shadows. “I will not relent until your orders are complete. As you said, Your Majesty.”

Orion’s muscled body looked coiled with tension—a snake about to strike. “I commanded you to keep her safe.” He turned to look at me, glowing with golden light. “Did he hurt you?”

Furious magic still crackled through my body. Whatever was going on here, it only reaffirmed one thing: in the City of Thorns, things were never quite as they seemed. “Nothing that will last.”

Jasper’s dark eyes were intent on me. “Even if you tried to stop me, Your Majesty, you said I must—”

The air went icy, and Jasper lunged for me, his ivory claws drawn. But in one swift move, Orion swung for him, using his claws to slash Jasper’s heart out of his chest. With a snarl, he threw the heart onto the floor, and Jasper’s pale body crumpled to the tiles.

Blood covered Orion’s arm and chest, and he turned to look at me, his body beaming with light. “What happened to all the soldiers I stationed around the palace? Why did none of them intervene?”

I stared at him. “You’re asking me? They’re under your command. I was asleep.”

“Come with me,” he said abruptly. “You can’t stay here, obviously. It’s not safe.”

“He just said that you ordered this.” I followed after him anyway, eager to get away from Jasper’s corpse.

In the hallway outside, a single soldier stood in the marble hall. Orion stalked over to him and gripped him by the neck, lifting him high into the air. “Why did you let someone in here? You were tasked with keeping the shadow scion safe.”

The demon’s green eyes were open wide, his mouth moving wordlessly. Orion was crushing his throat.

“I don’t think he can answer you like that,” I said.

Orion dropped the soldier, and the force of his body hitting the floor cracked the tile. The demon’s face turned white as milk as he stared up at Orion. “Your Majesty? You asked us to let him in. You ordered all the other soldiers to leave, and you asked me not to intervene, no matter what.”

Orion stared down at him, and he took a step back like he’d been hit. “When did this supposedly happen?”

“Thirty minutes ago…” the soldier stammered, looking baffled.

Orion stared at the solder, then at me, as if he was expecting me to answer this conundrum for him.

I folded my arms. “Did you stage all this, all by any chance, so you could swoop in and save me?”

A flurry of emotions crossed his features. “And what purpose would that serve, exactly?”

“To get me to trust you.”

His withering look drilled into me. “If I wanted to create an opportunity to save you, do you really think I would have done such a terrible job? If I’d set this up, do you think I’d leave all these loose ends of people telling you about it?”

He had a point… I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe you’re preoccupied with panicking about how I’m going to steal your crown.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Clearly, someone enchanted my soldiers. This is obvious mind control spellcraft. Someone is trying to put us at odds with one another. Someone is trying to make you think I’m a threat.”

My nose wrinkled. “That would be a waste of time, considering we already are at odds with one another.”

Orion’s eyes dipped down for just a fraction of a moment, his jaw clenching. Only then did I realize I was braless, in a tank top and underwear that were still wet from the rain. Ah, but that was power. I stepped closer to him. “Tell me, how did you know I was in trouble at that exact moment?”

He pinned me with his intense gaze. “The same way I knew you were in trouble in the underworld. I felt my heart racing, and for a long time, I didn’t remember what that sensation was. But then you reminded me. It was fear. And I feel it when you’re in danger. We are connected. We are the twin Lightbringers, and I know when you’re not safe.”

“Hmm. I’ve never felt you in danger.”

“I’m never in any danger,” he said impatiently, like it was a ridiculous concept. “Not since I got out of the dungeon.” He stalked down the stairwell. “You’ll be staying with me now. I can’t trust anyone but myself.”

“But can you even trust yourself, Orion?” My voice echoed. “Because maybe you’re losing your mind.”

He pivoted and marched up the stairs again toward me. With a stony expression, he scooped me up in his powerful arms, like a groom carrying a bride, and carried me down the stairs.

Warmth from his skin slid over me, and I felt acutely aware of all the points of our bodies that made contact. Orion wore a thin black sweater, underneath which I could feel his muscles moving as he carried me. Outside, the air was a cool salt mist—and Orion’s body was all steel and heat wrapping around me.

“I’m perfectly capable of walking,” I said. “And I was also about to kill Jasper on my own.”

Orion’s pale eyes stared straight ahead as he carried me out of the palace. “You were moving too slowly.”