Chapter 37

37

E nvy hadn't even realized this place existed, and that was a red flag that he was having a hard time ignoring. He knew every single place in this kingdom, because he had to be the one to approve it. Considering this room had never been approved, he could only assume that meant it was built by someone else.

Which meant it was old.

Very old.

Sure, there had been a cavern here before. But when he stepped into the room and saw the countless shelves and scrolls, stacked so high he couldn't see where they ended? That was a sign someone had been going behind his back.

It was so shocking that he froze for a moment, staring at the scrolls that shifted in the slightest of breezes. He could hear the rustling pages mixed with the faintest sound of whispers, as though the pages themselves were speaking. And as he listened, he could hear words of the future and so many prophecies that he couldn't count their number.

There was a stone pathway that rose on one edge. Flattened by many years of feet walking over it. He followed that line with his gaze up to a small outcropping where it ended. It was hard to see from all the way down here, but he swore there was the faintest waterfall of brightly colored hair and a pull deep inside himself said he needed to get up there.

There were people on the walkway as well. None of them had noticed him, but they would soon enough. All he could see was her, though. His Lilith. Lying there with her head off the stone outcropping, and he knew he was going to kill every single person in this room.

He didn't care if she would disapprove of it. They all deserved to die for taking her from him. Envy wanted to wrap his fingers around their throats and watch them die slowly. He wanted to be close for it. To see the life fading from their eyes until he could know they would not come back.

Because that was his fear. He was so terrified they would come back again and that he would lose her a second time. He wouldn't survive it.

But the moment he opened his mouth, ready to let loose a string of spells that would kill every single person in the room other than the one he loved, a body fell from the cliff's peak.

His heart caught in this throat the moment he saw it moving, certain that they had finished whatever they were doing to his little love, and she was the one plummeting to her death. But then he saw the red hair. Orphe let out a loud squawk that echoed. Perhaps she had thought it was Lilith, too. But it wasn't. It was the flame eater, the fire haired woman who had betrayed his Lilith and Envy did nothing to stop her fall.

He watched her tumble through the air, frantically trying to catch onto something, anything, that would help her. But nothing did.

And then she struck the ground with an echoing thud that was both horrific and wondrous. Her death was quick. Too quick for what she had done, and yet, it was how this had to be. She needed to die so that Lilith could live.

As he looked up once more time, making sure that his woman was still there, he could see Lilith peering over the edge. And then came her weakened voice, barely able to even shout his name. His name.

No one else's.

She didn't call out for Orphe or her old master or even any of the gods that might have cast their own love upon her. No, she called out for him.

And he knew that meant she wanted him to kill them all.

His lips split in a feral grin that should have sent terror through every single person who could see him. A few of the circus performers had turned toward him. The few that hadn't rushed to Lilith. Her mist had drawn into her body, covering her with the same shield that had been so effective against the chimera. He didn't have to worry about her for the time being, at least.

The first performer who rushed forward was a man who looked like his skin was made of stone. Tempting to toy with, but he didn't have time for that. Envy summoned his blades, one for each hand as the man ran for him.

"Orphe!" he called out, waiting for the spirit's reply.

When she did not respond, he didn't have time to even look for her. Instead, he threw up his blades to meet the performer's heavy fists. The sound of metal and stone clashing against each other made his ears ring.

Curling those stone hands around the blades, the performer held onto the swords with a grin on his face. "I've been wanting to spar with you for a long time, demon king."

"It's not sparring if you die," Envy replied.

"Only one of us is dying."

The bravado of this man who had no idea who he was fighting. These performers had been lied to. Their master had told them that Envy was nothing more than a mere man. Perhaps a man who had a lot of strength and power that he had stolen, but in the end, Envy was supposed to just be another opponent they could fight.

He was not that.

"I could keep you," he murmured, his muscles straining as the performer tried to twist the blades out of his grip. "It would be such a simple spell, and then you would be forced to fight for me until the very end of days."

"I would never do that." The performer twisted, pulling one of the blades from Envy's hands. "And now I'm going to show you what a rock does to mortal skin."

"It's a good thing I'm no mortal."

Envy planted his hand on the man's flat pectoral and whispered a spell. The deep intonation echoed through his ribs, a song from the old days when the dwarves had sung stone into whatever form they wished. A song he used regularly to move and warp his own home.

The song moved through the stone man like a wave after someone jumped into a pool. He could see the ripple throughout the performer's entire form. Starting in his fingers, it rolled throughout his entire body until suddenly, all the pieces stilled.

There was a moment where they stared at each other. The performer seemed to hesitate, his lips splitting into a shocked part before all of the pieces started sliding off of each other. One by one, chip by chip, the stone that made up the man's body cracked and shattered.

Envy watched it all happen, lingering on the moments that he wanted embedded in his memory forever. The shock in the man's eyes. The way the breath rattled in his chest with one last dying gasp. The first plink of stone hitting the ground before the thunderstorm of all the stone pieces striking at the same time. Envy categorized every single sound before breathing a small sigh of relief.

He bent and picked up the blade the man had tossed, before muttering, "Now where did Orphe get off to?"

He couldn't sense her in the room, which meant she had left. Why?

But Envy had one purpose and one purpose alone. Find Lilith and get her out of here.

And kill everyone as he saved her.

The shifters stood in his way now. Twin brothers who had morphed halfway into wolves. Their bodies were massive, their chest barreled and covered in fur. They stood eight feet in height, towering over him at their higher vantage point. Drool gathered on their muzzles, dripping down their chins even as their fangs parted to show gleaming rows of teeth.

They were challengers he would have prayed for in the days of his youth. Massive creatures with powerful jaws that were ready to nip and bite and tear.

They could provide a fight that would be both wonderful and difficult. A fight he would talk about for ages, how he fought off two shifters and won. He would tell this story to his creations for years to come.

But not today. Today, he wanted this over and done with quickly.

Muttering under his breath, he gathered more flame upon his blue sword. It crackled with power, nearly turning white with heat as he approached them. His hand hurt, aching from holding onto the rapidly heating metal, but he muttered a spell for that too. The power inside of him flexed, an endless well of stolen power from countless individuals.

They thought they could fight him? Him ? The demon king of this land was not an easy opponent to beat.

They knew it too. In the reflection of their dark eyes, he saw their fear. He could taste it in the air as the brothers looked at each other for a moment and seemed to say their goodbyes.

The first one lunged. Its claws dug into the sides of the stone, launching into the air above Envy and coming down with all its weight. He barely even saw it move, just a flash of dark gray fur and claws arcing above his head. But he was ready for it. Holding the flaming sword high, he waited for two things to happen.

First, the shifter who had leapt to the attack would die. Clearly, they had chosen which one of them would do so, and the other would come at him from the side. Second, he dropped his sword from his free hand and send out a spell that caught the other in the chest. The spell scooped out the shifter's heart as his brother was impaled on Envy's sword.

They were good fighters. Working together like that would have caught most of their enemies unaware and they might have won. Perhaps they had even used this tactic before. It had clearly once worked for them, but they did not do it to him. Envy had been in countless battles, with thousands of soldiers who had fought longer than they did.

He watched as the two of them died, and there was the smallest hint of remorse that burned in his chest. These men might not have deserved to die. Or maybe they had. He had no way of knowing how much they were involved in this, or how far they were willing to go.

There were still three people surrounding Lilith, though, and he stalked up the remaining stairs to them. They were still trying to get through the mist, Lorenzo cursing and spitting angry words while the other two did what they could.

The woman was one Envy recognized, a priestess who had worked with Lilith when he had first seen her. The other man, he thought, was a magician, which made him far more unpredictable. But Lorenzo? He was just a nobleman, a mastermind with no power of his own.

This was too easy.

The priestess was the first one to notice him. Perhaps the fine hairs on the back of her neck rose, a natural instinct of women who were more used to being hunted in their daily lives. Her eyes widened, and she turned to look at him.

He knew there was a moment where she thought about fighting. A moment where she was certain that she would get away with all of this.

But then the entire room rumbled, the floor quaking as something massive entered the space. For a moment, he thought it was an earthquake. Those were devastating to his kingdom, and they could destroy a significant amount of homes and lives if they were left unchecked.

Until a flash of gold appeared, and Envy knew what had made the entire ground rumble. He hit the ground hard, watching as his brother's wings spread wide. Sloth clung to the walls, his talons digging deep into prophetic parchment that screamed as they were crumpled to dust. With a snap of his jaws, he caught the woman up and swallowed her whole.

It was rather unsettling to hear her shrieks as she was swallowed, and the echoing sounds of her cries in Sloth's throat before there was sudden silence. The magician spat out a few words, but his shuddering tones weren't enough to let the spells take flight. They sizzled, sputtered out, and fell right onto the ground before Sloth grabbed that man as well.

His screams were much quieter than the priestesses, but no less disturbing.

And in the remaining silence, Lorenzo turned to him. Envy could see the man's mind working, rolling over all the possibilities of what he could say and how he could save himself. The man was good with his words. Even Envy remembered how convincing he could be. But weren't most nobles good at speaking?

Envy held up his hand the moment Lorenzo's mouth moved. "I really don't care, Lorenzo. There will be no pity."

"But as the demon king, shouldn't you want to know?—"

His brother's head came down and those massive jaws snapped around Lorenzo's torso. While Envy would have preferred to kill him himself, it was rather satisfying to see the man struggling in his brother's jaws. The teeth sawed back and forth, a significantly more painful and drawn out death than the other two. Blood splatters painted the stone until the bottom half of Lorenzo's body dropped onto the floor with a wet slap.

"Perfection," Envy said, his voice filled with so much aching wonder. "I couldn't have done it better myself."

Sloth grumbled his own approval before he was soaring down to the lower levels, where he would change back into a man.

Leaping forward, he rushed to Lilith's side. She was still on her hands and knees, her arms covering the back of her head and mist rolling over her entire form. But the moment he reached for her, that mist died down. Almost as though it recognized him.

He marveled at the delicate white tendrils that wrapped around his arms, holding onto him in what almost felt like an embrace. It wanted to pull him toward her. It wanted him to take her in his arms and let her hide from the rest of the world.

Her magic didn't have to ask him twice.

Envy scooped her up into his arms and squeezed her tightly to his chest. He turned her around, forcing her face against his neck as he held onto her. "Easy, my love. Easy. I'm here."

She struggled, trying to get away from him even as her power flexed around the two of them, creating a bubble of a shield that no one else could get through.

"Come back to me," he whispered. "I need you here with me. My love. My darling. My future. My Lilith. Come back to me."