Chapter 23

23

T he 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.

His stores of magic were, as expected, in perfect shape. But that suggested that he had rested a very long time to get them back into that full state.

Blinking his eyes open, he stared at the ceiling of what was his bedroom.

Not Lilith's, shockingly. The familiar carved scene of a great hunt as a group of humans road horses into the trap of waiting monsters in the trees. He'd always loved the piece, and had commissioned it time and time again until it was perfect.

Tilting his head to the side, he was shocked to find how difficult it was just to turn his head. But then his eyes caught on the glimmering gold creature who flitted around his room and he didn't care about the pain anymore.

She was so pretty. Her marble white skin gleamed in the light of his room. Orphe must have said the spells to make it daylight, because all he could see was her beauty in the fake sunlight before his balcony. She stood in front of his stores of potions.

Each bottle held something very specific inside of it. They helped certain ailments, certain people, and other things that he wasn't even sure of at this point. He'd gotten into potion making in one of his more... morose years of being an immortal. And the next century had been days on end of creating every potion known to mankind. Then he made his own, and it had gotten out of hand.

Considering how many bottles she pulled down, looked at, and then set back down, he knew it was a struggle for her to identify them.

Clearing his throat, he tried to speak through his dry mouth. "Left side."

She spun around, her hair flinging in front of her face before she shoved it out of the way. And he got lost in her wide-eyed stare.

Damn it. He hadn't realized just how far he'd fallen under her spell until this moment. It wasn't just that she was changing him, or that he wanted her attention. It was quite literally that he liked the woman.

Envy liked the way she looked at him and smiled. He liked the way the light filtered through her hair and the strange way her eyes turned to stone when she was seeing prophecies. He liked that she even cared to tell people their prophecies. Envy himself would never have thought to give someone an answer that would prolong their lives. He'd always done everything, intending to serve himself. Never... others.

She made him want to be a different man. Perhaps a better man, and that was terrifying in itself.

Lilith came over to him, pressing the back of her hand to his forehead. "You're awake."

A black wing spread between them, and Orphe peered down into his line of sight. "You should not be awake."

"Go get Sloth," he wheezed.

"My lord, you are too ill to be awake. You should go back to sleep."

"Find my brother and let him know what has happened. He will want to know that there is an uprising in my court. Perhaps he'll be interested in getting out of his kingdom for a little while."

As if that would ever happen. But all he wanted was for Orphe to leave so he could have a few minutes alone with his oracle. His spirit sighed, and Orphe shook her head at him before taking off. She flung herself out of the balcony and up into the open air of his kingdom. She would continue skyward until she escaped out of the smallest opening that he had left specifically for her.

But then they were alone, and he could feast his eyes on the beauty before him with no interruptions.

She looked down at him with a soft expression. "Maybe Orphe is right. Are you supposed to be awake right now?"

"I don't know."

"You're the one with all the healing background. Don't you have magic you could use?"

He did, but he didn't want to use magic right now. He wanted her to take care of him.

So he lied. "My magic will need to rest for a while yet or I'll hurt myself even worse."

She saw right through that lie. Her eyes narrowed, and for a moment, he thought she would call him out on that. Instead, she turned on her heel and started back toward the potions. "Left side, you said?"

Envy took his time easing himself upright. The headboard propped him up with all the pillows she'd piled around him as well. And then he imperiously gave her directions, giving her the wrong ones on purpose so he could watch her body move and stretch in every direction he wanted to see.

She really was beautiful. If a little small and perhaps scrawny, every bit of her still called out to him. Even with the pain in his body.

"Did Sloth give you the antidote?" he asked as she came back with the correct healing vial.

"No, actually. I used the tip of the chimera's tail and boiled the goat head. Apparently, that's how the antidote is made." She shrugged, handing the vial over. "Orphe brought someone from the city below and I read their future. Luckily, they were also the one who had provided the chimera in the first place. One of their futures was that they were bitten themselves."

He arched a brow and downed the minty flavored potion. "Is that so? Who would have guessed?"

"Not me. Then she plucked out his eyes and told him to find his way out of the castle." Lilith winced. "He only took about seven steps before he fell."

Orphe always knew how to please him, even when he wasn't feeling well. But clearly, Lilith thought this was a gruesome end, and she wasn't a particular fan of such things. Understandably, considering how sheltered she'd always been. So he did not laugh at the man's misfortune. Even though he wanted to.

But then he caught a glimpse of his arms and hissed out an angry breath. "Where are all my tattoos?"

Now it was Lilith who arched a brow. "You healed them all, but did not summon them to return to you. I corralled them all into your office, but they've nearly destroyed the place. They also had free access to both my bedroom, the kitchen, and the pool room, considering the portals were still active. They've made an impressive mess."

He was certain they had.

Sighing, he started the long and arduous process of calling them all back to him. One by one, they appeared on his flesh. Each one settling in a new spot, jostling with others as they raced across his body. At one point, his favorite serpent ended up with some of its coils over his cheek before he hissed out a complaint that forced it to move.

And throughout it all, she watched him with an amused expression on her face.

"What?" he finally asked. "What is that face for?"

"It's just... You handle them like children."

"Sometimes they are," he grumbled.

She stayed right where she was, leaning her hip against his bedside table and still wearing that amused expression, and he just couldn't take it anymore. He didn't want her to be so far from him. Not after they had both risked their lives and they were both injured.

He patted the bed beside him. "You were injured as well, oracle."

"You healed me."

"You need rest just as much as I do." Although he had to admit, he'd done a fantastic job healing her. There weren't even dark shadows under her eyes. She looked like she'd slept for hours and woke up the most rested she'd ever been in her life.

That she didn't hesitate to round his bed and crawl on top of the covers warmed him to the bone. He hadn't realized how nervous he was until she'd moved. Although she hesitated when she got a little closer to him.

He wouldn't let her ruin this moment with her innocence. Reaching out an arm, he hooked it around her back and drew her into him. With her in his grip, he eased back down until he was lying flat and she was pressed up against his side. Every inch of her touching every inch of him.

With a deep, contented sigh, he settled into the softness of his bed. "This feels right," he murmured.

She stiffened before falling limp against him. "It really does. How strange."

"Is it so strange to you?" He lifted their hands together, holding them up so they could both look at them. "I don't find it strange at all."

And he really didn't. It was the most natural thing in the world to have her hand in his. To see his blocky fingers framing the thin grace of her own. And as he watched with her, mist rose from her skin. It mingled with the magic that came from him, almost as though it was pulling his magic out of him.

Where they met, a brilliant golden light emerged. Like a gold thread, it glimmered in the light.

"You see?" he murmured, watching her mist toy with the magic he allowed it to feast upon. "Not strange in the slightest."

"This isn't strange?" A slight giggle erupted from her lips before she looped one of the golden threads around her thumb. "I don't think I've ever seen my magic do this before."

"Because you hadn't met me." And that fed something deep inside him. Something was so satisfied to know that he was it for her. That he'd been something different and unique and more than anyone else had ever given her.

So he looped the thread around his fingers, too. Envy rotated the thread so that it wrapped around their wrists, binding them a little closer to each other with every movement. But never close enough. He wanted to be even closer to her.

With his arm around her shoulders, he toyed with the magic that they both called their own.

This was enough, too.