Chapter 29

29

E nvy made sure one last time that Lilith was catching her breath before bolting after his brother, who had run from the room. They'd both managed to terrify Envy. Lilith because he thought she was dying. All of a sudden her lungs had seized, and he had the horrible realization that maybe Sloth was too powerful. Maybe his brother was actually shoving her out of his head and, in doing so, was killing her.

And then Sloth had frozen while she whispered about all the things his brother had lost and it nearly broke him to hear it.

So Sloth had been in love. Not just curious about a woman, but genuinely in love with her. Sloth had lost something so deeply precious to him that none of his brothers could have understood it. After all these years, Envy'd had no idea that his laziest of brothers had been suffering.

Just the thought of losing Lilith made him feel like he was losing his mind. He couldn't survive this realm without her, which was likely a terrifying thing to say to anyone but in his own head. And yet, that was the truth.

He would do anything to keep her safe. Whether someone was trying to take her from him, or life itself. He had a feeling that it wasn't even the demon part of him, either. Almost as though it wasn't that he coveted her or that he wanted her to himself.

How he felt for her was stronger than envy itself.

"I'm fine," she said, sounding more like herself and less breathless. "Go get him."

So he sprinted into the hallway to catch his brother before Sloth figured out how to get home. They still needed him here, even if that was the last thing Sloth wanted to do.

His brother always had been faster. Where Envy was broad, Sloth was narrow. The speed with which his brother could run was impressive, if a little foolish, considering how slippery the stairs were that led up the center of his home. But Sloth had already slipped through one of the newer portals Envy had set up, raced out of the library, and up quite a few stairs. Unfortunately, he didn't climb every single day like Envy did.

So Sloth was slowing down considerably. And it was rather easy for Envy to catch up to him.

"Where do you think you're going?" he shouted up the stairs.

"To your office, where I am sure there are all manner of objects to get me home," his brother replied testily. "I didn't come here to have my future told, Envy. And I didn't agree to having that witch look through my memories."

"Careful who you call a witch."

"Oh yes, yes," Sloth shouted down the stairs, the words echoing through the entirety of Envy's home. "You fancy yourself in love with her! How dare I insult the woman of your dreams?"

Not quite the woman of his dreams, if he was being honest. Envy had always thought if he was going to take a consort, he'd take a woman who was much more agreeable and less argumentative. However, Lilith had more than a few perks.

He enjoyed being around her. And that was more useful than having a woman who always told him that he was right, or just said yes when he asked her questions.

Still marching up the stairs, he gave Sloth some room to cool down on the way to his office. But he muttered a few spells under his breath to make sure anything Sloth touched wouldn't work.

He understood the other man's need to disappear and that he needed some space to himself. That didn't mean Envy needed to give him that space.

Sloth stalked into his office and started looking around. It appeared that he had a particular item in mind, so Envy let him search. He just leaned against the doorframe and watched.

Sloth knew his magical objects. His brother was far more invested in sorcery than any of the others, even if he only dabbled in it compared to Envy. And though he took a few moments longer to find what he was looking for, he'd certainly done it faster than Envy had anticipated.

There was a small crystal sitting on one of the shelves. Innocent looking at first glance, but it was specifically created for teleportation. With just a few words, that crystal could bring someone anywhere they wanted, even if that was in another realm. It was a priceless piece, and one that many of his people had spent years trying to create.

They'd only created one before the mineshaft with those crystals had spontaneously crumbled. It crushed every single crystal within it. So it was the first and last of its kind. At least, until Envy found another vein of that same crystal and used it to his advantage.

Sloth reached for it with a small grunt of relief before his fingers hit an invisible shield.

As if Envy would ever let him just grab something from his office. There were too many priceless objects here. Objects that Sloth had no right to touch.

His brother gave him a dirty look over his shoulder. "I found it, brother. Give it to me."

"Absolutely not."

"You have no right to keep me here. I let your oracle do whatever she wanted to do in my mind. She found the answer you were looking for. That is good enough. Give me the crystal and let me go home."

Envy shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "No."

"I have a kingdom to run of my own. The longer you keep me here, the worse things could go for my people. And if you think I'll suffer through that, then you don't realize just what I can do to yours." His eyes slitted and then glowed with an inner flame. "I'd be happy to show you what a trapped dragon can do."

As if Envy wanted to fight right now. After all that Lilith had revealed? The last thing he wanted to do was that.

Sighing, Envy pinched the bridge of his nose. "You are just as bad as the rest of us. And I thought working with Gluttony was bad. Sit down, Sloth."

"Fight me on this all you want, brother, but I'm not sitting. I'm leaving."

"You're not doing either, it seems. Because that crystal stays where it is, and you're just standing there like a complete dolt."

Sloth bared his teeth, and Envy could see they were getting a little pointed. A bad sign. "Listen to me, Envy. I do not enjoy feeling trapped and I don't want to be here anymore."

"Well, I don't like that my brother has been lying to me for years about far more than just his kingdom." With a flick of his fingers, Envy summoned the chair to shoot closer to Sloth. The chair screeched as it moved across the stone floor before settling right beside him. "Sit before I make you sit."

Sloth bared his teeth again, but this time, he at least sat down. Though his eyes continued to flick toward the crystal, he was listening to what Envy had to say. At least for the moment.

Envy stayed by the door. Sloth was more likely to bolt again the moment he started talking. At the end of that thought, he also muttered another quick spell to lock his balcony doors. It would take an actual dragon to break through those doors now. Which Sloth could do. But it would be another problem entirely if Sloth changed into his second form in this room.

Sloth remained grumpy and out of sorts until he sighed and gestured toward the crystal. "It's a habit of mine to run from conversations. I'm not... I don't like to talk about feelings."

"Does this have something to do with why you think the rest of us are changing?"

Scratching the back of his neck, his brother became more and more uncomfortable. "Maybe. Yes? I don't know. You see, she always... She made it seem as though that was to be expected from our kind. We were supposed to change. Spirits moved throughout the emotions and lived every life we might live. It was our reason for being."

Envy hadn't expected him to just come right out with it. After all that, Sloth had argued, he'd expected his brother to fight him a bit.

Instead, he walked over to his chair and settled in to listen. "She sounds like she knew a lot about our kind."

"She did. She had seen spirits throughout all of her life. Seeing into this world and the next was sort of power for her. Like your oracle there, she knew how to bend the veil of the realms in her favor." He sighed. "She was perhaps the most impressive woman I have ever met."

"What happened to her?"

"The same as all humans. She fell in love. I fell in love with her as well." Sloth tensed at the sound Envy made in his throat. "I know it's hard to believe. But if you asked our other three brothers how they felt about their women, what would they say?"

"That they were more in love with them than they were with breath."

He'd asked Gluttony before. Long after his brother had met his partner, and after Envy had healed her. There was a certain disbelief that came with any of their kind saying those words, though.

The demon kings were not talented at loving anything other than themselves. And frankly, most of them didn't even do that. Envy knew what it meant to love. He'd seen humans throw those words around his entire life, not to mention that they'd believed them. But until now, he hadn't thought it was a real emotion.

Until her.

"They fell in love later in our lives, though. When did you fall in love?" He narrowed his gaze on Sloth. "And the truth this time. No dancing around it. You know, I know, so you might as well give it all up."

Sloth nodded. "This was many centuries ago. We were still early in our development. I was still... young. But she was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, and she wasn't afraid of me. Back then, most of the humans in my kingdom skirted around me. They were terrified that one look from me would set them ablaze or some other nonsense. But she walked right up to me, looked me over, and said it looked like I had a problem. She might be able to fix it."

"How'd she do that?"

"Fucking. A lot of it," Sloth replied with a chuckle. "And then a lot of talking. She fascinated me. Every bit of who she was, what she had seen, all the beauty of her very short life and how she didn't fear the end of that life. It captivated me."

Envy knew a bit of what that felt like. His obsession with Lilith ran deep, and that was perhaps a little terrifying, to say the least. He wasn't sure how to help, though. Considering he knew where this story ended.

"What happened to her?" he asked, knowing that he was ripping at an old wound. "She's not with us. You're still Sloth."

"I..." Sloth blinked a few times before looking away from him. "She wanted me to change. She'd seen many spirits like us shift in what and who they were. She'd just watched a spirit of virtue turn into one of degradation and she was feeling as though she had failed in helping it. She was so adamant that she would help me change into something else."

"But?" Envy asked when his brother trailed off.

"I was young. I didn't want to change who I was. Sloth is an emotion that is easy and comfortable to feel. There is no change that will happen if one does not want to change who they are. She couldn't convince me to do it. I couldn't convince her to let it go. We argued more and more, and I continued to tell her that if she didn't stop arguing with me, that I would eventually resent her for it." Sloth stared down at his fingers. "I never would have. I'd have kept her until her very last day, basking in her beauty and loving her for every inch of who she was."

As heartbreaking as it was, it didn't answer Envy's question. "What happened to her, Sloth?"

"I let her go. She didn't want to stay and in a fit of anger, I told her to do whatever she wanted. She could run, but wherever she went, I would find her and drag her back to my kingdom." Sloth shook his head. "She found the only place where I couldn't follow."

Envy blew out a long, slow breath. "So she killed herself?"

"And said those exact words when I found her. She'd already slit her wrists straight up from the palm to her elbow. It was quicker than I even knew they could die, but she made sure she was still alive to tell me exactly what your oracle just said." Sloth shook his head again, like a dog shaking off water. "You will spend the rest of your life searching for me, demon. Waste all your many years trying to replace me. I will not go to the land of the dead until your suffering is complete."

The words hung between them. A summoning and an omen all at the same time. And yet again, the strange sensation of a ghost passing between them. But as Envy looked closer into the feeling and the ice that trailed down his back, he realized it wasn't a ghost after all. It was the remains of a true curse. One that lingered even though the caster had been long dead.

Sloth chuckled, but the sound had no mirth to it. "Apparently, she refused to go to the land of the dead, and that means she's back. I don't know whether to waste all my time trying to find her again, or run as far from this fate as I can."

Envy's mind raced with all this information. He couldn't ask his brother to help him now, not when he knew what was at stake. Sloth had so many more things to deal with right now than Envy's troubles. And yet, he had to ask his brother to help him. Even though...

"I shouldn't ask you to be here now," he muttered. "Not after we know that she's alive. That you could find her again."

"No, it is good that I'm here." Sloth seemed to hesitate on the words, before continuing. "She would have wanted me to help. Besides, there's nothing you can do, Envy. If there is anyone who could help me, it's Pride."

They both shuddered at the name, but Envy hated it much more than his brother. "Are you certain? That seems drastic to ask the..."

"Fop?" Sloth interjected. "The asshat we all know and hate?"

"I wasn't going to say it so bluntly, but..."

"I'll say it bluntly," Sloth muttered before slumping in the chair. "Yes, I'm certain it has to be him. Even though I don't want to talk to him. Give me some time to work up to it and quite a few large drinks."

"And in the meantime?"

He hated even asking, but... Envy could use all the help he could get.

Sloth nodded. "In the meantime, I'm yours to aim, brother. We'll battle this together."