I’d won.
Around us, the crowd of onlookers gasped.
It must have hurt like a bitch when his wings met the rock, but the pain didn’t even register on his perfect features. “Tammuz,” he said, his voice rasping.
It was glowing now—the star of Lucifer on his forehead. I reached down to touch it.
“Your real father,” I said. “He’s the one who gave us these marks. To cause chaos.”
He grazed his fingertip over my forearm, and I realized it was the spot where the tattoo of the skeleton key marked my skin. “Is it true?”
Orion’s blood had spilled down his front and started to dry on his neck, but the gash in his throat was healing already.
I shrugged. “It’s what he said. But I don’t trust either of you to tell the truth, so who knows?”
“He told me you were after my crown.”
I leaned down, so mesmerized by the thrill of victory that I nearly forgot the silent crowd around us. “He was right.”
He cupped my jaw and whispered, “This was a painful way to get your legs wrapped around me again. But maybe it was worth it.”
I slid off him and rose to my full height, surveying the hushed crowd around us. Orion got to his feet by my side.
The crowd of onlookers stared at us silently, as if they were still waiting for more bloodshed. I almost had the sense that this trial had been a disappointment for them, that they’d craved a fresh, beating demon heart pumping on the stones, and all they’d gotten were some broken wings.
I caught Shai’s attention as she stood near the front of the crowd, her eyes wide. She beamed at me, grinning. Legion stood by her side. The leader of the Sathanas Ward wore a crisp white shirt, his sleeves rolled up to show off his tattoos. His long black hair was tied up. On the other side of her was a blond demon with piercing amber eyes and thorny tattoos coiling over his forearms, spiky swirls that wound all the way up to his neck. With a faint smile, he nodded to me—almost a bow. Shai’s new friend, I assumed.
By my side, Orion’s body faintly glowed with silver like the moon we were celebrating.
I raised a hand. “City of Thorns! You have two leaders now, a king and a shadow scion. And when the trials are completed, I hope to be your queen.”
“Do not try to win my favor by hurting her.” Orion’s voice boomed. “The ancient laws of the demon trials protect her, and I will personally tear out the heart of anyone who lays a finger on her.” He held my gaze for a moment before turning back to his subjects. “The woman you see before you is not the monster who murdered the Lilu. Don’t make the same mistake I did. This is Rowan Morgenstern, not Mortana, and the two of them could not be more different.” He cast a sidelong glance at me. “Rowan is welcome here, and as king, I will be giving her the best I have to offer until the trial has ended.” His smile was truly dazzling.
The incubus charm offensive.
And with his gracious speech concluded, darkness swept around him. He slipped into the crowd again, enveloped in the shadows.
Lucifer was the original Lightbringer. His twin, Tammuz, reigned in darkness. And here was Tammuz’s son, a creature of chaos and night.
Was there anything else I didn’t know about him? Another godlike power I hadn’t yet seen?
As ever, Orion was always keeping the truth about himself hidden in the darkness.
5
ROWAN
Orion had disappeared without explaining what I was supposed to do, so I figured I might as well enjoy myself. This was, after all, a festival. Long ago, a Lilu like me would have been to plenty of these. The music swelled in the air again, and mortal servers rushed around with trays of pastries and champagne.
Even if I was only a shadow scion, I was being treated like a queen already. A small crowd had formed around me, and someone handed me a champagne flute. Another person handed me a small crescent-shaped cake with silvery frosting. I bit into it, delighted to find that someone had decided the moon should taste like chocolate and raspberry.
Shai stood by my side, and given the way she was swaying, I guessed she was on at least her third glass of bubbly. “I swear to the gods, Rowan. My heart was in my throat the whole time. I really can’t handle this shit.”
Next to me, a woman with platinum hair and a silver dress leaned in closer. “What was he saying to you when you were fighting? Was he proposing a truce?”
Orion was predictable, even to them. He’d been fine with exiling me weeks ago, but now that I’d returned to challenge his power, he’d decided that teamwork was the way to go, and maybe I could drop the whole idea about taking his crown from him.