Page 27 of The Demon Mark

She stared up at him and he suddenly realized two things.

She wasn’t afraid of him or angry. The look in her eyes was one of complete and utter hopelessness. She stared at him as though she were looking into a void. There was an emptiness inside her that was only spreading and making everything worse.

And second, that he wasn’t listening to what she’d been trying to tell him. She wasn’t saying that she wanted to be alone so she could kill herself. She wasn’t begging for time to herself.

The mist rising underneath her skin poured free like a tidal wave that spread from her shoulders and her body. She opened her mouth and more of it spilled from her lips, streaming out of her like vomit until the mist gathered under her. The two women he had hired on as servants for his oracle hesitated near the portal that was already closing behind them.

“Damn it,” he hissed, already trying to conjure it open. But it was too late for them.

The mist gathered around Lilith before exploding outward. Suddenly, the entire room was full of it, like he had started a fire and never cleared the smoke. He could hardly see his hand in front of his face, let alone the two women who stood there and were now at risk.

“Get to the wall!” he shouted, but Envy already knew it was too late.

A hand wrapped around his ankle, and then suddenly she was there. Kneeling in front of him with her eyes completely white. She looked like a marble statue again; a creation that had come to life.

“Help me,” she said, her voice echoing with a hundred voices of women who had endured her pain before. “Help me, please.”

And then the only words she said next were prophecies, words falling from her tongue as she rambled on and on about the two women in the room. How they had grown up, where they had been. The men who had touched them.

None of it was under control, and none of it made sense.

Envy felt as though he watched a woman go mad, and there wasn’t nothing he could do to stop it.

11

The futures of others were always so enjoyable. But even the bad ones were somewhat enjoyable, because Lilith wasn’t herself. She wasn’t the oracle that everyone wanted to use and abuse. Instead, right now, she was a servant of the demon king.

She’d lived on her own for a very long time. Everyone she loved died a long time ago. They fell to a sickness that had swept through the city, and they didn’t make it before the demon king had strode through the streets.

But she had been alive. She’d seen him walk through crowds of people with potions in his hands and a glow around him that made him look angelic.

Everyone had been so afraid of what he would do. He had come to make them all suffer, surely. Perhaps he’d created the sickness so he could weed out those who were natural born healers and then steal their powers from them. No one trusted he was here to help them.

She hadn’t been afraid of him, though. She’d seen the way he strode through the crowds and she’d known that he wanted to help them. He had given her the potion that had saved her life, and all she had thought was that he was handsome. That strong jaw had flexed as he looked above her head, watching the crowds of people that came toward him, and she saw how he pitied them.

In that moment, she knew what other people did not. She knew that the loss of her family affected him. He was saddened by what he saw in front of him and that he hadn’t been there sooner.

He was their savior.

And she would do anything for him.

The future barreled toward her though, ever unstoppable. Lilith knew this woman would work for the demon king. She’d spent many years after that first encounter, knowing that she would dedicate her life to him if he ever asked.

The woman had agreed to work for him and serve an oracle who would terrify her. Lilith saw herself through the woman’s eyes, foaming at the mouth and locked in visions. But more than that, she felt how the mist was viewed as something horrific. As though the future was not what this woman wanted.

And still, Lilith couldn’t stop the prophecy from spilling off her tongue.

The woman worshiped Envy, but if she stayed in his employ, she would realize how ruthless this demon king was. The obsession she had with this dangerous man would lead her into unhealthy places. She would give up everything that she was for him to just look at her, and even then, he would not care. Not enough that she would ever feel fulfilled.

The longer she was in this castle, the farther she strayed from a potential future that was better, more welcoming. If the woman left the demon king’s castle and walked back to the life she had left behind, she would meet a young man who had been in love with her for years.

Lilith saw soft brown eyes, hands that were tender and kind. She saw many warm nights by a fire where they told each other about their day. No children, but that didn’t matter to either of them. They had found each other later in life, and all they needed was each other.

If this woman did not return to her home and this man with the kind hands and soft eyes, then she would die alone. Here in the castle. All by herself, without a single person to mourn her leaving this realm.

Her power stretched, turning to the other maid, who was so much younger.

She had lived a life in the city, feeling as though she was infinitely powerful and strong. She had a lot of bravado for someone who had grown up on the streets. But then again, she had also been a whore.

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