Page 66 of The Demon Mark

And considering they hadn’t saved Lilith yet, he had a feeling that order would just give this man another young woman to torment.

Troubled, he walked over to the blanket on the ground and tried to forget the conversation. He wiped his face clear of any concern and smiled at her with what he hoped was a convincing grin. “Your embroidery skills are impeccable.”

She didn’t look up at him. Instead, she kept her gaze on the tiny stitches. “You can’t let him get another oracle.”

It took a few moments for his mind to catch up. “What?”

“Another oracle means he’s going to abuse the power even more. He and I were both young when we were paired. Now he has not only experience, but age on his side. Whoever is given to him will be a puppet for the rest of her life.”

“How do you know we were talking about that? I thought you couldn’t see my future.”

She looked up at him with an unimpressed look on her face. “You aren’t a quiet man, Envy. If you wanted that conversation to be private, you should lower your voice.”

He wasn’t that loud, was he?

Grumbling under his breath, he dropped onto the blanket beside her. “Well, if you were listening to the whole thing like a fly on the wall, what are your thoughts?”

“It would be much easier for him if he had another oracle. Children are most likely what he would find in the oracular order these days. It’s rare for an adult to be paired with anyone. So he would get a small child who knows no better, only how to control her power.” She set the embroidery down in her lap. “My fear is that he would use them. He used me, after all. The herb he boiled was wrong, and it made it much easier to control me. Which means he’ll continue to do that, but with a child this time. She won’t know. She’ll get weaker and weaker, and then she might very well die under his care.”

He shouldn’t care about that. It wasn’t like it was unheard of for people to die in his kingdom. And if he could get the circus master out of this kingdom, then he wouldn’t ever have to deal with the man again. It would be easier for Envy to decide to wipe them both from his life.

His gut instinct told him that he should let her die. Lilith was not who he wanted, anyway. He wanted the oracle power that was inside of her. If he let her die, then he could follow this circus master into whatever kingdom the oracular order hid. Then he would have access to all the oracles that he could find.

Apparently, Lilith read him like an open book.

“If you followed him to the oracular order, all you would find are splintered pieces of the oracle herself. Every death would send that power to the other living oracles, which would make them more powerful and harder to kill. There are oracles in every single kingdom spread across all the realms. You could spend the rest of your immortal existence hunting them down and killing each and every one. But would you ever get to the root of this power?” She shook her head. “Even with another thousand years, it is unlikely.”

He hummed low underneath his breath. “I wouldn’t consider it, oracle.”

“You were considering it, demon king.”

He was, but that didn’t make him feel any better about himself. In fact, all she’d done was make him feel guilty for ever thinking it.

Sighing, he laid back on the sands and laid an arm in front of his eyes to block out the sun. “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Make me feel guilty for being all that I am. I should be the ruthless demon king who rules this kingdom. The choice to let you die and follow him to your order is the logical one. I am evil, Lilith. I was born to be that way.”

Small hands grabbed his forearm, forcing them away from his face so he had to look up into her beautiful eyes. Her cheeks were flushed pink with heat, and he thought there was the hint of a sunburn on her chin and nose. Likely because she hadn’t seen the sun in years until this moment.

And still she looked at him with kindness. “I don’t think you were born to be evil. I think people expected you to be like that, and so you were. But now you have the choice whether you want to be evil or not.”

He didn’t want to be anything she didn’t approve of. He wanted her to look at him with pride and to feel as though he was doing the right thing.

But mostly, he didn’t want to argue with her. He wanted her to tell him that she adored him, and that he had done the right thing. All of that was more important to him than what others thought.

Sighing, he caught her around the waist and pulled her into him. She came with a soft laugh, the giggles bubbling up between them as she braced herself on his chest.

“Envy,” she scolded. “I mean it. You aren’t all that bad.”

“Not all that bad,” he repeated. “But a little bad.”

“Well, you made me do some bad things with you.” Her fingers played over his features, following the line of his jaw and down his neck. The heat in her eyes made him boil alive. “But I’m not complaining.”

“You better not.” He rolled the two of them until he was hovering over her. “Or I won’t do them again.”

“Oh please. You can hardly stay away from touching me, just like I can’t stop touching you.” And she hadn’t. Not even while they argued.

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