City of Thorns by C.N. Crawford

Chapter 36

Iwoke in the darkness, tied to a chair. Pain split my head open, and my mouth was dry as a bone.

I smelled faintly of pee, but I didn’t want to dwell on that. I needed to think about how I was going to get the fuck out of this situation. Besides the pee, the air smelled like smoke—burnt cedar and maybe iron.

Wait—the burnt cedar was Orion’s scent.

“Orion?” I rasped. “I can explain.” I really fucking couldn’t, but it seemed like a good start.

Ropes chafed at my wrists as I tried to pull against them.

Footfalls echoed off stone, and when I turned my head, I saw a light shining from a tunnel. As it grew brighter, I could just about make out the contours of a small, arched space, like stone vaults underground.

“Rowan.” The rasping voice came from the opposite corner, and I turned to see Orion in the shadows. Apparently, he wasn’t the one who’d tied me up, because he was wrapped in chains. Blood poured from his shoulders and chest, and a pile of ash lay around him.

“Orion!” I shouted. “What happened to you?”

His eyes were drifting closed, like he was having trouble staying conscious. “Some fucking idiot mortal gave Nama a gun.”

“What?”

“She shot me and chained me up. I tried burning my way through the chains, but…I just burned the chair. I can’t summon any more magic right now, not when I’m riddled with bullets. I’m having a hard time…”

His bright blue eyes closed, and panic started to crawl up my throat.

The sound of footsteps grew louder, and Nama crossed into the room holding a lantern in one hand and a gun in another. Her white hair fell in perfect waves over a scarlet gown. “Hello, friends.” She lifted the gun. “This is fun.”

I glanced at Orion, but his eyes had closed again. He couldn’t actually die unless someone cut out his heart, but it hurt to see him covered in blood.

With all the shit going on, I nearly forgot that I was supposed to be Mortana. Time to summon the imperious attitude.

I tossed my hair over my shoulder. “What are you doing, you fool? Untie me at once.”

Nama’s eyes widened, and her hand flew to her mouth. “Or what? What will you do if I don’t untie you?”

Was she calling my bluff?

She lifted the lantern. “Andras! Gamigan! Lydia!” she bellowed. “She’s awake. Bring the mortal with you.”

“What are you doing?” I snapped. “You’re insane.”

“Oh, my slutty little friend,” she cooed. “Madness runs in your blood, not mine. There was a reason we had to kill your grandfather. The Lilu are abominations.”

Two of the dukes crossed into the room—the platinum-haired greed demon who led the Mammon ward, and a sloth demon with heavy-lidded green eyes from Abadon. And behind them, Lydia sauntered in—right next to Jack Corwin.

Jack?Jack was the idiot mortal who’d given Nama the gun. With his Alpha Kappa sweatshirt and old baseball cap, he looked completely out of place here.

My blood turned to ice, my thoughts whirling out of control. My two worlds were colliding now in the most terrible way possible.

Of course Jack was the idiot mortal in question. Right now, he looked fairly terrified, his eyes shifting from one demon to another. And when I looked closely, I could see that new bruises marred his face. His lip had been split, and purple bloomed over his cheekbones and jaw.

Nama handed the lantern to Lydia.

“What’s going on?” I demanded through gritted teeth. I could no longer keep up the pretense of being calm and collected. Right now, my shadow-self was nowhere to be found.

With a smug smile, Nama folded her arms. As she did, the gun went off, and she screamed. Bits of rock and sand sprayed over the room.

Jack held up his hands. “Careful with that!”

Nama frowned at the gun. “These things are confusing.” She shook her head. “Anyway, I had a hunch that you spent a lot of time around mortals, Mortana. You just seemed kind of grotesque like they are. You know, like an animal. A filthy, rutting animal.”

I curled my lips in a snarl. “Have you lost your mind?”

She shrugged. “So I did a little digging. I spent today hunting around Osborne until I saw a picture of your face in a trophy closet. A track team.” She wrinkled her nose and turned to the dukes. “Humans compete against each other in running races, even though they’re slow as fuck. But do you really think it’s fair for a demon to be on a mortal track team?”

My stomach plummeted, and I watched as she crossed to Jack. She gripped him by the hair, pulling his head back, then pointed the gun at his chin. “Then things got a little more interesting. This little fucker tried to shoot me. Apparently, he fancies himself something of a demon hunter.”

Jack was shaking violently. Holy hell.Was I on the same side as Jack right now? I didn’t like that at all.

Nama slapped him across the face with her free hand. “I beat him until he told me about the picture of Mortana. Except he said her name wasn’t Mortana. He said her name was Rowan Morgenstern. And he is quite sure that you’re mortal.” She let go of him and whirled to face me. “Apparently,he can smell demons.”

I shook my head, genuinely confused. “What?”

Nama pointed the gun at his pendant—the silver one with the hammer. “The Corwins are witch finders and demon hunters.”

Jack nodded, a frantic look in his eyes. “I can smell demons. I could hunt them, if I felt like it.” He held up his hands, his face pale. “But I don’t! I never have. I just carry the gun for protection. I thought Nama was a threat. I knew your kind are all around, and I knew you might come after me because of what my family did. That was why I tried to shoot Nama. It was just self-defense. I swear—”

“Be quiet, you fuckwit mortal!” bellowed one of the dukes, a man with long black hair. “We did not come here for your trial. We came here to try the succubus. Nama claims that she’s not actually a succubus. You’re here as a witness. That is your role.”

I flexed my wrists in the ropes. “And you all are the judges?”

Nama gestured at me with the gun. “The king seems taken with you, and he won’t listen to me unless I have witnesses.” She pointed the gun at the other demons. “These are my witnesses. What I really, really want is to attend a barbecue in the Tower of Baal, with a mortal whore as the main course. I haven’t eaten roasted mortal in a long time.”

Oh, God.

“Watch it with the gun!” said Jack, his hands up. “Since I’ve done what you asked, can I leave now? We had a deal. I told you she’s mortal. She smells like a mortal, I swear to God. Burn her, have your fun, just let me go.”

“Fine!” Nama barked. “I can’t kill you since I might need you later. But if I ever catch you hunting demons, I’ll rip your guts out through your mouth.”

Jack turned and sprinted out through the tunnel.

I kept squirming, trying to pull at the ropes, but there was no point. Since I didn’t actually have demonic strength, all I was doing was scraping my skin off. With a thundering heart, I turned to look at Orion. His eyes were starting to open again, and he met my gaze.

“Why is he here, Nama?” I asked.

She grimaced. “I want him to see that you’ve been lying to him. You’re nothing but a filthy little doppelgänger, aren’t you? I want him to realize that I was right all along. I’m the right person for him. And if you were actually a demon, you wouldn’t have such a hard time getting out of rope bonds, would you? It’s just rope.Any demon can break it.”

“Maybe I don’t care to prove myself to you,” I said breezily. “Maybe I don’t want to be part of your stupid little game.”

This was the very definition of being caught between a rock and a hard place. If I told them about the locking spell, I’d die at Orion’s hands. If I were a mortal, I’d die at theirs.

My body shook. “You think that he’ll love you after you shot him?” I asked. “You’re insane.”

She crossed to me, her eyes wild and fanatical. “He’ll see that I did it because I love him. All of this, everything that I’m doing, is for him. For us. We’re meant to be.”

Lydia crossed her arms. “Can we get on with it, Nama? Your obsession with him is frankly depressing, and it’s making me regret sharing a gender with you. I should have listened to Legion. The duke of the Sathanas Ward said you were a lunatic.”

“What, exactly, are we getting on with?” My voice was shaking so hard they had to know by now that I wasn’t Mortana. I sounded terrified.“I told you that I’m not participating.”

Orion’s eyes opened just a little wider, pure black now. I could feel the room growing hotter.

“Maybe you need a little motivation.” Nama pointed her gun at Orion. “Here’s how the trial will work. I’m going to keep shooting Orion. His knees, his hand. Maybe his pretty face.”

“You just said you loved him!” I shouted, sounding frantic. I couldn’t keep up the act anymore.

Her face beamed. “Yes, Mortana. And if I can’t have him, no one else will. That’s how much I love him.”

Lydia pinched her nose. “Oh, my God, Nama.”

“So here’s how the first trial works,” Nama went on. “You prove that you’re a demon and save him. Or you can stay tied to your chair like a weak little mortal and show him that you’re an animal.”

I gritted my teeth, my entire body shaking. “What if I don’t care what happens to him?”

Nama grinned, her eyes maniacal now. She turned to Orion. “Then you prove that you don’t deserve him! You don’t even care enough to get up to help him. And I care enough about him to do all this.”

“Excuse me,” the Duke of Mammon interrupted, his golden rings gleaming. “We’re not putting her on trial to see if she cares about Orion. I just want to ensure we’re not giving our hard-earned tax revenue to a mortal. If she’s a demon, I don’t give a fuck if she cares about Orion.”

“I do!” Nama bellowed, then whirled, aimed the gun at me, and pulled the trigger.