Page 25 of The Demon Mark

He didn’t even want to consider that end. He wouldn’t let her die on his watch.

The orb that he’d set up to warn him when she did something new rattled on his desk. He didn’t have time to look in on her, though. She caused trouble all the time, and if she was chipping at the walls again, then that would only anger him.

The last time he’d walked into the room, he’d tried to kill her. And it hadn’t worked. The power inside her was great, but it was also significantly more aggressive than he’d anticipated it being. Considering her own nature, he had thought it would be a rather docile thing. After all, she hadn’t actually managed to kill him. Nor had she even brought out a real weapon other than her boot.

“There has to be an easier solution,” he muttered, still tugging on his bottom lip.

“If you don’t stop doing that, you’re going to swell,” Orphe hissed.

Right. He was worrying his skin a little too hard. Envy needed to get himself together. He needed to focus and not keep feeling like he didn’t know what to do in this situation. He was the king, he knew...

The orb rattled harder.

“Every time I cast a damn spell in this castle, the items get a personality of their own,” he snarled, slapping his hand on top of the orb to force it to stop moving. “Enough. I will look at what she’s doing in a moment.”

The orb vibrated so hard he could feel the bones in his hand moving.

“By all the gods in every kingdom,” he muttered before releasing the orb. “Fine. Show me.”

The orb projected her room in front of him and his breath caught in his lungs. She was on the floor, not a position he had seen her in before. She appeared to be seizing. Her arms curled into her chest, her hands strangely placed and bent at the wrists in a way that looked beyond painful. She wasn’t well. In fact, he would suggest that she might be dying.

Her legs jolted with the force of the seizure that rocked through her body, and even as the tiny figure on his desk he could see that she was lying in a puddle of her own spit that foamed out of her mouth.

“Shit,” he muttered, standing and striding toward his workroom. “Orphe, go to her and make sure she doesn’t die.”

“Would you like me to peck out one of her eyes? That should wake her.”

“It won’t wake her from a seizure. Do not do that,” he snapped.

If he had known taking a human body would surround him with fools, then he might have remained the spirit of envy. Now, he had to focus on healing humans and taking care of creatures who didn’t want to be taken care of.

If she’d tried to kill herself, he would use this opportunity for what it was. He’d let her die and take her power.

But the worm of need wriggling in his belly said he wouldn’t let her die. So he strode into his workroom with single-minded intent.

He had healed before. He’d also consumed many healers, so he knew what to do with a body that was refusing to work correctly. Injuries were easier, but he’d healed one of his brother’s wives before. She had been very consistent with what he knew about people like her. Lack of blood, that was easy to fix. The overuse of a body by a demon was also easy for him to fix.

But he didn’t know what was wrong with Lilith. Which meant he needed to bring as much as he could think of. His mind raced through possibilities as he looked over the stores of jars, potions, and ingredients for spells. They were all up on the walls on shelves, each one more strange than the last. Tongues, wings, ground stones, and pixie parts. Every jar was filled with different colored potions, all leading to the massive stone slab of his work table.

There was a makeshift stone bed behind him as well, similar to the one that Lilith had slept on. A few patients had laid there in his day, not excluding his brother’s new wife.

Muttering under his breath, he conjured the portal while he gathered up the jars and potions. Each one would help her body settle, but he wasn’t sure which would cure her. Or if any of them would. After all, he had years of experience in his head, but a seizure was never so easy to figure out.

Walking through the portal with his arms full, he kept his eye on her shuddering body as he set everything on the floor out of her reach. His heart twisted to see her in so much pain.

“All right, little one, let’s get you on your side.” He walked around behind her, gently moving her body so that she wasn’t in danger of choking. He reached for a pillow on the bed, easing it underneath her head before he rubbed her arms.

“You’re all right. You’ll make it through this, and you aren’t alone, beautiful. Take your time. You don’t have to rush it.”

Once her rapid movements started to subside, he moved her upper leg to a right angle and her free arm straight out from her side. Then he sat with her, rubbing her back and watching her for any reaction.

She blinked a few times. Then her eyes seemed to come into focus. And he felt like he could breathe again. How long had it been since he inhaled? He’d been watching her so intently, he felt like he hadn’t breathed in an hour. His own breaths ragged, he reached behind him for a blue potion bottle.

“Can you drink this?” he asked.

She nodded, but it was a slow movement. Almost as though she wasn’t quite sure where she was.

“Let me help you, little one. You’ll need to drink all of it. It will help.”

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