Garden of Serpents (The Demon Queen Trials #3)(73)

*



My muscles had gone tense, and a quiet rage coursed through my blood.

The last time I’d trod this path, it had been on a mission to beat Orion in the first trial. Now my body hummed with fury at the thought that Kas had laid a finger on him.

So as I approached the old stone overpass—the one that shielded a secret door into the city—I focused on masking my true emotions.

I stood before the vine-covered door under the bridge and knocked on it four times. Our signal.

A little flicker of magic crackled over the door, and Kas pushed it open. He looked exhausted, his eyes shadowed. His blond hair was wild.

I swallowed hard as I stared at him, schooling my features. “Kas. I’m so glad you’re here to help me.” The words tasted like acid on my tongue.

He ran a hand through his hair, feigning anxiety as we walked through the dark tunnel. We were both wearing masks here.

“He wanted to execute you as a traitor, Rowan. I had to do something. Even if it was dangerous. Orion would destroy our city, and he’d hunt you down. I couldn’t accept either.”

Acting cool when my mind was racing at a million miles a minute has never been my thing. Months before, I could barely handle the pressure of giving a psychology presentation. And now here I was, strolling next to a powerful enemy, on the way to break a demon king out of jail.

Even if I wasn’t good at acting cool, Mortana was. My sister, my dark shadow. I let my hips sway a little, pure composure, as Kas led me into the dungeons.

“I feel stupid for letting him fool me again,” I said, my voice steady. “I actually thought he’d changed. But he’s just the same Orion who threw me out before. How did you capture him?”

“It wasn’t easy, but I used the venom. The demon hunters taught me that, I guess. I imagine this is an old secret of theirs, the way they stopped the Lilu from fighting back all those years ago.”

Underneath my placid smile lurked a deep well of fury. “Thank you for looking out for me, Kas.”

We crossed into the dungeons themselves. In here, a haunted sense of pain thickened the air. It slid into my lungs and settled in my bones as Kas led me to Orion’s cell and pulled out an old iron skeleton key to unlock the door.

My heart was ready to shatter as I looked at Orion, who lay unconscious on the floor. Kas had locked him up in his old cell with his arms bound. His dark eyelashes swept over his cheeks, still beautiful as ever, even now.

Legion’s warnings played in the back of my mind: The moment Kas realizes something is wrong, his claws will be in your chest, ripping out your heart.

“I know this will be hard for you, Rowan,” said Kas, his voice dripping with feigned sympathy. “But I also know you’re a survivor. And a protector. You won’t let him destroy you or our kingdom.”

I stepped into the cell and glanced back at Kas. Behind him, the noose swayed in a phantom breeze.

“Could you give me a minute alone with him?” I asked.

A muscle twitched in his square jaw, but then the bland smile returned. “Of course.”

He stepped back into the shadows, and I crossed into the cell.

I reached into my pocket, and my fingers tightened around the syringe filled with the antidote. But as soon as I started to pull it out, I could already feel the burst of Kas’s smooth magic wrapping around me, tendrils of silk that slid around my neck, cutting off my air.

That was when I understood exactly how powerful Kas could be—even down here, where magic started to fade.





44





ORION





It was her scent that made my eyes flutter open, and the warmth of skin bathed in light.

For a moment, I wondered if I’d died. Of course she’d be the first person I’d think about in the afterworld—her presence. And it was as if I could feel, that deliciously warm magic like the glow of summer. The scent of ripe fruit…

My heart went still. I couldn’t feel her now. A dreadful silence hung over me.

I opened my eyes, and my blurry gaze swept over my cell walls. With a hazy sense of dread, I wondered if this would be my afterworld. Just—here. Forever.

Rowan.

I felt her soul calling to mine. My fingers flexed behind my back.

Maybe I wasn’t dead, then.

My heart still beat. And tiny rivulets of strength were flowing through me once more, from my thigh upward.

I glanced down to see an emptied syringe jutting from my upper thigh, and from that syringe, strength was coursing through my body. The antidote.

Where was Rowan, then?

Fear snapped through my nerves, making my muscles go rigid.

Someone was screaming nearby. A male voice I hated…

“You think you’re the hero?” he was bellowing. “A leader chosen by finding a magic crown? Or a book? Fucking trinkets and games? A twenty-two-year-old with no magical knowledge. What the fuck do you think you deserve?”

I strained my gaze upward again. And that was when I saw her—

She swiped her claws across Kas’s face, drawing blood. But his retaliation was swift and brutal. Spidery tendrils of his magic bound her arms. He lifted her by the throat, his claws springing from his fingertips—

My blood roared.

I would end him. I would tear him apart, piece by piece. I would feed these old stones with his blood.