Garden of Serpents (The Demon Queen Trials #3)(31)

Exhausted, I closed the wooden shutters, in case any rogue assassins were watching me. My clothes smelled faintly of woodsmoke from the accidental fires I’d lit in the forest today.

A buried worry snagged at my thoughts as I slipped into a pair of shorts and a tank top for sleep. Orion had never had the chance to learn magic, either, but like everything else, it came naturally to him, easy as breathing.

My ears perked at the sound of the door opening in his room. I crossed to the door, pressing my ear against the wood to listen.

And I nearly fell into his room when he pulled the door open. He arched one of his dramatic black eyebrows. “Yes? I heard you breathing against the door.”

You’d think I’d be used to it by now, but the sight of him shirtless took the breath from my lungs. His skin looked bronzed in the warm light, his silver hair lit up from behind like a halo. I forced my gaze from his muscled chest to his devastatingly perfect face. His skin was so golden.

I leaned against the doorframe, trying to look casual.

He opened the door wider, motioning for me to enter. Of course, it was extremely stupid to step into his room when he was shirtless, but here I was, walking in anyway.

“Cotton candy,” I whispered to myself. “Queen Elizabeth.”

He turned, his glacial eyes striking in the warm light. “Did you just whisper cotton candy and Queen Elizabeth to yourself? I remember recently you suggested that I was losing my mind, but I now wonder if you were projecting. That’s the word, isn’t it?”

“Have you been reading psychology books?”

He shrugged. “I read everything I can.”

“How did you hear me breathing on the other side of the door?”

“Demons have incredibly good hearing.”

He sat on the edge of his bed, leaning back. His posture, unfortunately, highlighted his perfect body, gilded in the candlelight. I thought of that kiss—deep and sensual, like he was fucking me with his tongue.

“Rowan?”

“Yeah. Here.” I dragged my eyes up again and tried to put my thoughts together. “My hearing isn’t that amazing.”

“You’ve lived your whole life as a mortal. It would probably be overwhelming for you. Maybe you just need time to get used to it…like you need time to learn how to manage your Lightbringer power.”

I sat as far away from him as the room would allow and found myself perched awkwardly on the edge of a chair. Why did I find it so hard to relax around him, as if we hadn’t already had sex and traveled to the underworld together? As if I didn’t—at this point—know him better than probably any other living person? As if we hadn’t just kissed passionately last night?

“What did you mean about the Lightbringer power being dangerous?” I asked. “And how have you learned to manage it? You’ve hardly had much more time than I have with your magic.”

“No. But I’m naturally good at things, and you’re…not.”

“Oh, my God,” I muttered.

“Really, Rowan, you needn’t address me that way, although I suppose I am technically divine. Thanks for telling me about that, by the way. But Your Majesty is perfectly fine for me.”

I stared at him, uncertain if he was joking. But what difference did it make? I was here for one reason alone: information. “Tell me how you know the Lightbringer power is so dangerous if you don’t actually have firsthand experience of this danger, since—according to your theory—you just naturally do everything perfectly.”

“Oh, I didn’t say I do everything perfectly. I make plenty of bad decisions. I’m just good at things. Like you said, I’m basically a god—”

“I didn’t say that.”

“But to answer your question, I’ve felt it happening. The power of starlight streaming from my body. And the things it touched…it was like all the matter around me was falling apart. Turning into dust that could be swept away with the breeze. It was like the world crumbled around me.”

I sucked in a sharp breath at this horrifying image. “So how did you control it?”

He rose. “Stand up, love. I’ll show you.”

At what point did I stop hating that he called me “love”? As I stood, I caught a glimpse of his eyes brushing down my body.

Heat rippled off him. “I think magic is different for us than it is for other demons.” He spoke quietly, and his deep voice was making my pulse quicken. “Most demons are simply trying to call on their magic and make it as powerful as possible. For us, I think we have to temper it. Some emotions are hot and full of energy. Anger, passion, love. Even fear. Others are dark and cold, like sorrow and loss. And it’s the cold emotions that temper it.”

Just hearing Orion speak the words passion and love made my blood pump harder.

“When you want to summon magic,” he said, “you draw on the hot emotions. That’s why you were able to call up enough magic to kill the congressman. Try it now. Think of something that fills you with an intense emotion.” He reached out, gently touching me just above my belly button. “This is where you feel it first, right? Between your ribs?”

Heat radiated from the point where his finger contacted my white cotton tank top, and my gaze flicked down to the V just above his trousers.

“Yes.”