Page 49 of The Demon Mark

Then she burst. Her face screwed up in concentration and all her muscles clenched down on his fingers so tightly he was certain he would have been locked in place if he’d been inside her. And the moan that came out of her? Oh, that was the dream of every man who ever existed.

He watched her, rapt at the spiraling, out-of-control need that consumed her until she slumped against his chest. Her head rested on his shoulder. She breathed hard as she came down from the heights she’d climbed.

“Good girl,” he murmured, making sure she watched as he drew his fingers out of her and licked them clean.

19

Envy leaned back at his desk, fingers steepled and pressed against his lips as he looked at the woman asleep in the chair by his fire. Apparently, all he had to do to get through to her was give her one good orgasm and she was as good as his.

Which made him feel... a little dirty.

Maybe manipulative.

She was too innocent for this place and he already felt terrible that he’d used her in a way that made her feel like he was a god when all he’d done was finger her. She should fight him at least a little. After all, she had given him every ounce of herself and he remained clothed. He hadn’t even reacted that much, at least that she was aware of.

Envy didn’t want her to fold to him because she wanted to chase the interest of her own body a little more. He wanted her to want him because he was... him. But that wasn’t even the right way to think, because he hated himself. He’d always hated himself.

So he didn’t want her to like him because of who he was. He wanted her to like him because she liked him. Not for what he could do or what he did. But just because she did.

These thoughts were almost too jumbled for him to follow, let alone anyone else.

Instead, he distracted himself by looking at the beauty who had curled up in his chair. It was the first time she’d sought him out in his office. He’d been surprised to see her walk through the portal. After all, she’d avoided doing so for weeks now that she’d been with him. Most of the time she wanted to stay in her own room, or draw. And he understood that she was bored, so he had given her the chance to come here.

To talk to him. Even though he hated talking to anyone other than her, it seemed.

When she’d walked through the door, he hadn’t been all that certain what to do. He had almost started a conversation, but then he saw the dark shadows under her eyes and the way she walked, a little hesitant. As though she wasn’t sure what she was doing here, either.

He’d pointed to the chair by the fire. “You look like you could use some rest,” he’d said.

And then she dropped into the chair like he had given her permission to sleep and tumbled into the dreaming world. A faint mist rose off her skin again, and he knew that soon enough she would need to go back out and wreck her body again with more prophecies. It had taken her this entire week to act more like herself, but he had watched that mist slowly get more out of control again.

Her power ate her from the inside out, and now he could see the need for that herb. Her bright hair had lost its luster already, and he could see how she’d lost weight. Shadows rested in-between her ribs, even through the material of her dress.

If he let her continue on like this much longer, she would shatter like a thin piece of glass. He had to protect her, and that meant he had to figure out what to do with the herb now that they had it.

Wings fluttered through the balcony. Silent as an owl, Orphe landed on her stand and stared at the woman in his room before turning her attention to him. “The herb needs to be boiled for seventeen hours exactly, under a full moon. Stir counter clockwise eight times at completion, and then add in the dust of a dead man’s bones. The younger the better for the bones, apparently.”

“Good work. Do I want to know how you got that information?”

She shifted her wings in a movement that was almost like a shrug. “He kept the notes in his things. If he comes back to a room in shambles, that’s not my problem anymore.”

So she’d ransacked the circus master’s room. That was one way to get the information they needed, although it was highly unusual. The circus master would know that they were looking for the information now, but he would have no way of knowing, considering he was on a journey.

“Getting it under the full moon will be difficult, I imagine, but not impossible.” He pressed his steepled fingers to his lips once more. “I haven’t been to the surface in quite some time.”

“The shadows still control everything.” Orphe’s feathers fluffed in discomfort. “I looked. They allowed me to pass because I used to be a spirit, but anyone else... Even you, my lord. I believe it would be difficult for you to go above.”

He doubted that. But then again, he wasn’t sure how long the tea was even good for. “How long do I have for her to drink it after I’ve finished?”

“Mere moments.”

“Damn.” His hands dropped onto the arms of his chair, and he felt frustration building. “So I’ll need to go to another kingdom, then.”

“Most likely.”

“How did the circus master have tea for her so readily? It seems unlikely that he’d gone to the surface.”

“There was a preservation ritual as well.” At his angry glance, Orphe shrugged. “It was a very long ritual and had many parts of it that we have no way of getting. Unless you want to raid Greed’s stores, then you will not be able to perform it. It also seemed like it wasn’t meant to be cast often.”

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