At first, the garden’s wild beauty struck me. It wasn’t the stark, elegant beauty of Adonis’s garden, but a vibrant riot of color—roses in shades of violet and pumpkin, cherry-red, deep amber, mulberry, and indigo. I breathed in the heavy floral scent.
Sunlight gleamed off the golden sheen of Aereus’s wings, sparking over the reddened tips of his feathers like fire. His brutal magic sizzled up my spine, bringing with it images of death—a bleak forest of soldiers impaled on spikes, their bodies casting long shadows over desert sands. The vision dissipated from my mind as quickly as it had arrived.
His footsteps crunched over a winding path, and he led me deeper into the garden. Patterns in the mosaic path stretched out far ahead of us—images of swords and crowns, Greek letters and wild animals.
I’d suggested I wanted to see his place of power. So why had he taken me to a rose garden—and what did he mean that he used it to control his servants?
Only after a few minutes did I notice the dark gleam of barbed iron in the garden. I swallowed hard. Only one reason for barbed iron, as far as I knew.
In the depths of the garden, Aereus led me to a spiked, iron wheel, its surface stained rust-red. Not rust. My stomach dropped.
Aereus stood before it, a merciless smile on his face. “I was born in the Roman Empire. I once watched a man broken on the wheel. A vision I never forgot. The power a man can exert over another is thrilling.”
The blood draining from my head almost left me dizzy. “You must have been a soldier.”
“I helped to defeat Hannibal. I razed Carthage.”
Desert air skimmed through my hair, and I twirled a lock of it around my fingertips. “I can only imagine how the armies of Carthage would have trembled before you.” I blocked out the fury roiling in my chest. “And do you use this wheel for anything now?”
“It’s how I keep my human servants in line. They don’t wear chains, but they know not to rise up against me. They wouldn’t dare. Sometimes, I kill their loved ones instead of them.”
I plastered a serene smile onto my face. “How thrilling. You must be like a god to them.”
His eyes flashed with a fiery light. “I am a god to them. I’m a god to your kind, too.”
Bile rose in my throat. Never before had I felt it so strongly, the sense that these angels had to get away from us. I’d do anything to rip them from the surface of the earth.
As my thoughts raged, a silky-smooth presence caressed the depths of my mind. Was it Adonis?
I’m fine, I mentally telegraphed to him. Just disturbed. Deeply fucking disturbed.
As we walked the garden’s winding path, we turned a corner, and my stomach dropped. Across from a row of wild roses, a line of guards stood. Their spears glinted in the sunlight. Instead of human forms, they had the bodies of enormous scorpions, with sharply pointed tails that curved over their heads. They stared at me through inky pools.
Masking my fear, I pointed to them. “What are they for?”
“Ah. They guard the poison garden. I grow a collection of dangerous plants here—extremely toxic. The guards simply ensure that no one dies accidentally.”
“I see. How kind of you to look after your servants.”
As if he gave a flying fuck. If I had to guess, Aereus couldn’t stop the Old Gods from growing Devil’s Bane in his garden. He didn’t want any humans getting their hands on it, trying to destroy him. In fact, I could just about feel the warm glow of the Old Gods around me.
We moved farther along the path, and I ran my fingertips over the rose petals. The closer I looked, the more I found signs of death within this garden—iron devices with jagged rows of teeth jutting from the earth, designed to tear at flesh, to crush bodies. Among the flowers, bones—human, demon maybe—protruded from the soil.
Now, when I studied the mosaic on the ground, I realized the patterns were formed from teeth—human and animal, some painted black to create the designs.
I tried to choke down my disgust, but a wave of rage unfurled in me. I closed my eyes, pretending to breathe in the scent of his garden. Inwardly, I was envisioning myself strapping Aereus to the iron wheel and smashing his limbs with one of those spiked iron mallets. I’d crush his bones. I’d thrill at his screams. I’d rid the earth of this angelic scourge…
Easy, Ruby.
Once again, Adonis’s presence stroked the depths of my mind like a lover’s caress.
I’m fine, I screamed at him, unable to keep the wrath from my mental communications. You angelic fuck.
Taking a deep breath, I refocused on the garden around me. I was supposed to be charming the angel, not envisioning his gruesome demise.
I just…honestly had no idea how to relate to a two-thousand-year-old, omnipotent sadist.
“Those were the good days, weren’t they?” I ventured. “The Roman Empire’s glorious expanse over Europe, Asia, Africa…”
“My legions brought the Roman eagles over the farthest corners of the earth.”
Aereus pivoted over the bony mosaic path, leading me farther into the garden, where someone had created sculptures from human bones, each one pierced with iron spikes. Roses climbed some of the sculptures. A strange, perverse sort of beauty in this garden of death.
Who had these bones belonged to? Servants who’d displeased Aereus? I could pull the knife from my boot now, ram it into his neck…
Charm him, Ruby.
What was it Adonis had said? His depressing angelic aphorism? Something about seeds…
I moved closer to Aereus, then flashed him my most charming smile. “This reminds me of a saying. The seeds of destruction grow within the gardens of paradise.”
Aereus stopped walking, then turned to look at me. The wind toyed with his red cape, his hair. “So you know that expression? It’s an angelic concept that I take very seriously.” He gestured around him, pride beaming from his features. “That saying inspired all this. Glorious, isn’t it?”
“It’s good that you angels have come to earth to teach us. When you’re done purifying the earth, we can begin again, creating a true paradise from the glorious destruction you’ve wrought.”
“I was born for this. Born for war. Born to rule as an archangel on earth, just as the Heavenly Host rule as archangels in the celestial realm.”
At the mention of them, a shudder danced up my spine, and I glanced at the cloudless skies. Had that injured angel made it back to them, or had he bled out before he had the chance?
Would the terrifying archangels be coming for me soon?
Whatever the case, I didn’t have much time to screw around admiring Aereus’s plants. I needed those stones as soon as I could get my hands on them—even if I didn’t quite know what they did, or how to use them, or any of those somewhat important details.
I plucked a red rose, then began pulling the petals off one by one, hoping to enchant him. “So this is your beautiful paradise. Will you show me from where else you rule your kingdom? The real destruction? I want to know where you keep your most powerful, dangerous treasures. I want to touch them.”
Chapter 26