City of Thorns (The Demon Queen Trials #1)(5)

“What are the demons like?”

She ran her fingertip over the rim of her mojito. “Well, my classes are mostly with aspiring mortal witches, but there are a few demons, and the professors, obviously. They’re beautiful and intimidating as shit. Some of them have horns, but not all. I haven’t met anyone who seems particularly evil. At least, no one worse than Jack.” She turned and lifted her empty glass, motioning for the bartender to bring us another round, then swiveled back to me. “I’ve heard the king is evil—him and the Lord of Chaos. They’re both terrifying, but I’ve only seen them from a distance.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Okay, start with the king. What’s his deal?”

She leaned in conspiratorially. “King Cambriel only recently became king. He slaughtered his father, King Nergal, who’d ruled for hundreds of years. Cambriel cut off his dad’s head and stuck it on the gate to his palace.”

I shuddered. “That’s fucked up.”

“The only way a demon king can die is if his heir slaughters him, and Cambriel did just that. Now he’s apparently looking for a demon queen, and there’s all kinds of gossip about which female he might choose.”

As I finished my first mojito, the bartender brought over two more.

“And the women want to marry this guy with his dad’s head over his front gate?” I asked. “Sounds like quite a catch.”

“To the female demons, he is.” She slid one of the mojitos over to me. “And the Lord of Chaos is the other eligible bachelor in the city. He’s an outsider—a duke from the City of Serpents in England, so he was leader of a demon ward there. No one knows why he left, but obviously, it was a scandal. Dukes don’t normally leave their cities. But the most important thing is that he seems to be filthy rich.”

“If it was such a big scandal, how come no one knows the details?”

She stirred her drink with her little black straw. “There’s no communication between demon cities. Demons can arrive in a new city, but they can never speak about the old one. It was one of the conditions of surrender in the great demon wars years ago, sealed by magic. The Puritans thought that if demons spoke to each other, they could grow strong and rise up against the mortals again, so he can’t say a thing about the English demon city.”

“Wow.”

“So.” She leaned closer. “No one really knows anything about him. But here’s the scariest thing: on the rare occasion that a demon comes into a different city, they have to pass an initiation called the Infernal Trial. It’s supposed to prove that the demon gods have blessed the new arrival. I don’t want to say it’s barbaric because that sounds judgmental, but it is barbaric. In the City of Thorns, the way the Trial goes is that the demons have to run through the forest and try to kill the newcomer. Only those who survive can remain. Most of them die before they can be initiated, but the Lord of Chaos slaughtered fifty other demons. Obviously, all the women want to fuck him because he’s terrifying.”

I stared at her. “This is all legal?”

She shrugged. “Their city, their laws. They can’t kill humans without starting a war, but demons are fair game.”

This was fascinating. “What does the Lord of Chaos look like?”

“I’ve only seen him from a distance, but he’s shockingly beautiful. Like, fall-to-your-knees-before-him beautiful. He has silver hair, but not from age. It’s sort of otherworldly. And he has these stunning blue eyes, devastating cheekbones. He’s huge. I have a crush on him, and on a wrath demon named Legion. He has long black hair and these sexy-as-hell tattoos. Both of them are, like…stunning. Legion looked at me once—a smoldering look. Not even joking, I forgot to breathe.”

I leaned closer. “What about a star? Have you seen a five-pointed star on anyone’s head?”

A line formed between her brows. “What are you talking about?”

And there I was, back to my obsession—my mom’s murder.

I shook my head. “Never mind. I just heard a rumor about marks on demons’ foreheads. Might be bullshit.”

As the pizza arrived, I pulled off a slice for myself and slid it onto a small plate. It looked surprisingly good, even though it was vegan.

Shai drummed her fingernails on the counter. “Why do I get the feeling you’re always hiding things?”

“Some things are meant to be hidden.” My mouth was watering for the squash and garlic. I took a bite, and while the vegan cheese burned my mouth, it still tasted glorious. I wasn’t sure even the magically inspired food of the demon world could compete.

When I swallowed the hot bite, I asked, “Are you going to show me any of the healing magic you’ve been learning? If I have a headache, can you fix it?”

She wiped the corner of her mouth with a napkin. “I’m not ready yet. And anyway, I’m a veterinary student. I can’t treat humans.”

I pointed at her, feeling a bit tipsy now. “But if someone shot me in the shoulder, could you fix it with magic, or would you turn me into a cat or something?”

She shuddered. “Probably half-cat, half-human. It would be horrible.”

We went quiet for a while as we ate the rest of the pizza.

When we finished, I turned to look behind me and found that the club was starting to fill up.