Lord of Embers(The Demon Queen Trials #2)(41)

“Maybe.”

He held my gaze for a moment, then let out a long breath. “I want to get you somewhere warm. Your eyes look unfocused. We’ll look for the Dying God again tomorrow.” He took my hands between his and chafed them, staring down at my fingertips. “You’re starting to get frostbite.”

My thoughts were going dim, like someone had covered them in a dark, fuzzy blanket, and I felt myself falter.

Orion scooped me up in his arms, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, warming myself against his body. As he carried me, I rested my head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. “Why don’t you feel the cold?” I mumbled.

“It was always cold in the dungeon,” he whispered, picking up his pace.

I half wondered how he was going to explain the state of us, but with his warmth enveloping me, I was staring to drift off. I listened to the sound of Orion’s heart, feeling strangely safe wrapped in the arms of my enemy.





C H A P T E R 2 2 — R O W A N

I woke naked in Orion’s arms.

He gave me a crooked half smile. “There you are.”

Frowning, I surveyed the candlelit room around me.

Thick wooden beams crossed the ceiling above Orion’s head, and the walls were plain white. A four-poster bed stood in the center of the room, and a copper tub steamed beneath a shuttered window. A fire burned in a hearth, filling the room with the scent of burning cedar.

My head was still bleary. “Why am I naked, Orion?”

In here, the ceilings were so short, he had to hunch. “Because I’m going to get the blood off you and thaw you out.”

Carefully, he lowered me into the warm bathwater. At first, the shock of the heat on my frozen fingers and toes made my breath catch, and it almost stung. It felt like my fingers were swelling, but within moments, the warmth was pure bliss. I sank deeper into the water and rubbed my fingers together. “Where are we?” I asked.

“The Putnam Tavern.”

“Ah, you charmed her again, did you? How did you explain that I was naked and covered in blood?”

“I told her that we and the other Malleus Daemoniorum members

found the evil in the forest, and that a terrible fight ensued. But she really wanted to know about your wicked thoughts. She suggested that tomorrow, you should make a public penance for your unnatural desires.”

I stared at him. “I believe you had some of your own unnatural desires.”

“Always.” He leaned down next to the tub, a cloth in his hand.

Gently, he washed my face, dabbing the cloth into the water.

But that was all it was, wasn’t it? We’d jumped all over each other because we were Lilu, out of control in the magic of the woods. I sank deeper into the water. “Are you going to fill me in about your revenge plan? Why was Tammuz asking about that?”

I stared at his achingly beautiful face, at the silvery hair that skimmed his sharp cheekbones. His eyebrows were thick and dark, a sharp contrast to the paleness of his haunted eyes. “I don’t like to discuss nightmares directly before bed.”

He washed the blood from my skin, then pulled the cloth away, his gaze shuttered. “I’m going to see if Goody Putnam has some clothes you can borrow.”

When he left the room, the ache in my chest increased. No matter what happened between us, he would never completely trust me. And he’d never apologized for the things he’d said.

When the bathwater started to cool, I rose. I didn’t see a towel—in fact, I wasn’t sure they had them in the old days. Crossing to the roaring fire, I dried my naked body by the flames. I won’t lie, I loved the heat of the fire, but it was hard not to think of this inn as a slight death trap without fire magic to protect me. This place was lit by hearths and candles and had zero fire alarms. When my body had dried off, I put my underwear back on, the only item of clothing I still had.

Normally, before I went to sleep, I’d scan through my phone looking at Instagram or text messages, or something with a connection to the outside world. Something to make me feel less lonely. But I didn’t have that here, so I grabbed my father’s note out of my backpack and slid under the sheets.

I unfolded it, staring at my father’s neat, blocky handwriting.

Lon g live Kin g N ergal. Lon g live Kin g N ergal. Lon g live Kin g N ergal.

I traced my fingertips over his words. It wasn’t exactly easing my loneliness, but it was sparking my curiosity.

Why the hell would someone write this and save it?

As I touched the letter, I felt something in the paper—the tiniest of ridges. I frowned and held the note up to the firelight. My breath caught. There, tiny pinpricks of orange light streamed through the paper —little holes that formed delicate letters.

My heart sped up. This was a primitive system for encoding a message.

Pulse racing, I deciphered the contents of a letter addressed to my mom.

A ria,

I fear my time h ere is ru n n in g ou t. T h e false prin ce, my d isloyal son , is imperviou s to my th reats to allow u s to retu rn . He d oes n ot kn ow of ou r

beloved

creation ,

Row an .

I

h ave

spoken

w ith

th e

Dyin g

God .

He

con firmed ou r fears. If th e Lord of Ch aos su cceed s, th e mortal realm w ill bu rn .