Page 39 of The Demon Mark

Everything.

She opened her mouth, and the words fell from her tongue like a prophecy. “My mother was the first one to realize the power I had inside of me. Oracles are all called together, no matter how hard we try to hide from it. She had to give me up. The oracular order is known by very few to exist, but it is a powerful entity in every single kingdom. We are required to go to them for training and for... gifting to the men who will protect us.”

There was a creak from the shadows, as though he was seated on a chair. He hadn’t given her one of those, though.

“Your previous master seemed like he did not appreciate the gift he was given.”

“He didn’t,” she whispered. “But when he held the key to the ending of all my torment, what was I supposed to do?”

She would have given the circus master anything he had wanted. She didn’t care that she was a spectacle in a show. All she cared about was expelling the power inside her that wanted to destroy its physical form, and also getting free from the memories that hurt so much.

She squeezed her eyes shut, tears leaking out of them even as she fought to keep them inside.

“You’re crying,” he said, and she heard him shift again. This time, it was followed by the dipping of the bed at her side. “How strange to see an oracle cry.”

She thought he meant it as an insult. A man like him only knew how to harm and maim. All the rumors about him were bloodthirsty and terrible. He was a man who killed for power. Why he hadn’t killed her yet, she still didn’t understand.

But then he surprised her, as he always seemed to do. He dragged his finger gently down her cheek, catching the tears from each side of her face. “I didn’t know someone like you could cry.”

“It’s possible to feel even when you’re an oracle,” she whispered.

“What is making you feel, Lilith?”

Gods, she hated how interested he sounded. One part of her mind screamed that he would use this information against her. She couldn’t and shouldn’t trust the man before her. But some soft, weak part of her wanted someone to understand that she was hurting. She wanted someone else to share the burden of these memories.

“The moment the oracular order took me in was the moment I became less of a person and more of a tool.” Her words spun through the air, just like they did when she told someone their future. “I knew there was something else inside me. I’ve felt her since I was very little. And it’s not necessarily that we are different people, but I know she is not... the same. But when I walked through those doors, I became so much less than Lilith.

“They trained me. They taught me how to use this magic and how to survive it. But we all knew that our lives would be shorter than most because of this power. If anything happened to our handlers, we would die. If anything happened to us, the power would burn us from the inside out before it would let itself be captured.” She snorted. “Not that it would matter if it was.”

He stiffened at her words. She wondered what part of that caught his attention, but then she was so distracted by the weight of his body falling onto the bed beside her. “Move, little one.”

She didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t supposed to be right next to her, and he certainly wasn’t supposed to lie beside her. No one had ever done that. No one even touched her, let alone had moments where she could feel the heat of their body pressed so close to her own.

They were just lying on their backs. Two people beside each other, with his arm touching hers from shoulder to elbow. It was an innocent act and yet... she couldn’t breathe.

She wanted to touch him. Or maybe she wanted him to touch her. Just to know what it would feel like. Were his fingers calloused? She thought maybe they were. She could already feel them trailing over her skin, catching against the softness of hers. Or maybe his fingers would be scarred from all the magic he had cast. She would feel every single bump and ripple of the danger he had put himself in time and time again.

Danger like he’d put himself in to keep her safe.

The memories cascaded through her mind from what he had done while she was allowing the oracle to channel through her body. Gasping, she rolled onto her side so she could just make out the shape of him in the darkness. “You protected me.”

“I’ve been doing that since we first met.”

“No, you haven’t,” she replied. “You’ve been trying to take me and then use me for your own advantage. But you protected me.”

She wanted to believe this meant he was better than she thought. That he was a good person. Maybe because if he was good at his core, then she didn’t have to be so afraid of him. Or this place.

Maybe she’d finally landed in a soft place where someone else would care for her as she’d always wanted them to do.

He rolled onto his side, facing her. She could feel his warm breath fanning over her lips and it took everything in her to not close the distance. Just to know what a god king tasted like.

His big hand rose and carded through her hair. His thick fingers soothed the ache in her skull as he gently brushed through the strands and started working on the tangles. “I took you. And I’d take you again. That man was using you for his own benefit, when you are so much more than just a creature to be owned by a beast like him.”

“He treated me well.”

Those fingers tightened in her hair. She froze at the feeling, knowing that if he tilted his wrist at all, she would be forced to follow his movements.

“He treated you like chattel,” he snarled. “He cared little if you were alive or dead, as long as he got money from you. He never wanted to be your handler, nor did he treat you like the gem you are. You are better off here, oracle. Remember that.”