Garden of Serpents (The Demon Queen Trials #3)(62)

“Yeah, we’re not doing that in public,” I said. “Though if you’d asked me a few days ago, when I was writhing in the depths of chaos and lust, I’d have been up for any kind of fucking with any kind of crowd. As it is, the Lilu will have to be happy with light and dark coupling away from their prying eyes.”

Orion nodded. “The rest is fairly normal for a festival. Dancing, eating, a reenactment of Astaroth’s descent into chaos, and the ritual slaughter of a bull so the Lilu leaders can bathe in its blood.”

I cleared my throat. “I might skip that part?” He looked so freaking happy, though, I almost wanted to do the bull blood.

If it weren’t for Orion, I would absolutely stay inside and read a book for a few weeks. But after all this time, he had his people back, and he wanted to celebrate—so I’d try out things the Lilu way for tonight.

“The Lilu are already in the Asmodean Ward.” His unguarded smile was a thing of beauty. “We’ve been repairing the windows, cleaning out the dust. And at night, they’ve been swooping through the air, circling the city.” Orion stood. “Come with me. I have a dress for you.”

Gods, I loved seeing him like this. He took me by the hand, leading me back upstairs and into the room that I’d first stayed in. There, he’d laid out a dress for me—one both stunning and daring at the same time. It was a sheer material of midnight blue, beaded with tiny pearls in the shape of a constellation. A little slip under the dress would hit me below the hips, and it would just about cover my breasts and tummy, but the rest of me would pretty much be on display through the transparent material.

Still—I was a Lilu, and this was normal for them.

Not to mention, I was fairly certain that everyone had already seen me completely naked when Orion had returned with me in his arms from Sudbury.

“It’s gorgeous,” I said honestly. And alongside the dress was a necklace—silver that curled and twisted like delicate vines—and a crown to match, the silver vines dappled with pearls. “All of it is gorgeous.”

The idea of Orion picking these things out for me, thinking of what he’d like to see me in, was beyond delightful. I slid my hands around his waist, pressing my head against his chest. I loved listening to his heart beating.

But a worry still nagged at the back of my mind.

I pulled away from Orion and looked up into his face. “Did you hear anything about Shai?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know what she was thinking, Rowan.”

I slumped down on the bed next to my dress. “But you killed all the demon hunters. And she wasn’t with them?”

“She’s just gone, love. She ran away. But we’ll find her eventually.”

I was ruining his joy over the festival and the return of the Lilu after all this time, so I smiled at him as I sat on the bed. We would find her.

Kas had told me not to trust anyone—not even him. Not even Shai. But I knew her, and she’d never disappear on me without a very good reason.

Hadn’t I just discovered that people would do terrible things when survival depended on it?

I’d turned into a chaos god to keep Orion safe.

If Shai had turned on me, she must have been desperate.





*



When I crossed into the Asmodean Ward for the festival, I felt like a goddess in the dress. The sheer material caressed my legs, and the silk covering my breasts and hips was heaven on my skin. But even if I felt like a goddess, I was perfectly happy to stand on the edges of it all, watching the festival unfold.

Music from stringed instruments filled the air, melodies that were both new and familiar at the same time. I had the unnerving sense that I’d carried these melodies in a part of my soul. A drum beat steadily, and a lilting song rose above it all—a man with a beautiful countertenor voice. Tonight, the air was perfumed with jasmine, and incubi and succubi swooped through the air overhead, wings spread under the moonlight. The joy here was palpable, infectious. I found myself laughing for no reason.

After hundreds of years, the Lilu had their magic back, and the gift of flight. Once dark, the Lilu quarter had come to life again, and it thrummed with happiness. A star rising from the darkness.

Demons of all kinds danced wildly around the clock tower, and the golden hands moved once more, marking the time now as seven past nine at night. By Orion’s side, I sipped an exotic Lilu beer, spiced with orange peel and safflower, and sweetened with honey.

Orion’s face shone with joy as he looked out onto the festival, the dancers who moved in graceful arcs like the whorls of a solar system. He leaned down to kiss me on the lips.

When we pulled away from the kiss, the crowd was chanting for us both. Long live Queen Rowan! Long Live King Orion!

Technically, I wasn’t queen yet. But they seemed to accept me as one already, and Orion slid his arm around my waist and leaned down to kiss me on my temple. Warmth flickered through me, and I wanted nothing more than to get him away into the Elysian Wilderness so we could reenact the primordial coupling of light and dark. Just—in private.

As if hearing my thoughts, Orion warmed the shell of my ear as he whispered, “I’m dying to get you alone, my queen.” Heat flared across my chest, and I wanted to wrap myself around my demon king and drag him into the wilderness before anyone made us bathe in bull blood.