Page 73 of The Demon Mark

“No, I suppose you wouldn’t.” He released his brother and came to sit on the side of her bed, gently shifting her hair out of her face and tucking the strands behind her ears. “When I left, you said that there was no way to see our future. That we were going into everything blind. You cannot see my future or your own. Correct?”

“Right.” She eyed his brother, who had lurched a little closer, listening to their conversation as well. “So, where does he come into all of this?”

“You should be able to see his future.”

The future of a demon king? Probably. She hadn’t met a humanoid creature yet that she couldn’t see their future. “Most likely.”

“Then he’s already agreed to help protect you. Which means if he is part of our futures, then you should be able to see what will happen and the best path forward. Because I can promise you, as lazy and uncontrolled as my brother is, he wouldn’t let me die. And if you are as important to me as he thinks, then he won’t let you die, either. So there is a path we can take that will ensure you and I are fine in the end.”

He looked so proud of himself. With a smug grin on his face, he looked between her and his brother before gesturing as though she should get it on with.

But futures were delicate things. She needed his brother to desire to see his future. Or maybe those were just the rules from when she had been learning. Lilith’s mind was so scrambled, she wasn’t sure if she would even make sense of the future if she dove into it.

Opening her mouth on a little gasp, she spat out, “I don’t know if I want to see his future.”

“I don’t want you to see them,” his brother grumbled. “Sloth, by the way.”

He held out his hand like that was an introduction.

“Sloth?” she repeated while shaking his hand. “Is that a name?”

“That’s my name, yes.”

She looked between the two of them before muttering, “That doesn’t sound like a name.”

Envy covered his mouth to hide the grin, but she still saw it before he said, “None of our names sound like real names, little love.”

No, they didn’t. They were designations or, at best, emotions that should be rare to feel. And yet, all of them wore these names like a badge.

Still, it was hard to think about all of that when he’d called her little love right in front of his brother. Her heart bloomed with a bright pink glow that spread all the way down into her fingertips. He wasn’t hiding his feelings about her from anyone.

Why did that make her feel so special? Like she had won some kind of award that no one else had ever been gifted? Her face turning bright red, she tried to look back at his brother and focus on what he’d asked her to do. “I can look into his future, but not if he doesn’t want me to.”

“Sloth,” Envy said, his voice lowering. “You know you have to do this.”

“I don’t have to do anything.”

“Brother.” What a difference in his tone.

Lilith got distracted by the depth of it. The disappointment that radiated throughout all of it, as though he was telling his brother without words that this had to happen.

She hoped that Sloth would help. This was a loophole through all of their problems, but she also knew how hard it was to let an oracle peek into his mind. The future was a personal thing, and oracles saw far more than the future.

Sloth hesitated only for a few moments. He looked between the two of them, perhaps seeing more than either Envy or Lilith could. Then he sighed and held his hand back out to her. “Look into my future, oracle. And perhaps you will find an end to all this.”

Mist rose on her skin immediately. The other creature that lived inside her, the piece that had always fought for control, salivated at the idea of seeing into the past of a demon king as well. She wanted to know what it was like to live as him. What his story was. And what paths of his future would be revealed in the process.

She wanted to live like only seven kings could live, and that was too tempting to deny.

Biting her lip, she reached for him.

It was a thrilling opportunity to dive into his mind. The oracle in her latched onto him, although her magic had to coil around his wrist and hold him still when he pulled back. Her white eyes stared into his and he said quietly, “Say nothing aloud, oracle. Not until you are finished.”

She wanted to argue with him, because futures were always verbal. She had to talk about them. Otherwise, what was the point of seeing them? Unfortunately, this was not a promise she would make him.

But as her mind spiraled into what he had experienced, what he would experience, and how much of his life branches there were, she understood why he didn’t want her to say anything.

Because of her.

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