Page 4 of The Demon Mark

No longer was she contained by a master and the leash that he’d wrapped around her throat. Instead, she walked through sand dunes taller than the buildings of the kingdom. She saw the sun melding into bright pink while cherry blossoms fell from lush green trees. She saw a swamp kingdom that was filled with creatures she had never guessed could exist. Even a kingdom of sand that was flat as the eye could see, a desolate kingdom where those who had power lived in luxury and comfort.

“You will travel the realms,” she said, her voice deeper than it usually was. “You will see all the adventures you so desperately wish. As a merchant, they will welcome you with open arms. You will have to give up all that you have now, but you will give it up willingly for the life you have always dreamt of.”

The young man breathed out a sigh of relief. She could feel that emotion coiling around her, digging underneath her skin until she released another round of mist that fell into the water around her.

Dangerous, she thought even as she turned. It was so dangerous to allow her to soak in water that only amplified her powers. But this was the show, now wasn’t it? Her master wanted everyone to be enthralled by her.

The mist didn’t just come from her skin now. It came from the very water she stood in, and that made everything so much stronger. Now she could see everyone’s future, all at the same time.

Her mind skittered through all the possibilities. A young woman in the room was going to end up dead at the hands of the man she wanted to be her husband. Lilith should tell her about the danger, warn her away from the man who only wanted violence in his life. But then there was another woman who was meant to have incredible power. She hadn’t come into her magic yet, but she soon would. She had to hide from the king, as that was the only way to save her life.

A young man needed her to tell him about the growth in his stomach that a healer needed to attend to.

An older woman needed to watch her eldest child because they were going to fall into a chasm and not get out.

Death. So much death.

She saw blood rising in the water around her and there was nothing she could do to stop the swelling tide. They were screaming in the distance of her mind. Futures of a hundred people, all of them needing her help.

No, more than that.

The mist rising from the water had sunk into their skin and now she could see all of their bloodlines. She could follow that power into the rest of the kingdom now, following the many pathways and alleys that would lead into the homes of these people’s families. She could see their hopes and their dreams, too. Those futures reached out, trying to pull a piece of her into themselves so they could dream of reality and not just fiction.

“Lilith,” someone hissed, their voice reaching through the haze of her mind.

She wasn’t alone here.

She wasn’t meant to follow all of those lines, even though the oracle inside of her wished to. There were prophecies to say, and there were so many people who needed her help.

But today was not the day where she was meant to tell them about their dangerous futures. Today she was not coated in blood, drifting in a sea of it as she tried to control her own power. Maybe, though, she could taste just one of those futures. She could tell someone something important...

There was a hiss from one of the priestesses, and the sound made her flinch. They were the only ones allowed to step in if she fell out of line.

Then they would give her the drink. Once a week. They would make her drink it so she couldn’t see anything at all.

Once she drank, there was nothing left but her own bleak existence. It was just her. Trapped in a traveling circus where she had been for most of her life. She was alone again. A freak in a cage that could be moved whenever they wanted her to be moved.

The tea was supposed to help keep her alive while the beast of fortunes lived inside her. It wasn’t easy to brew, and neither were the flowers that created it. Her master was the only one left alive who knew how to grow them, and that meant she had to stay.

This power ate her from the inside out. Already she could feel it wriggling inside her. She’d used too much of the mist to get into people’s minds, and she was shaky. Growing weaker by the second, but it was far too early for that. Only one prophecy had fallen from her lips, and the master liked her to talk to at least five people before she fell back into the water.

Leaning to the side, she reached for the nearest person and grabbed onto their wrist.

A woman, good. She was supposed to keep things as even as she could. Her eyes rolled, and the white mist saw straight into the person she clutched. Her power traveled up the woman’s form, nearly swallowing her whole.

Good things only, she thought to herself. The master doesn’t like it when you tell them sad things.

But there wasn’t anything good in this woman’s future. There was only heartache.

“You have lost your husband,” she whispered, but somehow her voice still carried. Too loud. Seeing too much.

“I did,” the woman replied, her hand shaking in Lilith’s grip. “He was mining and there was an accident. He never came home.”

She could see it. The crushing power of rocks that had landed on the bottom half of his body. He had laid there in the dark for two days, bleeding out because of the pressure of the rocks. The other miners had kept him alive by passing him food and water, but no one could get him out.

They hadn’t told the woman any of this. The other miners had stayed with him, but they had told her he died instantly. They didn’t want her to know the pain that he had endured, or how many times he’d asked for her.

“He haunts you,” Lilith said. “He waits for you in your dreams and in the shadows of your home.”

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