Garden of Serpents (The Demon Queen Trials #3)(59)

“Where is she?”

“Back in Osborne.” He cradled his knee, tears running down his face, his features contorted. “You killed my father. You killed my brothers. And now you’re going to end me. This is why we hunt you,” he shouted. “Because you’re monsters!”

I knelt next to him. “You and me both. You nearly tortured Orion to death. What’s Shai doing in Osborne?”

“Orion isn’t who you think he is, either. He’s forever stained by his sins. Did you know he killed his mom?” Streaked with dirt and blood, Jack looked up at me from the ground. “All they had to do was put snakes in his cell, let them slide all over him until he shrieked for mercy, and he sent his mom to her own death.” A wild laugh escaped him. “Your big bad demon was scared of snakes.”

“He was five, you fucking maniac.”

“Only the blood of demons will cleanse the world of all your sins. It’s the sacred duty of the Hunters to spill it.”

I gritted my teeth. “Except you’ll all be dead soon, Jack. We’ll hunt down and wipe out every last one of you. And when that’s done, we’ll have peace between mortals and demons. Too bad you won’t be here to enjoy it.”

Jack was shaking. “You grew up among us, Rowan. What if you joined us again? No one needs to know. Your friends betrayed you. And Orion will, too. Demons aren’t loyal. They only look after themselves, like animals.” He was desperate now, white as milk. “You can’t trust the Lord of Chaos. The man is insane, Rowan. Of course he is. He condemned his own mom, and then he spent the rest of his life staring at the scene of his crime, staring at the noose that killed her. Dwelling on his sins, on how rotten he is underneath, because that’s what demons are. Abominations.” He yelled at me. “And when we carved his chest, we marked him for his sins, we spilled his blood to force him to atone, the way Cain was marked as a murderer!”

As he was speaking, my body had been growing hotter, brighter. They’d done this to him—tried to break him. They’d branded him with the guilt of condemning his mom when he was no more than a little boy. Jack was both a physical and mental sadist.

I heard myself say, “You’re wrong, Jack. I’m not like you. Maybe I’m an abomination, but I’m a demon, not mortal. And I’m loyal down to my bones. I’ll keep those I love safe.”

“Then show some loyalty to the mortals you grew up with!”

Fire raged in my mind, and my voice echoed off the stone of the grist mill. “I’ll keep the innocent mortals safe. But that’s not you.”

Starlight spilled around me as my wrath lit up the world. It was a strange sort of ecstasy to let myself go.

I was the light descending into darkness. Lady Lucifer, the fallen.

Jack’s screams spiraled into the air, and traces of blood and bone, earth and rock drifted upward, swirling around me as I took him apart, a maelstrom of destruction. I was the nightmare, and I would take the wicked down with me. I let the light flow out of me, and I opened myself to the darkness.

Empty inside, I devoured the world. “I am Chaos, the eater of worlds,” I heard myself whisper. “I was the first to exist, and I will be the last.”





33





ROWAN





Shadowy nightmares flooded my mind. Now I lived in a palace of ice, of crushing solitude.

I am the nightmare.

Thoughts spiraled in the darkness of my mind, tiny whirling galaxies in darkness. Heat did not exist here.

I wasn’t sure if I existed…

I died, I think…my body consumed itself in its fury, and my soul along with it.

Order and chaos…a light falling into the underworld.

Shadows consumed my light.

I am infinite. The alpha and omega.

I ached for warmth again. For him. A beautiful, fallen god—so perfect that the shadows desired him for their own. I among them wanted to devour his beauty.

A craving split me open, and I was grasping for him.

I could feel again. I needed to consume that light…

If I could feel, I was alive.

Someone I loved kissed my throat and jaw. What was his name?

My nostrils flared as I smelled him on me. And along with his scent, the faint perfume of lavender soap was bringing me back into my body.

I craved. I hungered. The chaos inside me demanded to be fed.

My muscles were warm, slick, and limp, and water dripped down my body. I wanted to be naked, to feel the fallen god’s bare skin against mine.

He wasn’t giving me what I wanted.

Cotton covered me, damp with warm water. Muscled arms wrapped around me, then laid me down in a bed of cool, clean sheets. The sensation of the sheets against my skin, that smooth and light friction, was an erotic torment that made me feel as if I were swelling with need.

He tried to pull away from me, but I wrapped my arms around him. My fingernails were in the bare skin of his back, pulling him closer. Distantly, I heard myself moaning for him. The fallen god was what I needed, and I knew he was the one who could fill me with light again. I licked his neck, tasting him. My skin felt sensitive, desperate for his touch. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to bite him or fuck him. Both? I needed to devour.

“Rowan?”

I opened my eyes, looking up at perfection. Blue eyes, golden skin, angular jaw—a god of masculine beauty.