Lord of Embers(The Demon Queen Trials #2)(30)

“Orion, what’s next for you?” I asked quietly when no one was around. “After you kill Cambriel and take over the city, what do you plan to do with your power? You haven’t told me.”

“I think I’ll start with reclaiming everything they took from us.”

I raised my eyebrows. “When you’re done, will there be anyone left in the City of Thorns to rule over?”

“Let’s assume some of them are smart enough not to get in my way.”

As we walked further into town, the buildings became more crowded. Dark-wood houses leaned over the road, and I could no longer see the shore. By now, the sky was darkening over the sea, streaked with periwinkle and crimson.

From here, we could see the City of Thorns in the distance. I’d nearly forgotten it would be here, too, but there it was, crowning Osborne’s tallest hill, its golden walls shrouded in mist.

I stared at it. Was a little Orion in there, imprisoned in their dungeons? Could he be stopped from becoming the damaged person he was now?

I grabbed his arm and nodded to the east. “What happens if you go in there?”

He leaned in close, his lips near my ear. “I tried it. It doesn’t work.

You can’t get past the walls. And the Dying God tells me all tragedies are replayed here. They cannot be stopped.”

I nodded, and we started walking again, closing in on the dark forest.

On the street where I’d lived—now Walcott Street, with the Dollar Store and Dunkin’— the buildings had grown more sparse. This was Witchcraft Point.

Gallows Hill, that craggy slope, rose up to our left. There on the ledge, beneath the jagged bough of an elm, dangled the bodies of four women.

The bough creaked and groaned beneath their weight, the sound carrying on the wind like a phantom,

That was where I’d been hanged in the vision. A little tendril of horror wound through me. From here, I couldn’t see their faces, but I could see that their hair hadn’t turned gray. They were young, like me.

In a man’s world like this, you could get in trouble for being old and ugly and past your prime. Or you could get in trouble for being young and tempting. Women like that made a man sin. And that, of course, was your fault, too.

I glanced at the four corpses as we went by, their bodies stiff and gray.

I stole a quick glance at Orion. When power was in the wrong hands, it was dangerous as hell. No way should Orion have absolute power over a kingdom. He was damaged, broken, obsessed with revenge.

He would be an absolute nightmare. Executions, purges, torture—probably a slow and painful death for me, if he still thought I was Mortana.

“Why do I feel like you’re scheming something?” Orion purred in a velvety tone.

I blinked innocently. “Because you’re delusional and deeply paranoid?”

A quiet, joyless laugh escaped him, and his pale eyes were luminous in the dusk. “Scheming and evading. How very Mortana of you.”

The wind toyed with my red hair. Was it possible that Mortana was just looking out for herself when she’d sold everyone out, because she had to?

We headed north into the forest. I thought my old house was right around here, and I wished I could travel to a different time.

The wind howled through the trees ahead, rustling the leaves as we approached the edge of the woods. In here, snow and ice encrusted many of the trees, and waxy orange mushrooms ringed some of the trunks.

T ake th e rin g,

fell th e kin g.

T h e city yet w ill th rive.

It was starting to feel like an instruction—one that my parents had left behind for

. Not for someone like Orion.

me

The question was, how could I possibly defeat him?

Clearly, he was more adept at killing than I was, and I’d made an oath to tell him about Cambriel’s ring.

As we moved through the trees, the sun dipped lower, staining the treetops blood-red. Under the forest’s canopy, shadows spread out, and a crow screeched, piercing the air.

In the forest, the air smelled of moss and soil. Snow fell heavier than before.

I felt the cold caress of something powerful, electrifying in these woods. A magic that drew me inexorably closer, beckoning me. I wanted to go deeper into the forest, to taste danger.

The distant howling of a wolf raised goosebumps on my skin.

We moved on through the trees, our footfalls crunching over frosty leaves. Maples and hickories grew tall around us.

Orion’s eyes beamed from the shadows, luminous and demonic.

“Rowan, do I sense fear? Are you afraid of the woods?”

“Maybe not fear. Sadness.” I blew out a cloud of breath, my mind flashing with the worst night of my life, racing through the trees to get away from my mom’s killer. With most people, this is where I would lie to them. No one

wanted to hear about something that terrible. But really

with Orion? The darkness didn’t scare him. “My mom burned to death in these woods.”

He stopped walking, his gaze locked on mine. “And what is it that makes you scared?”

I blew out another cloud of breath, thinking about his question.

“Memories. I’m afraid I’ll remember what happened that night.”

A line formed between his eyebrows. “Are you worried it was you?”

I felt the breath leave my lungs. “No. But there are still things I can’t remember.”