Page 36 of The Demon Mark

It was quite the prophecy. One that would bring about an age of ruin for the men in his city, although he couldn’t find an ounce of pity for them. If they were as bad as Lilith claimed they would be, then they deserved whatever fate this brothel owner would bring upon them.

“Mister!” a little voice chimed right by his ear.

Frowning, he looked down at the dandelion puff of a child who stared up at him. The little girl was so blonde, her hair was nearly white. She was pale as well, although all of his people were pale considering they lived underground. But there was a translucency to her skin that made him pause.

Ignoring the shadows that were entertaining the other children, he focused on her. “You aren’t like the others, now are you?”

She pursed her lips. “I’m just like all the other kids here.”

“No, you aren’t.” He reached out and dragged his finger down her cheek, watching as a blue vein throbbed at his touch. “You’re something else entirely. I’d suggest you were part troll, but there haven’t been trolls in these parts for years.”

She sniffed, clearly uninterested in having this conversation with him. But that wouldn’t do. He wanted to know, and now he would have the answer.

She must have seen the intent in his gaze, or perhaps the sudden focus that made him more dangerous than others. The little girl leaned closer and whispered, “My mother was a rusalka.”

“They don’t live in this kingdom.”

“She came from another.”

Gluttony’s most likely. The last thing he needed was more creatures like her filtering into his home. He already had a hard enough time dealing with his people, who had magical powers they shouldn’t have. Let alone a powerful little girl with a voice that swayed men to their graves.

He was ready to summon one of the shadows and choke her with it, but then a hand landed on his shoulder. The distraction was enough to let the little one bolt, a change in his plans that he didn’t appreciate.

He looked up at Lilith, and all of that frustration disappeared. She watched him with eyes that were more the natural color he had expected. Blue, lovely, so clear that he thought he could see an ocean inside of them if he peered hard enough. And there was a softness in that gaze that he had yet to see.

Almost as though she had melted looking at him, if only because he was with this little girl. The little girl who had escaped him, as it were, but he supposed he could let her go.

“Done?” he asked.

“Not hardly.” She held out her hand for him to take. “There are more people who need me.”

“We are not staying in this city any longer. You will return with me to my castle, and I will put you back where you are supposed to be.” But even he could hear that there was wiggle room in what he’d said.

She just continued to stare at him.

Those lovely eyes had widened only a little with each word that he said, and he could see she didn’t believe him. In fact, she was just standing there. Waiting for him to change his mind.

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. “You are a captive, oracle. You don’t get to do whatever you want.”

“I left your castle, didn’t I?” She blinked a few times, and then he saw mist beginning to rise from her skin again. “It won’t stop. It’ll just keep moving farther and farther away from my body until I can no longer control it. Soon enough, it will reach throughout your entire city, forcing me to seek out futures until it kills me.”

He didn’t want her to die. He needed the power that she kept inside her. Otherwise, she would be gone. Again. The power of the oracle would once again be so far out of his reach that he was incapable of finding it for another hundred years or so until an oracle stumbled into his kingdom once again.

Sighing perhaps a little longer than the last time, he gestured with his hand at the door. “Go on, then. I’ll follow you.”

And so he did. He trailed along behind her like a guard dog ready to tear into anyone who looked at her for too long. He certainly wanted to. Even with the empty streets, he could feel eyes on them. Perhaps the young girl had gone out to warn others that the demon king was here. Perhaps word had simply gotten out from people looking through their windows.

Whatever the reasoning, Envy knew they were being watched. He could feel it deep in his bones that they were not alone, and it was driving him mad.

The itchy feeling persisted even as they strode into another house. This one only had an old man, who wasn’t much of a threat considering the shaky way he stood to greet them. Envy remained by the doorway, watching the shadows down the street as that itching feeling still festered. Someone, or something, was coming for them.

“Hurry up,” he grumbled.

“An oracle does not hurry,” she replied with a prim voice that he had yet to hear from her.

As she sat down with the old man, holding onto his hands as the mist rose from her skin, he wondered if this was the real Lilith that he was getting a glimpse of. So far, she’d been terrified of him. Interested in the beginning, but mostly terrified. Of him, her freedom, the world surrounding her, there were more reasons for her to be afraid than he could count on all his fingers and toes.

And yet, now she seemed so confident. She sat with that old man and told a demon off for rushing her without hesitation. Like she’d been born to do this.

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