Chapter 43

ChapterForty-Three

Katherine fought and spat and kicked at Envy as he dragged her away from the town. No one even saw her, because he had somehow cast a spell over them that made them invisible. She couldn’t even see her own hands as she scratched at his arm around her waist, desperately trying to get back to the man she loved.

Gluttony shouldn’t have to face them on his own. He shouldn’t have to deal with the townsfolk who had clearly been affected by these strangers.

Though some part of her wondered if Gluttony had recognized those men. There had been something in his tone, some wandering words and long pauses that made her think he had known who they were. What they were. Clearly Gluttony has his suspicions about what was going on here, and that frightened her.

He’d walked into a lion’s den with no one to help him but himself. And though she knew he was strong and powerful, he still shouldn’t have to do it alone.

Because he was always alone. He had always been alone. In his feelings, in his home, and now in his life. No longer. He didn’t have to suffer now that she was here and she would damn well not let a demon king take her away from him.

“Let go of me,” she snarled, still wriggling like some kind of she demon who had been released into the wild. “Envy, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“I know exactly what I’m doing.” He grunted when she stabbed her elbow into his gut. “Listen to me, woman. Gluttony will take care of the situation, but he doesn’t need you there to distract him.”

“Is that why you’re taking me far away from it? Is that why you said you would keep me in your kingdom?” She twisted harder, kicking her heel back and connecting her sturdy boot with his shin. “You can’t lie to me, demon. I know all too well that you are the embodiment of envy. You want to keep me for yourself and you’ll stop at nothing to steal me from Gluttony.”

“That is not—” He let out a long groan when she finally reached her good heel up and connected it hard between his legs.

That did it.

Katherine felt his grip loosen as he wheezed out a breath that really did sound quite awful, but she refused to feel bad about it when the man was trying to kidnap her.

Envy staggered to the side, bracing himself against the railing before he glared at her. “I am not trying to steal you from my brother. There is no reason for me to do so, you ridiculous, foolish—”

“Woman?” she finished for him, drawing herself up so her shoulders were square. “It’s in your nature, Envy, and I don’t begrudge you for it. I know what you’re doing, even if you do not. But I will not be taken from him. He needs me.”

“He can take care of himself. He’s a demon!”

“Just like Greed took care of himself? In the same way that all of you gathered together to make sure there was some understanding of a substance you’d never seen before, but could knock you out like you were nothing more than a mortal?” She jabbed her finger at him. “You are all afraid, and the fact that you would let your brother go off to fend for himself in a pack of wolves is despicable.”

His glare turned a little colder, a little harder. Chips of emerald stared back at her and she wondered, for a brief moment, if maybe she’d gone too far. “You know nothing about me or my family.”

“I know well enough to see there are some great flaws that you refuse to take any ownership of.” She flattened her lips into an unimpressed line. “Now I’m going to go back there, and I will slap reason into all of them. Including your brother.”

She turned around, and likely would have made her escape if she hadn’t frozen in startled realization that they were quite a far distance from the town. Somehow in her struggles, she had missed that Envy must have been moving like the wind. They were nearly half a day away from her home, almost back to the castle where Envy had left his portals.

If she hadn’t caught him in that instance, he might have actually succeeded in kidnapping her.

An iron arm banded around her waist and hauled her back against an equally hard chest. “I’m doing this for your own good, woman. Now shut up and let me save you.”

“Save me?” she shrieked. Katherine twisted in his arms again, struggling to kick him in the balls one more time, because he damn well deserved it. Maybe this time she would make enough contact to see him weep. That would make her feel a lot better about the entire situation.

“Stop moving,” he snarled.

“Never.”

“This is what Gluttony wanted! He asked me to make sure you were safe in case anything went wrong.”

“He knew them!” Katherine screamed the words as a last resort. Envy had to listen to her. He had to hear the fear and conviction in her voice.

And for once, she was right. He froze, his arms nearly trembling around her as he held himself still.

“What did you say?” he rumbled. “What do you mean, Gluttony knew them?”

“Or at least he had his suspicions.” Katherine cleared her throat and kicked her feet where they hung high above the ground. “I know your brother better than anyone. The way he spoke to them, the way he suggested that there was something more afoot, Gluttony has an idea who those strangers are. And I think it has something to do with the substance you had him researching.”

“You are certain of this?” He eyed her, and she wondered if he thought she was lying. “How would you know?”

“Because I’ve taken more than a few seconds to get to know your brother. Put me down, Envy.”

He let her slide down his body before he stared at her with too much intensity in his gaze. Finally, he grunted, “If what you’re saying is true, then there is a larger problem than myself or my brothers have considered.”

She nodded. “Your problem is in every kingdom. Not just Greed’s.”

“Exactly.” He tapped his finger to his lips, and she watched a snake tattoo slither up the long column of his throat and coil in a circle around the thick muscles as he swallowed. “It would suggest we have missed the true issue here.”

Katherine was so tired of demon kings who refused to see what was right underneath their nose. “It suggests that you are completely and utterly without thought or reason. If one kingdom had a rebellion that was starting to boil in it, why would others not feel the same? You have ruled our world for a thousand years. Has no one ever tried to change that before?”

He shrugged in response, but she could see how troubled he looked. “There have been many rebellions, but they are always contained within the kingdoms themselves. No rebellion has ever spilled over between multiple kingdoms.”

“Maybe it has something to do with when the light bridges appeared. The history books say the kingdoms never used to be able to connect with each other, but now they can.” Katherine tossed her hands up in the air. “I don’t care, Envy. I don’t care about any of this. I want to get to my man. Gluttony is in danger while we’re talking about the possibility of a rebellion you already know is happening. This is a waste of both our time.”

If he wouldn’t let her go, then she would carve her own path. She didn’t care if that meant wandering right through the swamp. She’d do it. Thigh high in the muck and the mire, through all the dangerous creatures that she’d always been warned about.

No one and nothing would stand between her and the man she loved. No old wounds, no terrifying creatures, not even this demon king in front of her.

Envy’s eyes hooded, darkening with interest as he surveyed her. “You really would do anything for him, wouldn’t you?”

“Without a doubt.”

“Even give your life?”

She met his gaze, so he knew how true her answer was. “Without question.”

“Fascinating,” Envy muttered before he rubbed a hand over his lips. “This is the first time I’ve wanted to steal you, little human. What does it feel like for Gluttony to know he has a human so devoted to him?”

“Terrifying, I imagine.” She gestured between the two of them. “Clearly, since he told you to kidnap me before I got involved in anything.”

He hummed low underneath his breath before nodding. “I suppose that makes sense. Humans are a rather expensive and delicate pet to keep.”

Somehow, it made her even more angry for him to call her by that name. Gluttony used it as a way to express his affection for her. He only called her pet because he adored her and wanted to keep her safe and happy. This demon? He called her that as an insult. Proof that he still thought she was lesser than him simply because she wasn’t a magic practitioner or whatever it was that he might actually respect.

Scoffing, she turned away from him and started toward the edge of the walkway. “I’m going to help him.”

“You’re going to die,” Envy replied. The words were blunt and sharp-edged. “They want to kill him, but he cannot die. You can.”

“He had me consume a spirit,” she hissed. “I am as immortal as you.”

“You aren’t, actually.”

She froze at the edge of the boardwalk, her toes hanging off the rotting wood. “What do you mean by that?”

“Possession is a delicate process. The spirit inside you can keep you alive indefinitely, but you are still mortal.” Envy stood beside her, his eyes on the moors and not on her. “We are spirits taken flesh. They could cut Gluttony’s head off and he would likely grow a new one.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“Not personal experience.” Tiny wrinkles appeared between his eyes. “But there is one of us who has endured all of it and wears the scars to prove it. We are impossible to kill, Katherine, but you are still a mortal. You stand before me, all flesh and blood and bone. I could cut your head off or stop your heart and there would be nothing you could do to stop me. And it would end. Your life would stop and the spirit would leak out of your body, off to find another. Mortal wounds will always affect you.”

And maybe that should have been the only warning she needed. Maybe she should have felt the shiver of fear and the worry that death would find her. But Katherine didn’t feel that at all.

She just shrugged. “Then I will be more careful.”

“You aren’t afraid of death at all, are you?”

She thought about his question, letting it mull in her mind and roll over like a stone in the sea. But it was a stone that had been in her mind for many years. She’d already worried it smooth, the sharp edges of anxiety and fear turning into a quiet acceptance. She’d lived with that fear for such a long time that it no longer had any bite.

“No,” she finally replied. “I have lived my life hand in hand with pain. I know what it feels like to come close to death, and I know what it feels like to live a life only half awake. I’ve been held back from so many things because I cannot do them while watching other people do them with ease. When I was younger, I thought this made me half a person. Less whole than the others. But now I know I am just as much a complete person. Life can be lived with modifications to the fullest extent. Perhaps even more than people who are already whole, because I live in this world and see it for what it really is. Not for what it can give me.”

His gaze softened a bit, and his eyes flicked down to her hip as though he had any right to even look at it. It wasn’t for him to see. It wasn’t for him to pity her. She had an injury from when she was a child, but she was still a person.

Maybe Gluttony was the only one who could see her in the right light. It was all the more reason to love him and throw herself into keeping him safe.

He deserved it. He had never once looked at her hip as something that made her weak or lesser.

Turning her attention to the swamp, she nodded once. “I’ll go straight through the swamp. There are creatures there, but I have met some of them before. Perhaps that meeting will be enough for them to let me through.”

“You’ll need help.”

“I can do it, Envy.”

“I have no doubt of that, but there are still creatures who will try to attack you, and you are not very good at fighting.” Amused, he held out his hand for her to take. “I cannot interfere in the politics of other kingdoms. I’m sure you understand why we do not do so.”

“I don’t.”

“Because if I interfere, then it will make me want to take this kingdom for my own. I have saved it, therefore, part of me exists inside it.” Envy’s eyes burned that glowing green. “I would take it, and I would keep it.”

“Right,” she muttered. “That would be a big problem. Anyway, Envy. Nice chatting with you, but I don’t have the time for this.”

“Then allow me to give you a gift, Katherine. A guide to help you should you need it.”

Though she was a little suspicious of what this demon would call a gift, she nodded. “Fine. Just hurry up.”

Envy rolled up his sleeve, and she saw ink drip down from his neck. It seemed to rip off the snake and coil down his arm, down to his wrist, where it bloomed into wings that opened as if the bird were already flying across his body. He reached for it and then pulled the ink off his skin. With a flick of his wrist, a falcon with shimmering black wings edged in green burst into life out of his hand.

It soared up into the sky with a screech of anger that echoed across the swamp, and she swore she heard the entire world go still at the sound of its wrath.

“What kind of magic is that?” she whispered.

“The magic of a demon king.” Envy grinned at her, his teeth suddenly a little too sharp. “It will watch over you. Should you find yourself in trouble, that falcon will fight for you. And if it believes you cannot win the fight, then it will summon me. So stay away from the kelpies, dear girl. Perhaps they will ignore you, but perhaps they will not. Gluttony will have my head if you die.”

Well, she couldn’t argue with that.

Katherine gave him a brief nod and then leapt off the boardwalk into the murky waters below.