Lord of Embers(The Demon Queen Trials #2)(16)

We turned into living skeletons, our intestines decaying inside us. I’d have eaten Ashur if I’d had the strength to break into his cell.

Ashur slowly lost his mind.

He forgot words to the songs. He asked me sometimes, plaintively from the other cell, to remind him of his name. He forgot his wife and children, and every one of the relatives he’d planned to avenge. Even when the guards remembered our existence and the food returned, his mind was gone.

Ashur was no longer. The man left behind spoke only in shrieks, refused to eat, even when he had food. The king saw no reason to keep a madman alive. At that point, death would be a mercy.

And that is how you kill someone with a clean conscience. You break them first, until they are no longer worth keeping alive.

When they took him away, I stuck my head through the bars to watch him escorted to the gallows. Ashur looked like a phantom from another world, bones and gray skin, and teeth that seemed strangely long in his emaciated face.

Our gazes met, and for a moment as they dragged him off, somewhere behind the madness, I saw a command to avenge him. And then he was just another name among the dead, one only I would remember.

It was my job to make this right.

Only I remained—the true heir.

But why was it always the least deserving who survived? Why did Ashur go, and my mother, and the beautiful succubus who used to give me apples—why were they all gone, and I was still here?

I knew why. I’d been blessed with a natural ability to kill quickly and easily. I was the one who would feed the Lilu graves with the blood of their murderers.

Outside, a flock of crows soared over the pool.

Mortana—Rowan—whoever—seemed to hate me now. Good.

But I still felt like her prisoner, thanks to that one tiny ember of doubt. That one spark of red light in the darkness—that question.

Was it really her?





C H A P T E R 9 — R O W A N

I listened as Orion climbed the steps, and my pulse started to race. Shirtless, he stood at the top of the loft stairs.

“What are you doing here?”

He crawled onto the bed, hovering over me. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

Orion’s hard, demanding body pinned me to the mattress.

I stared at up his beautifully sculpted face with what I hoped was an expression of pure hatred. He was, as he’d always told me, the worst person in the world. It was impossible to believe in a benevolent God when someone this hot was also this terrible, so that left only the demon gods who’d made him.

My gaze drifted to his sensual lips, and my cheeks flushed. He chuckled quietly, a dark purr that made my skin heat. Right now, it seemed nothing in the world existed but us, and I had his complete attention. He didn’t find me boring at all now.

His smoldering gaze raked down my body, and his magic stroked my skin. “You’re mine now,” he said, his voice husky. His lips brushed over my neck, sending a forbidden thrill through my body. “Do you know how many times I’ve imagined claiming you?” he murmured against my throat.

Molten heat slid through my body. Each place where his body touched mine was sending forbidden shivers of pleasure racing through my blood.

“I don’t care.” I hissed. “I think you should know. I find you tedious and pathetic.”

His thigh slid between mine, parting my legs— An alarm sounded in my head.

No, not in my head. My phone was ringing. Well, that was good. I wasn’t sure if the phone charger I’d found last night would actually work.

But who called on a

Who even had my number?

ph on e?

Orion wasn’t here. I was lying tangled in the sheets of Mortana’s loft apartment. Alone—which was good. The first coral rays of sunlight pierced the dawn sky, streaming into the room. What sort of sociopath would call this early?

I brushed my fingertips over the scar on my stomach, disappointed to find it still there. It definitely hadn’t healed properly.

I picked up the phone and saw a missed call from Shai. She knew I hated talking on the phone.

I flopped back against the pillow. I needed coffee. Carl had promised coffee, hadn’t he? I wondered if he’d bring it this early.

I rubbed my eyes. Orion was the worst, but even he wouldn’t wake me with a phone call at dawn.

“Mortana!” Orion’s voice rose from below.

“I won’t respond to that name,” I shouted back. “I mean, not after that.”

“

. I couldn’t sleep. And while I was awake, wondering if I Row an

was making a terrible mistake, I noticed one of the king’s spies prowling around outside. He was trying to hide behind a cypress tree on the other side of the pool. Does anyone know we’re here?”

He was standing at the top of the loft stairs, shirt open and hair ruffled, not unlike the dream I’d just woken from, except this was much less fun.

“Does anyone know we’re here?” I repeated. Finally, the fog of sleep cleared from my mind. “Only Carl. Why?”

“I’m just wondering why the king might be spying on you, and if someone has already alerted Cambriel.” His eyebrows rose. “Hang on a minute. Who did you kill?”

“A congressman.”

He frowned. “I don’t think the king cares about mortal politics.”