Chapter 12

12

T his oracle was proving to be more and more difficult to keep. Here he had been, convinced he had stolen himself a self sufficient creature to live in his home, only to realize she needed to be taken care of.

And the worst of it came in the form of a man who was far too confident that he'd trapped a demon king under his thumb. The portal he'd sent the circus master to led to Envy's office. When he strode in after the man, it was to see a satisfied expression on the man's stupid face.

Now, Envy needed information from the man. He needed to be at least a little cordial so that this circus master would tell him what he needed to know about this herb. However, what he really wanted to do was put a fist through the man's face.

Literally through it. He would love nothing more than to feel the splattered bits of brain sticking to his fingers while staring into the cavernous maw that would be the man's face.

What a shame he couldn't feed that fantasy yet. But soon, he would. All he had to do was wait a little while yet.

"Put that down," he snarled, staring at the paperweight in the man's hands.

The circus master chuckled and set it back where he'd gotten it. "You can't blame a man for looking. How many people have been in the demon king's office? Not many, I'd wager."

No one was the actual answer. He didn't let anyone into his life, even less into his home. Those that had seen his office were like him. Other demon kings from other kingdoms who had been useful. Not someone from the gutter who thought he now had the leverage to crawl out of the muck and use Envy to his advantage.

He knew men like this one. They were always looking for the next thing that could make them money. And Envy had walked right into his trap.

He needed to gain control over this situation, and quickly.

So he walked to his desk. His calculated movements likely were eerie to a human eye. He moved fluidly, too swiftly, and with a straight gait that marked him as something other. Right now, the man's mind should be screaming that he was in the presence of a predator and he should run.

But the man had little self preservation, it seemed. Because this fool shook his head and then took the seat in front of his desk. Then the circus master leaned the chair back on its legs, as though it wasn't a precious item that was one of the few pieces in this kingdom with actual wooden legs. "So, you're clearly going to offer me a deal. The herb's price is high, before you ask. I'm the only one left alive who knows how to grow it."

"How's that?"

"Oracles have always had keepers. There might be more like me with another oracle in another kingdom, but there aren't any other oracles in this kingdom. How long would it take you to find some other keeper? Probably too long. She'd die before that. You know it. I know it." The man let the legs thud back onto the floor and grinned. "So the price is high."

Of course it was. Envy leaned back in his chair, relaxed in every part of his body other than his right hand that clutched his own chair arm underneath the table so hard he thought he might crush the stone into dust.

"This would have been rather important information to know before you let me take her."

"You stole her," the man grumbled.

"Semantics. She's mine now, and you knew the moment I walked into your home that she would be mine. You should have told me that she was so fragile."

"As if you wouldn't have taken her, regardless."

He didn't know why the man spoke so eloquently. A circus master such as himself should have spoken with an accent, or perhaps shorter, clipped words. And yet, this man spoke well. Almost as well as Envy did.

Narrowing his gaze on the man, he let out a low hum. "Perhaps I would have."

"You know you would have. I know all about you, demon king. You take what you want, no one can stop you from doing that. It's fine, you know. I understand the need, but there are a great many ways to feed your desire than just... taking."

The man was about to offer him something more. Like some common drug dealer, this idiot was going to sweeten the deal for more money, or more magic, or whatever it was this man wanted.

"You have quite an interesting vocabulary for a man who runs a circus. Better vocabulary than some of the nobility who live in this kingdom. Considering your talent for haggling and how quickly you seem to catch onto how other people tick, I have to assume that you are not just a circus master. Or at the very least, you weren't born this way."

There was only the faintest reaction to his words. A hint of a flinch, or perhaps the slightest jerk from this man who hadn't expected someone to see straight through him.

Envy continued, narrowing his eyes with every word until he was glaring with every inch of loathing in his body. "So, which is it? Were you once a noble that was cast out of your home? Or did you do something so awful in your homeland that you had to run? There aren't a lot of reasons for someone like you to be in my kingdom, and even fewer reasons that you would bring one of the most powerful oracles I have ever seen with you."

"I'm not telling you anything," the man said, a grin on his face. "You'll have to pay me for information, just like you'll pay me to keep her."

"This isn't about the money for you."

"It is a little."

Envy sat back, sighing once more in disappointment. "I had hoped we could handle this like gentlemen."

"I am not a gentleman, and I suspect neither are you, demon king."

He wasn't wrong, and that was precisely why he should be afraid.

Envy reached for one of his tattoos, feeling the spark of magic as he yanked it off himself. This one was little more than a black shadow, a band of darkness that circled his thigh. About four inches thick when it was on his body, but as he pulled, it continued to grow.

The smoke encircled his wrist, gathering around his arm, and then migrated up to his shoulder, where it perched next to his head.

"Do you know what this is?" he asked.

The circus master didn't flinch. "You won't kill me. I have what you want, and you'll never get to keep her if you do. So please, stop with the theatrics."

"You are right. I won't kill you. But I don't need to kill you to get what I want. This mist is a spell that was cast by a once great magician. It ate him, in a sense. This spell consumes memories, emotions, feelings, all of it wrapped up in one. It doesn't matter what is going on inside your mind, the spell will devour it all. I can even tell it what not to eat." Envy felt a satisfying zing of power as the other man finally looked a little nervous. "I will tell it to eat everything but the memory of how to grow that flower, and what to do with said flower. You will be nothing more than a husk of a man. A drooling mess to clean up after."

It was the first time the circus master cracked. Clearly, he hadn't been aware that something like this existed. To be fair, neither had Envy until he'd seen the man cast it. He'd gathered the spell up after the man had died screaming, and he'd spoken with the creation that the magician had given life.

Of course, it had tried to attack him, too. Envy had let the spell tire itself out before the strange creation realized that it was dealing with an emotion who had taken flesh. Then it was a different situation. He'd convinced it to let him make it into one of his summonable tattoos.

And this curse so loved to be used.

The circus master squirmed in his chair, hesitating now that he knew what the stakes were. "I'm not going to tell you more than I need to. That herb has been entrusted to me. There are few people in all the seven realms who know how to plant it, gather it, or do anything at all with it. This is sacred."

"Then tell me what you can."

"It's an herb the oracles have used forever. That's all you need to know."

Envy nodded at the spell that slithered down his shoulder. It started toward the man, moving across the floor like a snake.

The circus master lifted his feet off the ground, crawling back into his chair like that would save him. "It—it was once thought of as a ritual. The oracles used to use it when they were all together. It was a way to hone their prophecies, so they didn't die so young. An older oracle can see more than the others. The younger they are, the more jumbled their prophecies are."

"Very interesting. That tells me nothing about the plant itself."

"Make it stop," he stammered, nearly standing on the chair now. "Make it stop, and I'll answer your questions."

Envy waved a hand at the creature, and it froze in its place. Even Envy was surprised at that. Usually he couldn't control it once it was unleashed. At least, not until it had fed. "And the knowledge of the herb?"

"Every time an oracle is born, someone is chosen to be her keeper. I was a young man when she was born." The circus master's face twisted with rage before even that fell in the face of his fear. "I was supposed to be a duke in Lust's kingdom. I was the first born of my name, and the oracles took me for their own. I didn't want to be a keeper. I had no intention of them even looking at me. I tried to hide from them, but they... They see all."

"Of course they do. They see the future, and they must have known you were important to hers." And didn't that make him angry. This man shouldn't be important to Lilith in any way.

Envy should be.

The circus master swallowed. "When I was given the role, I tried to fight it. They didn't let me. I went through the training with everyone else. I learned how to fight. How to protect her. How to cook. How to clean. They took me from nobility and gave me to a woman to serve as her slave. I refused to do that. Even you must understand how hard that would have been for me."

Envy waved a hand in the air. "Get on with it."

"They give us a packet of seeds as well, when we're first taken in as keepers. They show us how to plant them, how to get more seeds out of them. A single plant only lives for three days, and it's the bloom that you need. It's a finicky plant to keep, to get to bloom. Everything about it is hard. We're meant to take care of those plants above all else."

"Give me the seeds then, and the rest of the plants that you have. I will learn."

The circus master scrubbed the back of his neck. "I can't do that."

With one glance toward the spell, the shadow moved toward the man again.

"It's not that I don't want to!" the man rushed, now leaping over his chair to get away from the mist. But he could only get as far as Envy's locked door before he realized how trapped he was. "I don't have any more! I made a mistake with my last batch, and the seeds didn't take. It's gone. All of it is gone. Why do you think I was leaving? I was going to the oracles to see if one of them might have some seeds to spare."

"Then tell me where they are."

"I don't know ," the circus master said. "Besides, they won't even speak with you. They'll see you coming. Probably already have. I have to go alone, and I certainly can't bring a fucking demon king with me or we'll never find them."

Damn it.

The man was right. The oracles already knew who had Lilith, and they certainly would not give them any of the herb if he kept her.

"Fuck," he muttered. "How do we trick a group of oracles?"

"You don't," the circus master muttered. "Trust me. You don't."

Well, shit. That made everything more difficult.

Blowing out a breath, he nodded at the man and called the spell back to himself. The circus master sagged against the door while Envy put the spell back where it had come from. "Get the seeds. You have one month."

"That's not enough time."

"That's all the time you get before I release this spell to devour you."

"Without the seeds, punishing me gets you nowhere."

Envy grinned, and he knew the expression was not a kind one. "No, it doesn't. But it would make me feel better. The door is unlocked now."

Watching the man scramble from his room didn't help his emotions at all. Inside, he was screaming. Raging. He wanted to break something and hear it shatter against the wall of his office.

But when Orphe flew in through his window, he knew that wasn't the answer. He certainly wasn't breaking his most precious spirit.

"Did you hear all that?" he asked.

"Yes," she croaked, adjusting her feathers as she landed on her perch. "This will be more difficult to keep her alive. You should just steal her power."

"Can't."

"Can't?"

He didn't know if that was the truth. But can't and won't were very similar feelings, and for the time being, he wanted the oracle alive. If only because she'd felt so small in his arms, so delicate.

So breakable.

Sighing, he pulled at his bottom lip and shrugged. "She's become a rather high maintenance pet, don't you think?"

Orphe gave him an unimpressed look as he chuckled. High maintenance, yes. But all pretty things were.