Chapter 34

34

L orenzo's hold on her shifted the moment they were out of Envy's eyesight. But she knew it would. His angry whispers still filled her mind with their usual brand of poison.

"If you give me the chance to take you away from all of this, then I will let him live."

She'd hissed at him, "You couldn't kill him if you tried."

"The dragon in my pocket says otherwise. I paid a lifetime's worth of gold for it, which means you're going to have to work extra hard to repay me. I'm saving you, girl. Now you either come with me, or I will make you crawl on your hands and knees after me."

She knew he'd make good on that threat. He'd done it before. With all of her memories back, and him being so close, she could remember the time when he'd done that. He'd been bound and determined to break her in the early days. He'd starved her. Made her beg at his feet for food. Fed her out of a dog bowl. The worst kind of life until she'd relented and let him do whatever he wanted.

The poison had seeped into her veins after that. He'd given her so much that it had stolen her memories, and who she was as a person. Without that tea, she had floundered as well.

But Envy had given it all back to her. Whether he realized what he was doing or not, he had given her a chance to be herself again. To remember what it was like to be a person after not being one for such a long time.

That was a gift she would carry with her for the rest of her life. Because if she had to sacrifice herself to save him, then she would do so time and time again.

Lorenzo stopped holding onto her arm the moment they were out of eyesight. Then his hand reached up to grip her hair, and he forced her to stumble after him. Step by painstaking step, it made every part of her body flare in pain. If she wasn't walking fast enough, he tore at the strands until they felt like they were going to rip out of her skull. If she tried to run to keep up with him, then she was tugging at her own hair with her awkward gait.

No matter what, she was in pain. And she knew that was exactly how he wanted it to be.

"Lorenzo," she wheezed, out of breath already. "What is the rush? I thought you said there was no way he would follow us."

"There isn't," he muttered. His eyes narrowed as he paused them. He looked down each of the streets in the labyrinth of this kingdom before choosing one. "But that doesn't mean we don't need to get a safe distance away."

For a split second, she thought that meant Envy might catch up with them. The hope that bloomed in her chest was short-lived, however, when she heard the roar of a dragon that shook every single house around them. Stones rained down from the ceiling overhead. The sound had been so loud that it shook the shingles loose. Lorenzo threw her to the side to avoid being struck, but she hit her head against the stone wall of a home.

Sliding down the smooth surface, she landed on her hip and tried to brace herself with her hand. The movements were slow, though. Like she was underwater.

Lifting her free hand, she touched it to the side of her head and stared at the blood that coated her fingers. That couldn't be hers, could it? She hadn't hit her head so hard that she'd bleed... had she?

Lorenzo made a noise like he was disappointed. "And now look. You've hurt yourself!"

She hadn't hurt herself. He'd thrown her into the wall and now he was trying to blame her for that? If she hadn't hit her head so hard, she would have gotten up and bolted. She could run into the darkness of the streets, and it wouldn't matter what direction she went. She was smaller and faster. Lilith could have found her own escape without needing to wait for Envy to save her.

But she was so dizzy she wasn't even sure she could stand. Let alone run.

Lorenzo stepped over the rocks, clambering to her side, where he grabbed her arm hard enough to bruise and yanked her upright. The dizziness made everything spin.

The world turned on its axis and suddenly she wasn't even sure if she was still standing. It felt like everything was... wrong. She couldn't quite think right, as though her mind had slowed down to a crawl. If she focused really hard, maybe she could think about what she had just been doing. She was supposed to escape. But she had to close her eyes against the spinning.

No, that made everything worse.

"What is wrong with you?" he snarled. "Don't make me carry you, girl. I'd rather drag you by the hair through the streets."

Lilith knew he would. But she also couldn't figure out how to lift her leg and move forward. If she could just pick it up, then she could keep going. She could walk, she was certain of that, but her mind didn't want to let her. Because the moment she lifted her leg, everything spun again, and she stumbled.

"Damn it." There was a rustling noise, and she thought maybe Lorenzo was going to pick her up after all. But then she heard another voice.

"I can carry her, boss. We gotta get out of here."

One of the shifters? The deep voice made her think maybe it was one of them. They were kinder to her, so that was enough to perk up her ears.

Except rough hands wrapped around her waist and she knew it wasn't one of the shifters. These hands were granite, and they weren't even gentle as she was thrown over a shoulder. Her stomach heaved, and bile filled her mouth and all she could taste was vomit.

"If you puke on me, I'm throwing you off a cliff." The deep voice that threatened her was worse than Lorenzo. Because she knew the golem that held her absolutely would do that.

It wasn't that he just wanted to hurt everyone around him. It was that he didn't know how to not hurt people. She remembered having a long conversation with him after he'd nearly killed a woman who had brushed against him. He didn't realize his own strength, and he didn't understand that human skin was not the same as rock.

So she swallowed all the vomit in her mouth and tried to breathe through it. The world continued to spin until it felt like he was doing quick circles with her body even though she knew her legs were still, so it wasn't possible that she was being flung around like that.

Lilith had no idea how long they raced away from the makeshift arena where they had let loose a dragon to kill the man of her heart. All she knew was that by the time they stopped, the dizziness was only slightly better and her head was pounding. The nausea was still there, but she knew better than to let it out.

Which meant she had to focus on what was in front of her.

Slowly, she blinked her eyes open and tried to get her bearings. They were on what looked like a cliff's edge. Below her were four stories of book shelves, all filled with books that disappeared out of sight and then at least another four stories that rose above her head. Maybe even higher, but her vision was too blurry for her to see all that much.

A library? She had no idea what this was. Clearly, this wasn't a place where books could be taken out by just anyone who wanted to read them.

The books radiated magic. She could feel it clinging to her skin, lingering in her hair and tugging at all the places that hurt. Magic like that was almost alive. It didn't quite have a personality or the ability to think on its own. But it had a semblance of being. Almost as though it wanted to be used, and it was just begging whoever could use it to take it in hand.

Blinking more, she swore she was hallucinating. Because for a moment, she heard voices in those books. Voices similar to the ones she heard in her own head when she needed to go on a spree of telling prophecies. Whispers that were from her own kind.

Lorenzo was talking behind her. Lilith's immediate reaction was to ignore what he was saying, because she didn't want to hear any more of his poisonous words. But then she remembered she was trying to escape him. Which meant she had to pay attention to everything that was happening around her.

"Is the dragon still distracting them?"

"As far as we could tell, boss. We left about the same time as you did, but the two of them were pinned down."

A grating noise made Lorenzo's voice a little deeper. "Who was with him, anyway? I didn't realize the king ever worked with someone else."

"Never seen him before. Not even after the spells dropped." There was a small pause, almost as though the person was lingering on the words to make sure everyone was listening. "But I swear, it was another demon. There was something off about that man. I didn't like it."

A familiar feminine chuckle made the pain in Lilith's head spike again. "As if you'd know a demon just by looking at him! Probably just some poor sap who thought he could kiss a king's ass for a while and get something in return. He'll be dead long before Envy tries to come after this girl."

Was that the fire eater? Lilith didn't want to believe that it was because they'd always gotten along. She and the other woman had even roomed together for a while, but she supposed that after all of what had happened, she shouldn't trust someone so explicitly.

Footsteps approached her, and a cool hand touched her forehead. "You realize she's bleeding, don't you?"

Ah, that was one of the other performers, not someone with magic. Lilith blinked her eyes a few times, forcing her vision to focus on the young woman who was usually with her in the pool. A "priestess," as Lorenzo liked to call them. They were women without powers to perform, but they were good enough to keep an eye on Lilith.

This one was a newer performer, but apparently she thought she had more control over Lorenzo. Maybe they had shared their bed together. Such a thing would get into a woman's head.

Those cool hands moved over her injuries, following the dried and crusty blood up to the wound on her head. "Looks like it's closed, at least. But you should have a healer look her over."

"I won't need a healer once we're done. She can be tossed over a cliff's edge for all I care."

"I thought we weren't killing her?" The performer looked wherever Lorenzo was. Lilith tried to follow the direction of her gaze, but the world was still spinning so fast any movement of her eyes made her see stars.

"Oh, that's just what I was telling everyone else." More footsteps and then Lorenzo was right in front of her.

He held a glass in front of her face, and she was so weak and confused that she didn't even think. Years and years of drinking whatever he had given her had conditioned Lilith to just open her mouth and let him pour anything down her throat. She hated herself for it, but some part of her mind still whispered that whatever he gave her would give some kind of relief. Even if it made her lose herself again.

This time, it was just a healing potion. She could feel it the moment the magic touched her tongue. The sensation of zinging power that raced up to her head and the awful knitting of flesh back together as it healed her.

He patted her on the head, hard enough over the wound that it made her wince.

"There we go. All better. Just enough to get you through the next part." Then his gaze hardened. "Do you want to tell them about the oracles? Do you want to let them know that even if I were to kill you now, that none of them would come for you?"

It hurt her heart to nod. But she did.

"And Envy?" he continued. "Do you think he's going to come for you?"

Again, she nodded.

"Do you think he's going to make it in time to save your life?"

She nodded, but everything in her froze at the sound of his laughter. Lorenzo patted her again, slightly less painful this time, considering the wound on her head had healed.

"No, he won't. He has the story all wrong, you know? He said I was going to kill you and then get a new oracle. Which is a good idea for a plan, I suppose, but not my plan."

Something felt... wrong. The healing potion should have made her feel better. And it had, for a few moments. But now she felt like something was wriggling underneath her skin and she didn't know why or how that was. But then she saw the mist coming out of her body. The mist that was hers to command and yet right now, it felt more out of control than it ever had in her life.

The "priestess" who was clearly working with Lorenzo, stepped forward with a box full of vials. There were so many of them. Twenty or thirty maybe. Then she noticed there were more people waiting with more boxes.

Lorenzo sighed. "Oracle, there are other ways to get prophecies. Apparently, your mist isn't limited to just your body. All one of us has to do is ingest that mist and then voila. Prophecies for the mortal eye. I don't need you or any other oracle as long as I have a steady supply of that mist that never goes rotten. So I'm going to bleed you dry, Lilith. And then I'll get rid of you once and for all."