Page 88 of The Demon Mark

Blinking more, she swore she was hallucinating. Because for a moment, she heard voices in those books. Voices similar to the ones she heard in her own head when she needed to go on a spree of telling prophecies. Whispers that were from her own kind.

Lorenzo was talking behind her. Lilith’s immediate reaction was to ignore what he was saying, because she didn’t want to hear any more of his poisonous words. But then she remembered she was trying to escape him. Which meant she had to pay attention to everything that was happening around her.

“Is the dragon still distracting them?”

“As far as we could tell, boss. We left about the same time as you did, but the two of them were pinned down.”

A grating noise made Lorenzo’s voice a little deeper. “Who was with him, anyway? I didn’t realize the king ever worked with someone else.”

“Never seen him before. Not even after the spells dropped.” There was a small pause, almost as though the person was lingering on the words to make sure everyone was listening. “But I swear, it was another demon. There was something off about that man. I didn’t like it.”

A familiar feminine chuckle made the pain in Lilith’s head spike again. “As if you’d know a demon just by looking at him! Probably just some poor sap who thought he could kiss a king’s ass for a while and get something in return. He’ll be dead long before Envy tries to come after this girl.”

Was that the fire eater? Lilith didn’t want to believe that it was because they’d always gotten along. She and the other woman had even roomed together for a while, but she supposed that after all of what had happened, she shouldn’t trust someone so explicitly.

Footsteps approached her, and a cool hand touched her forehead. “You realize she’s bleeding, don’t you?”

Ah, that was one of the other performers, not someone with magic. Lilith blinked her eyes a few times, forcing her vision to focus on the young woman who was usually with her in the pool. A “priestess,” as Lorenzo liked to call them. They were women without powers to perform, but they were good enough to keep an eye on Lilith.

This one was a newer performer, but apparently she thought she had more control over Lorenzo. Maybe they had shared their bed together. Such a thing would get into a woman’s head.

Those cool hands moved over her injuries, following the dried and crusty blood up to the wound on her head. “Looks like it’s closed, at least. But you should have a healer look her over.”

“I won’t need a healer once we’re done. She can be tossed over a cliff’s edge for all I care.”

“I thought we weren’t killing her?” The performer looked wherever Lorenzo was. Lilith tried to follow the direction of her gaze, but the world was still spinning so fast any movement of her eyes made her see stars.

“Oh, that’s just what I was telling everyone else.” More footsteps and then Lorenzo was right in front of her.

He held a glass in front of her face, and she was so weak and confused that she didn’t even think. Years and years of drinking whatever he had given her had conditioned Lilith to just open her mouth and let him pour anything down her throat. She hated herself for it, but some part of her mind still whispered that whatever he gave her would give some kind of relief. Even if it made her lose herself again.

This time, it was just a healing potion. She could feel it the moment the magic touched her tongue. The sensation of zinging power that raced up to her head and the awful knitting of flesh back together as it healed her.

He patted her on the head, hard enough over the wound that it made her wince.

“There we go. All better. Just enough to get you through the next part.” Then his gaze hardened. “Do you want to tell them about the oracles? Do you want to let them know that even if I were to kill you now, that none of them would come for you?”

It hurt her heart to nod. But she did.

“And Envy?” he continued. “Do you think he’s going to come for you?”

Again, she nodded.

“Do you think he’s going to make it in time to save your life?”

She nodded, but everything in her froze at the sound of his laughter. Lorenzo patted her again, slightly less painful this time, considering the wound on her head had healed.

“No, he won’t. He has the story all wrong, you know? He said I was going to kill you and then get a new oracle. Which is a good idea for a plan, I suppose, but not my plan.”

Something felt... wrong. The healing potion should have made her feel better. And it had, for a few moments. But now she felt like something was wriggling underneath her skin and she didn’t know why or how that was. But then she saw the mist coming out of her body. The mist that was hers to command and yet right now, it felt more out of control than it ever had in her life.

The “priestess” who was clearly working with Lorenzo, stepped forward with a box full of vials. There were so many of them. Twenty or thirty maybe. Then she noticed there were more people waiting with more boxes.

Lorenzo sighed. “Oracle, there are other ways to get prophecies. Apparently, your mist isn’t limited to just your body. All one of us has to do is ingest that mist and then voila. Prophecies for the mortal eye. I don’t need you or any other oracle as long as I have a steady supply of that mist that never goes rotten. So I’m going to bleed you dry, Lilith. And then I’ll get rid of you once and for all.”

35

Envy had never seen something so large in his kingdom. Certainly not something as massive as a dragon, and he wasn’t even sure a dragon had ever existed in this kingdom. At least, not while he was ruling it. So for one thousand years, a sense of safety had protected this place that they would never once have to deal with monsters such as this.

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