“You were never ordinary.”
She leaned over to pick up her coffee. “I wish I could help you in the trials. I could just hit Orion with lightning.” Rays of sunlight peeked through the clouds, gilding Shai’s brown skin and rose-gold cheekbones. “Exactly how broken and bloodthirsty is he?”
My breath quickened. “I mean, he spent centuries in prison thinking of nothing but avenging the Lilu. He feels like he died in that dungeon. Where his soul used to be, there’s now only lust for revenge.”
“Shit.”
“And that’s where you have to keep me on track, Shai. Because if I win this trial, he’s going to use every trick in the incubus playbook to throw me off. An incubus is seductive and charming, and he’s going to use all that to try to get me to quit. Not because he cares, or because he likes me. An incubus uses his beauty and magic as a weapon to control other people, and that’s exactly what he’ll do with me. An unrelenting, seductive charm offensive of sensual magic and pretty words.”
Shai arched an eyebrow. “Unsettling. But also weirdly hot at the same time?”
“The Lord of Chaos is all about mind games, but I absolutely cannot fall for it. If I seem like I’m going soft on him, please remind me that he shoved me out of the City as soon as he no longer needed me. He killed the man I’d been hunting, even though he knew it was my life’s goal. Remind me that he said I’m boring and that he doesn’t respect me.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Okay, he might be broken, but he doesn’t think you’re boring. Like, it’s obvious—he’s kind of obsessed with you, I think. Otherwise a king wouldn’t let his rival live. But yes, he’s all messed up, or he wouldn’t have said something so insane in the first place.”
He’d sort of taken it back in a moment of passion, but that wasn’t exactly trustworthy, was it? “That’s because we’re both Lilu. We feed off lust, and we’re the only two left. Our feelings aren’t real, just the deceit of magic.”
“Absolutely. Forget about Orion, because I really think you’ll like Kas. He’s got these huge muscles and these tattoos—“
“I’m all done with men, Shai,” I said, interrupting. “You know Queen Elizabeth I, the redheaded queen who never married? That’s going to be me. She was the best monarch England ever had because she didn’t have a man around getting in her head and trying to take over. She was married to her kingdom. That’s gonna be me.”
“Cool, but get back to me after you hear Kas’s voice. It’s deep and rough. You can’t have Legion, though. Legion is mine.”
“Really? You have something with the duke?”
Her lips curved. “I will. And if you go out with Kas, he might help you melt away this whole ‘bitter, sad woman’ vibe.”
“I’m not bitter,” I protested. “I just think most romance is bullshit. It’s cotton candy. It looks nice, and it tastes kind of good at first, but ultimately, it just makes you want to puke.”
“That’s a lot of rage you have for cotton candy.”
Our feelings for each other were an illusion, the product of Lilu lust magic. They were spun sugar that dissolved at the first sign of a storm.
She nodded. “No more Orion. I’m just saying there are better, less genocidal options who are also hot as fuck. You know, once you win the trials. Get yourself in a positive headspace before you come into the City of Thorns. Find a new man, one less murdery.”
Every inch of my body was tightening with resolve. “I’m perfectly happy. But what matters now is stopping a tyrant before he slaughters all the humans.” I lifted my coffee in salute. “And that all starts tonight.”
She heaved a deep breath. “Okay. But you should probably know that the demon hunters are completely staked out by the entrance, waiting for you to walk up to that gate.”
Anticipation crackled over me. “Good thing Orion showed me the tunnel system, then.”
3
ROWAN
Beneath the City of Thorns, the world was quiet as death. I stalked through the shadows in borrowed clothes, all black. A bag bounced against my hip as I walked, heavy with the weight of the gauntlet.
From under the city, I could hear vibrations through the stones—the sounds of dancing and singing.
In the initial trial by combat, no weapons were allowed. Fortunately, Tammuz had trained me to fight like a demon: unarmed, but using my claws as a weapon.