Page 50 of The Demon Mark

“Damn again.” This was getting trickier and trickier to keep this woman. Sighing, he pinched his nose and tried to keep a headache from barging through his skull. “So the only option is to perform the ritual and have her drink it. How often?”

“Monthly in the beginning should be fine. So long as you are comfortable with her still telling prophecies. I assumed you would wish her to continue.”

He did. But that only complicated things as well.

He would have to go to another kingdom with her, and that gave her the opportunity to run. He supposed he could take her to Lust’s kingdom, that one was the easiest. And it was beautiful this time of year. Perhaps she would like to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom, and he could take a few days with her away from all this.

Anger burned through him at the mere thought. He didn’t want her to fall in love with another kingdom. He couldn’t make this kingdom anything like Lust’s, and that was a problem.

Envy’s kingdom had to be underground. The entirety of the surface was too dangerous for anyone but him or the other spirits that had taken flesh. Even then, he risked damaging this body that he had to take care of. The creatures up there would suck a soul out of a body very quickly. He just didn’t have a soul to give.

Lust’s kingdom was soft in comparison. Everything there was soft. From the blossoming trees that never stopped raining petals on everything to the snowy peaks of the mountains that surrounded it. It was a beautiful kingdom, and it made Envy’s look... weak. Lacking.

He couldn’t stand to see her eyes squint in disappointment when she returned here to see just how little he had to offer her.

She’d already been born in Pride’s kingdom. And they all knew how wondrous that place was.

Sighing, he figured that it was inevitable. He’d take her to Sloth’s kingdom. At least it wasn’t nearly as dangerous as Greed’s, but it was still a desert kingdom. She wouldn’t want to stay there, no matter how much she wanted to get away from him. That was the only thing he could think to do.

“This will be more difficult than I imagined,” he murmured before shaking his head. “A difficult pet to keep, indeed.”

“You should have killed her when you had the chance.”

“Yes, I should have.” He looked at Orphe, trying to instill in his gaze just how important it was that she listen. “But now I would snap the neck of anything that hurts her in the slightest. Do you hear me?”

“I have no interest in hurting the girl.” Orphe shifted, though, moving her feet back and forth on her post. “I just think you need to be aware that there are others who would like to do so.”

“There will always be creatures who want to kill oracles.”

“Her words have angered many.”

He was certain of it. She saw the future and then said it with such conviction that others believed her. Without hesitation or thought. They just knew that her words were on the right path.

“I suspect hearing the truth of the future is difficult for many,” he quietly replied.

“It is more than that. Her words spin a future that might not necessarily have happened otherwise.” Orphe squawked, a little too loud. “You must both be careful when you are walking the streets and changing the future.”

“She sees a future that is set in stone.”

A movement beside the fire caught his attention before Lilith’s voice interrupted them. “No, I don’t.”

His heart stopped in his chest at the sound of her voice before her words registered. “What do you mean, little one?”

She stood, all lithe in body and graceful in every movement. The firelight illuminated her clothing, turning it nearly transparent. Her white gown revealed the long lines of her legs and lean strength in her body as she came to stand before him.

“I tell them one of their futures.” She held up her arm, spreading the fingers of her other hand behind it like branches. “There are many endings. Some of them I kill off by telling them the future I have chosen for them. It is the path that leads them to the longest life. And that is the path I always choose to tell them about.”

He frowned. “What if they do terrible things in that life?”

“That is not for me to decide. I tell them how to live, and how to live for a long time.” Her eyes were haunted as she said the words, though. “What they do with that life is not up for me to decide.”

“It feels like maybe it should be.”

She shook her head. “Other oracles do that. They play puppet with the world. They make wise men bend a knee and kings weep with the truth of their words. They manipulate entire kingdoms if they wish and they do it all because they know what may or may not happen. I am not that person. I have never wanted to be that person.”

“And if I wished for you to be that person?”

Her gaze met his, and the fire behind her burned in her gaze. “I am no one’s puppet. The futures I see, and the ones I choose to tell people, are the ones that will allow them to live. I am not responsible for what they do with their life. I will guide them if they wish, but my place in this world is not to tell others how to live. It is only to ensure that they do.”

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