Lord of Embers(The Demon Queen Trials #2)(21)

My brain was scrambling to keep up. “Okay. It sounds peaceful. How is that hell?”

“How is that

hell?” he asked, baffled. “Alone, with nothing but n ot

your own memories. Having to live with yourself and everything you’ve done, with no distractions. That is actual torture, love. You can trust that I would know.”

I stared at him, trying to understand. “So that’s where we’re going?

Vermont?”

He shook his head. “No. Not Vermont.”

Shai threw her apple core out the window. “Right now, I’m aiding and abetting two criminals. The police could be after me. I’m starting to freak the fuck out. Rowan, you’re without a doubt the most anxious person I’ve ever met. Can you explain why I’m freaking out more than you?”

“Because anxiety is spending all your time imagining terrible situations that might occur,” I replied. “Whatever is happening right now isn’t a million times different than the apocalyptic scenarios I usually envision. Every night, I go to sleep thinking of the sun exploding tomorrow because the scientists have got the calculations wrong. So this isn’t as bad as that.”

“I see. And will I be arrested by the mortal police or by the demons?”

“Don’t worry about the mortal police,” said Orion darkly. “Anyway, I’ll need to drop you off soon, Shai. You won’t be able to come where we are going. We have to go through the turnpike.”

“The Mass Turnpike?” I asked, baffled.

“No. The Veil Turnpike. We’re going into the underworld now. It’s beyond the veil.”





C H A P T E R 1 2 — R O W A N

“W hat does that mean?” I asked. We were zooming along the highway. “The Veil Turnpike?”

“Well, since you don’t remember,” he muttered.

“Before the Great Mortal War, before I was born, the demons lived in the wilderness. Sometimes mortals sought them out, and demons fucked them or got drunk with them. Sometimes demons drank their blood. But really, it was a chance worth taking, given how boring the mortals’ lives were.”

Overhead, the sky darkened, and a chill rippled through the car.

“But some of the Puritans got nervous about it. So they set up rows of sharpened pikes, which had two purposes in those days. One, to create boundaries, and two, to display the severed heads of demons and other enemies. They liked to give warnings that way. Sometimes, at a turnpike, you could pay a toll to get through. They’d open the gate once you paid a price. And where we are going, love, we be paying a price.”

w ill

An eerie chill rippled over me, and I glanced up at the sky. It was darkening fast, the clouds starting to roil. A storm was rolling in, and it looked strangely unnatural.

Orion glanced over at me. “Open the glove compartment. I have gold and silver coins in there. We’ll need them where we’re going.”

When I did as he asked, the coins practically spilled out onto the floor. I started scooping them up, dropping them into my leather bag.

“Gold coins are for paying the toll, I guess?”

“Oh, no. It’s not that sort of toll, love.”

“What?” I asked. “How is it you can talk so much and clarify so little? It’s like the world’s shittiest superpower.”

Lightning cracked the darkening skies, and Orion cursed under his breath.

“Lord of Chaos,” said Shai from the back seat.

“Yes?”

“Weren’t you going to let me out first?” she asked. “It feels like something magical is happening now.”

Orion shook his head. “They’ve changed the location.”

“So what’s going to happen to me?” Shai’s voice sounded far way, like she was shouting from a distance.

I turned to look at her. She looked fuzzy, like she was covered in Vaseline.

Fear snaked up my spine. The car seemed to be moving at a terrifying speed, the world outside flitting past in a blur. I was in a car going ninety miles an hour, driven by a complete maniac. I couldn’t die in a car crash, but Shai still could.

I turned to look through the windshield again. Rain hammered against the glass. Green blurs rushed around us, and I think we’d veered off the road onto the grass.

“Can you slow down?” I asked.

“No.”

Phantoms seemed to rush past the window, mouths agape and eyes wide. A disembodied voice whispered in my ears, “Do you travel with the dark one? Do you come to see the devil himself?”

Inhuman screaming rose around me, sliding through my bones.

T h ou w icked creatu re. T h ou w retch ! T h ou h ast u n d on e u s bod y an d sou l. W e sh all n ot su ffer a d emon to live!

The voice grew louder, a chorus of voices around me.

Dark tree branches grew around the car, surrounding us like clawing fingers. Behind me, Shai was screaming.

T h ou h ast sacrificed th y kin ! W oe u n to th ee w ith w icked n ess in th y vein s!

“I did not sacrifice my kin!” I shouted.

The seatbelt tightened around me, choking me. I looked down. It had turned into a rope, one that snaked around my neck. My heart stuttered.

Dizzy, I closed my eyes, trying to master my control of myself. I pulled the leather bag closer, gripping it like it could keep me safe.