Lord of Embers(The Demon Queen Trials #2)(42)

On ly

Mortan a’s

ka

can

reign .

On ly

th e

th ird

Ligh tbrin ger

can

restore u s. I w ill retu rn to you as soon as I can .

—Moloch

I read the letter again and again, trying to make sense of the words.

I was shocked to see the Lord of Chaos mentioned, and the Dying God

too, And my name! For the first time, my suspicions had been confirmed —Aria and Moloch were my true parents.

My thoughts spun, and I glanced at the door. How much time did I have until Orion returned?

Some of this was simple. The false prince, his disloyal son. That was King Cambriel, my half brother.

My heart was slamming against my ribs.

golden Lightbringer stars—the marks of Lucifer. Me, Orion, and T h ree

—Mortana? They’d referred to us like we were two different people.

If th e Lord of Ch aos su cceed s, th e mortal realm w ill bu rn .

That… did not sound great.

Here it was at last, some proof that I was not who Orion thought I was. My heart stuttered to life as I read the words again.

On ly Mortan a’s ka can reign …

I was the third Lightbringer.

But I had no idea what a ka was. An identical daughter? And why

did he call me a “beloved creation”? That wasn’t really a normal way to refer to a family member. It sounded like Frankenstein’s monster.

I closed my eyes, and the vision of Cambriel played in my mind again. According to this letter, my parents had been threatening him.

And if I had to guess, they had the same leverage as Orion. They were threatening to let the world know he wasn’t the true king. And unlike Orion, they were easier to kill to get rid of the evidence.

Footfalls creaked outside, and I folded the note up again, shoving it into my little leather bag. The door opened, and Orion crossed into the room, a dress slung over his arm—and a shawl this time. Nice.

I watched him, an idea blooming in my mind. I had to take the crown from him. There were only two people I’d ever truly trusted in this world: my mom and Shai. Mom believed I should be queen. And you know what? I’d make a better ruler than he would. He was completely unhinged.

I watched Orion as he pulled off his shirt, and the firelight wavered over his powerful body.

I wanted to tell him—at last, I had proof that I wasn’t Mortana. My parents thought we were two different people, like I’d been trying to tell him all along. Every childhood memory I treasured was real, not a fabrication. The Christmas mornings with just me and Mom—all of that was real.

But given what else this letter included, I knew I had to keep it a secret. No reason to let him know I was coming for his throne.

I pulled the blankets over my shoulders and rolled over, staring into the flames. Flickering in the dancing tongues of fire, I thought I saw forms moving. Writhing.

Orion and my parents had been blackmailing the king in their own ways—Orion for money, my parents for their own goals. But unlike Orion, they hadn’t been strong enough to fight him off.

Just like my mom had sacrificed herself in the woods, I wondered if my father had died to save me. Maybe they wanted back in the City

me

of Thorns with them. As demons, we were safest there.

With the blankets tucked around me, I closed my eyes. Images were burned into my mind—Cambriel, with his glowing sigil, had ripped out my father’s heart in front of his house, then burned his body to hide the evidence. Cambriel wasn’t going to allow them to blackmail him.

If th e Lord of Ch aos su cceed s, th e mortal realm w ill bu rn .

Maybe, now that I was a demon, I hungered for power, too. Not because I wanted to burn the world down, like Orion. It seemed the only way to stay safe. When you had no power at all, the world chewed you up and spit you out.

I felt the mattress sag as Orion got in and his body warmed the bed.

I stole a quick look at him. Firelight danced back and forth over his enormous muscles.

“I don’t suppose Goody Putnam had pajamas for me?” I asked.

He slowly turned his sultry gaze on me, and I felt my core grow tight. “I’m afraid not, love. In any case, Goody Putnam argued that you won’t need clothes for your public penance tomorrow. I’m quite looking forward to it. It will be a delightful event for Osborne.”

“She’s really into this.” I stared at him. “She’s the kinkiest person in this place.”

A knowing smile. “Not sure about that. I was locked in a dungeon most of my life. I’ve hardly had the chance to explore yet.”

He was flirting with me, but I wasn’t going to give him the chance to hurt me again.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “As I recall, you said you felt nothing for me and that your attraction to me was the desperation of a Lilu to feed, nothing more. I thought we both understood that’s all this was.

That what happened in the forest was

the effect of magic. We don’t

j u st

like one another, right?”

He looked at me, and for a moment, I thought I saw a flash of hurt in his eyes. Then a bland smile appeared on his face, his eyes half-lidded with indifference. “Right. Like I said before, we are all alone in this world.”

That was a very Orion outlook.