Lord of Embers(The Demon Queen Trials #2)(22)

In my mind’s eye, the image of a beautiful man with bronze skin flickered before me. Black hair, cheekbones sharp as blades, eyes like pale gold…

My heart fluttered at the sight of him.

If th ou w ilt con fess th e tru th , th ou sh alt be free. W e d esire n oth in g more.

T h ou

sh alt

n ot

h id e

th y

gu ilt.

Dost

th ou

d esire

to

be

Qu een

of

Hell? Con fess! A crow n j u st for th ee, a w icked star u pon th y h ead …on ly con fession may save th ee from etern al flames…

My skin was growing hotter, my pulse racing.

Con fess. Con fess. Con fess!

I opened my eyes again. I could still feel the sensation of a speeding car, but before me was a room made of crude wood and men behind a bench, dressed in black clothes and steep-peaked caps.

The image shimmered away again, but a primal fear shuddered up my nape. Through the blur of the windshield, I saw that Orion was trying to steer the BMW between the trees off the side of the highway.

He no longer seemed in control of the car.

Con fess!

“I don’t know if I’m Mortana!” The confession surprised even me. “I don’t remember what happened to Mom. Part of me liked killing the demon hunter. He deserved it. I didn’t have any control over this.” The confessions were flowing out. “Once, I forgot to pay for a coffee at Starbucks, and I didn’t go back. It was a latte. When I’m alone, I say random words like ‘corn muffin’ and ‘oyster crackers’ in ridiculous accents. I have a priest fantasy. When I was depressed in high school, I spent a month doing nothing but watching , and I started to

Love Islan d

speak in an English accent. I had a sex dream about Orion two days ago, but then he turned into a spider, and it was still kind of hot? I pulled the fire alarm once in high school when I had a test—”

My stomach dropped, and I felt suspended in air for a moment before falling.

I slammed onto soft grass, landing hard with an exhale of breath. I stared up, my body buzzing. Overhead, clouds slid past, the lifeless gray of Earth in winter. I stared up at them, dazed and winded. Crows flocked overhead, squawking. I still gripped the leather backpack, clinging to it like a lifeline.

Slowly, I rolled over and looked around to get my bearings. Where was Shai?

The air had the sharp bite of winter, even in early September. An icy gust swept through the trees, strewing fallen leaves in a whirl of bright colors.

I surveyed the world around me. I was lying halfway down a steep, rocky hill that overlooked a valley. To one side, the terrain sloped downward to a dark forest with towering oak trees. On the other side, a hill led up to ancient walls with turrets and towers. Moss grew over stones worn with age. At the bottom of the fortress was a series of dark, misshapen caves. Orion stood near one of them, dusting himself off.

Faintly, I heard screams coming from the caves. Fear prickled over my skin.

Shivering, I got to my feet and slid the backpack over my shoulders.

It was about twenty degrees colder here, and my teeth were chattering.

It was then that I realized my clothing had completely changed. I wore a long black dress with an extravagant lace collar and long sleeves.

My hair was tucked in a bonnet of some kind. As far as I could tell by the freezing gust of wind rushing over my legs and ass, I was still in the same little underwear I’d been wearing before. But everything else had changed.

This was my goth Puritan look taken to an extreme.

I pulled the backpack off again and searched through it. Everything seemed intact—the money, the water bottles, and the snacks.

Orion ambled closer to me, and I realized his clothing had changed, too. He wore a long, black cloak, and he stalked over with a wicked smile on his lips. “I turned into a spider? I’d love to know what happened in your sex dream before that. Care to elaborate?”

“Oh, good. You heard all that.”

He adjusted the front of his dark cloak. “Tell me. Do I look like a priest in this?” A low, velvety laugh. “That’s what you like, isn’t it?

Priests and me?”

“Oh, my God.”

“Those were really your worst confessions?” He stepped closer, looking down at me. “You forgot to pay for a

?”

latte

“Am I supposed to feel bad about not being a serial killer?” I looked down the craggy slope. “Where’s Shai?”

“She’s mortal. She can’t cross over. She’s in a far safer place than we are. She’s still in Massachusetts.”

I stroked my fingers over my rough clothes. “So, this is Hell.”

“Not quite yet.” He nodded at the caves up the hill. “We will enter the underworld through there. And first, we go through Purgatory.”

An agonized scream echoed out of the caves.

“Cool,” I said. “Can you give me an idea of what to expect from the torture caves?”

“You can expect demons tormenting you, obviously. But you don’t need to worry. It’s only mental torture. It’s just Belphegor demons fucking with your head. They call it the purification, but don’t ask me why. You’ll come out physically intact. And as an added silver lining, I can no longer feel the power of the oath here, so I’m not going to murder you. Probably.”