Page 3 of The Demon Mark

“I’ve heard she’s one of the most beautiful women to ever grace this kingdom.”

“Did you hear the rumor? She wasn’t born here. No one knows where she’s from, though. Only that she came here because she sensed so many with prophecies that needed to be told.”

He almost snorted at the last one. Oracles were rarely helpful. In fact, he’d seen more of them in his lifetime than not. If they were actually oracles, their prophecies weren’t easy to decipher. Your cat was going to die. There was a flood coming that would make mold grow on your walls. All silly things that could happen to anyone.

The crowd gathered around the largest pool in the bathing house. He wasn’t sure why, but he sank down with them on the pillows that were strewn about. There were maybe fifty people gathered around the still grey pool. Stalactites grew down from the ceiling. They weren’t carved away because no one used these rooms. A faint light banished the shadows, but he still couldn’t see much in this cave.

Everyone suddenly went silent, and women appeared from the back rooms. Each of them carried a torch, their glimmering lights illuminating the features of everyone in the room and casting harsh shadows everywhere they went. Each woman wore a pale white robe, their faces covered by the nearly sheer fabric that revealed only the vague shape of their features underneath.

In the silence of the room, all he could hear were the wet drips from the stalactites above their heads. Single water droplets that fell, each one gleaming like a diamond falling into a pond. And then someone gasped. Their voice echoed across the water that was so still, it was like looking at the surface of a mirror.

He leaned forward, captured in the sensation that something remarkable was about to happen. He felt the vibrations in the air until every hair on his arms stood up.

Something moved underneath that water. Something beautiful and lithe. A woman rising to the surface, clothed only in sheer white fabric, just like the other priestesses who now surrounded the pool.

They all knelt, each and every one of them holding their burning torches over the water as though they guided their sister to the surface. This oracle, the woman that all of his people spoke of, rose to the top.

The water barely rippled around her as she appeared. First, her lovely pale features were revealed, water cascading down her cheeks as she stood. Pretty pink lips and eyelashes were so pale that they were hard to see at all. Her hair fell around her, tangled and coiled in the water, before sticking to her pale shoulders. Even from here, he could see how the firelight clung to her skin.

White marble, he thought. That was what she must be made of. She was so lovely, without a single blemish on her features. And as the oracle stood, he could only focus on the way that white fabric revealed every inch of her body. The lovely peaks of her breasts, so rosy and beading for his tongue. The hollow of her belly and the shadows between her legs.

They hadn’t exaggerated. She was the most beautiful woman who had ever graced his kingdom. But she might not be an oracle, at least not yet.

He had hope she wasn’t until she opened her eyes and all he could see was white. Like she was actually a marble statue, with eyes that had never been carved to give her sight.

Then she opened her mouth and exhaled a white mist that extended toward the edges of the pool.

He sank back into the pillows, watching her with a suspicious gaze.

Apparently, he did have an oracle in his kingdom. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

2

Lilith floated through the water, drifting in the dreams of futures that could come and futures that would be. There was no fighting the magic that swelled inside her, or the oracle that now sought out her escape. She would find someone. She would touch them, and then she would live their life the way it would always end up.

There was a beauty in prophecies. The uncertainties of life were all taken away and instead, one was given the exact reality of circumstance.

She loved watching people's faces when they were told what they wanted to hear. That they would be happy if they stayed the course they were currently on. Their hard work would be rewarded, and at some point, someone else would see all their effort.

It was harder when their future was not something they wanted to hear. The fear was always what got to her first. The wide eyes and the realization that they weren’t walking the path they were meant to walk. Changing the course of the future was difficult, too. It wasn’t easy for anyone to alter who they were.

All the women who also worked for her master surrounded the pool. They were all trapped in their own way, but at least all the priestesses had to do was stand at the edge of the pool and make sure no one grabbed her.

She cast her gaze over their gauzy white fabric, noting how it warped in her vision. Some of them had futures too, but she wasn’t allowed to touch them. Even in this state, she remembered.

There wasn’t much else she couldn’t do, though. And the creature inside her knew that. So she strode out of the pool, feeling the sensation of clinging fabric around her legs. She ran her hands down the flat plane of her stomach, feeling the hollows and hills of her body that moved with sinuous intent toward all the people who surrounded her pool.

So many people. So many futures. So many lives that she could live.

The white film over her eyes made it hard for her to make out any of their features, but she preferred it that way. She didn’t look at a person and think that she wanted to live their life. It was harder to maintain that thought when she could see them. Lilith would look at a young, beautiful woman and want to be her, to disappear into her future, which was probably light and bright. But with the oracle taking control over her body, she was able to see only the futures.

Like the young man to her left would leave this kingdom on a journey that would bring him to every single kingdom in their land. She whirled, water splashing around her hips as she turned toward him.

Mist rose from her skin, all the power that allowed her to see his future zeroing in on the young man.

She felt the moment he inhaled the essence of her power. It was like she lived inside of him. She could feel his hopes, his dreams, the jolt of fear that made him concerned she was going to tell him something he didn’t want to hear. But he didn’t have to worry.

She dove into the future and walked with him through each of the kingdoms. In a single instant, she was free.

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