Garden of Serpents (The Demon Queen Trials #3)(53)

Demon hunters were racing around the large halls, shouting orders at each other. They passed by me, completely unaware of my presence. One of them slammed the door shut behind me, and the sound echoed off the stone.

Quietly as I could, I raced toward the chancery. I sprinted through the eastern wing, counting four doors on my right. Then I slipped into a stone room with stained glass windows that let in flecks of colored light. A wooden cabinet stood in one corner. Legion had found the safe—and the grimoire—in there.

But as I approached the cabinet, a loud bell started ringing.

“Lockdown procedures in place,” a voice boomed over the intercom. “Demons have been identified in the building. We are initiating lockdown procedures.”

Breathing hard, I knelt before the safe to whisper the unlocking spell. A thrill rippled through me as the lock spun and the door clicked open. Relief loosened my breath as I pulled out the leather-bound grimoire—though it was much smaller than I’d expected. And much newer, too.

When I cracked it open, I found that it was not a grimoire at all, but a list of ordinary names and addresses.

My stomach clenched. Fuck. Had Orion already found the grimoire, then? Or had the demon hunters known to move it?

My gaze snagged on one of the names in the book, my heart hammering.

Giuseppe Esposito, 8 Gallows Hill Road, Osborne MA. Missing since September. Believed to use glamour to appear older. Likely dangerous. Missing.

I flipped to the start of the book, my hand shaking as I read the handwritten inscription: Suspected Lilu Fugitives.

The book had about a dozen names and addresses spread all over the world. Holy shit.

There were more of us out there. Suddenly, this felt like a bigger find than the grimoire. Maybe Orion and I weren’t the last Lilu after all.

My heart hammered. I stood and sniffed the air. Faintly, I smelled cedar, the scent that had become like home to me. I was now starting to understand what Orion had meant about demon senses being heightened—and overwhelming. Because along with Orion’s smell, there was a whole lot of blood and burnt hair and skin, pungent human sweat, and other things I absolutely did not need to think about.

I tried to tune out the clanging of alarm bells, just focusing on Orion’s smell to lead me to him. Still completely invisible, I crept down the hall. In the wide corridor, mortals rushed past, armed with long rifles. Did they think they could stop us with bullets?

And only now did I listen to catch some of what the mortals were saying to each other.

“One of those Lilu fucks is leaving a trail of bodies behind.”

“The grimoire is gone,” someone bellowed.

“How are we supposed to find them if they’re invisible?”

My blood roared. How did they know we were Lilu, specifically? The only people who knew exactly what was happening today were Orion and my three friends—and yet, the mortals had known exactly who to expect today. So who the fuck had passed along this information?

I had no idea where to look now, so I simply followed Orion’s scent—until an arm shot out and pulled me into a small library. The door slammed behind me, and I whirled to see the shadows unwrapping from Orion.

Despite my perfectly laid plans, someone had fucked this up. I felt more stunned than angry, unable to accept that one of my friends could have been so careless with this secret.

A smile played about his lips as he lifted the grimoire—a faded, deep green book with chipped gold text. “Looking for this?”

A sharp tendril of disappointment coiled through me. “Do you want me to fight you for that? Because I will.” I glanced behind me at the closed door. “But why are you still here? Why didn’t you leave with it?”

His expression grew serious as he held out the book to me. “I want you to trust me.” He wasn’t quite meeting my eyes, because I was still invisible, but he was looking in my general direction. “It’s yours, Rowan. The book. The crown. You can have them.”

I felt like my heart was about to burst. I didn’t know what to say, so I just took the book from him, and I watched as my cloaking spell made it disappear. “I can’t believe you’re giving it to me.”

“I trust you to make the right decision.”

I inhaled a shaky breath, hardly believing this was real. “How did you know where to get it?”

“The same way I always learn things. I found a demon hunter and started breaking his bones until he gave me the answers I wanted.”

Maybe it would’ve been better if I hadn’t asked. “I have something for you, too, Orion.” I handed him the book of Lilu names, watching it materialize as I handed it to him. “I think there are more of us out there. The demon hunters have been tracking some of the Lilu.”

He flipped through the pages, his body glowing. “Holy hells, Rowan. Do you think this is real?”

“I recognized one of the names, Mr. Esposito. And yeah, I think he could be a demon. He’s the one who told me about the trials. He was friends with my mom.”

He stared at me with a kind of awe. “Maybe revenge doesn’t have to be a massacre. Maybe it can be the return of the Lilu that these fuckers tried to exterminate.” His forehead furrowed, and a wicked smile curled the corners of his lips. “But I’m still going to kill the demon hunters, and I’m going to enjoy it.”

“Can we at least get the books out of here before you incinerate everyone? We can get out quickly at the southern exit. Shai’s waiting for us there to unbolt the door in case of a lockdown.”