Page 59 of The Demon Mark

“You aren’t just healing me,” she murmured. “What else are you doing?”

He seemed to crack in front of her. Like a fissure split throughout his entire body, and then he held it back together again. “You weren’t the only one the chimera attacked.”

“What healing do you need?”

“They all need healing,” he replied. “All of them. Every creature that I have spent countless centuries collecting and then I had to kill one of the few creatures I have yet to collect. I could have taken its life or I could have stitched it into my body like all the others.”

“Why didn’t you?”

He swallowed, his throat bobbing with the sudden emotion. “It is a slow process. It would have killed you before I finished.”

She placed her blood smeared hand on his cheek, tugging him closer so she could look him in the eye. “Let me take care of you, Envy. And the others. You’re doing too much.”

“I can heal them all.”

She knew better than to argue with him. So she sat there in a puddle of her own blood as he placed his palms on the floor and sent a pulse of magic throughout his entire castle. Over and over, the waves of energy struck her first and then through the floor they went. The scars on her legs disappeared, as did an old scar on her hand where she had cut the webbing between her thumb and forefinger.

It took hours. And when he was done, Envy collapsed onto his face in a puddle of water and Lilith’s blood.

23

The chimera’s venom eventually got the better of him. Even while he was healing all his tattooed creatures, he could feel the poison spreading. The venom coursed through his veins with all the heat of a thousand suns. It burned deep inside of him and whispered of a long time when he would be stuck in his own body.

Trapped.

Few people knew how to cure a chimera’s venom. Most of them were his brothers, but he didn’t think Lilith would know how to contact them.

Orphe did, though. She knew how to get in touch with Sloth, who would have the antidote for a creature that was born in his kingdom. He had a feeling Sloth even had a few chimeras of his own, although his brother would never admit to such a thing.

He wondered if Sloth would even help him. These were the delirious thoughts that chased after him as he fell face first onto Lilith’s floor. And perhaps a few wandering musings that she had no reason to be kind to him while he was unconscious.

He’d kidnapped her. Stolen her away from her family and had given her no reason to care for him at all. He wouldn’t blame her if she ran the moment he was face down on the ground and paralyzed. She should run, if he was being honest with himself.

It would be infinitely better for her if he weren’t in her life. She could return to the oracular order. Certainly they would take in one of their own kind who had been so mistreated by the man who was supposed to protect her. The man they had given her themselves.

That little flare of anger at the order for putting her in danger was the last thing he remembered.

At least, until he woke. Which was surprising. He had thought it would take a while to get the antidote, if they even could. Sloth was not... punctual. Not even when someone’s life was on the line.

He woke to the sound of murmuring voices and the faintest ache in his body. So there was still some venom left, although not much of it. From what he knew, he shouldn’t even be awake if there was venom still in him. But here he was, able to listen to the conversation that floated around him.

Orphe’s croaking voice was the first that he could make out, suspiciously sounding as though it was coming from above his head. “We should not wake him too early. It will harm him more than it will help.”

“You were the one who said there wasn’t any venom left to disturb him.” That was... Lilith? No, that couldn’t be her.

His little captive should have run the moment she was given the opportunity. She would have to be foolish to stay with him. Or, perhaps, more under his spell than he realized.

“I said it smelled as though the venom was gone. And then you go and give him the rest of it!”

“Would you hush? I’m doing the best I can. It’s not like I’m a trained healer, and neither are you.”

“I’ve lived more of a life than you have, girl.” There was the faintest rustle of feathers, as though Orphe had spread her wings to intimidate the other woman. “If I say wait, then you will wait.”

“Well, I’m the one with thumbs. So I’m going to do what I think is right and not listen to the bird brain who likely got him in this position to begin with.” More muttering, but he couldn’t quite understand what was being said. All he knew was that he was in much less pain than he had been when he’d first passed out.

The two females who had taken care of him had done a good job, even if they were arguing about it. Envy took the time to really feel his entire body. Limbs all seemed to be in working order. There was still a soreness in his torso that he was certain was from where the snake had struck him. Another ache in his left shoulder that still had quite a bit of burning sensation to it.

So there was still some venom left in that shoulder. Enough so that he could pull it out with a simple spell.

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