The prince was slowly approaching, hands up, like she was a wild animal ready to attack.
“What?” she asked.
“Put the Orb of Golath down. Slowly.”
Envy kept his gaze on her, steady, calming. Yet his demeanor only succeeded in making her more nervous. Her attention shot around the room. Lo, the two male research assistants who’d been quietly thumbing through each shelf, everyone had stilled, watching.
She looked down at the object she held, noticing the strange pulse for the first time. It beat like a phantom heart, like a distant drum. Somehow she felt like all the fears in the universe had been collected and were pounding at the thin glass to be freed.
“Oh, it’s doing… something.”
Envy moved slowly but steadily, his voice low and commanding. “Look at me. It will not harm you so long as it remains intact.”
Of course, that statement made her want to toss the damn thing far away.
“It’s pulsing.” Camilla suddenly feared she’d hold it too tightly and shatter the glass by accident. Then she worried she’d not hold it tightly enough and it’d drop.
It undulated in her palms, the feeling twisting her insides into knots.
“Whatever it tries to do to get you to drop it, you must ignore it,” Envy said. “The orb wants you to break it.”
“The orb of what?”
“Gods’ bones,” Envy muttered. “Did you even see the cursed thing sitting there, Sloth?”
“Must have been glamoured from us.” Lo sounded shaken.
“Why?” Camilla asked, trying to ignore the slick, cool feeling of the glass. It shifted again, now reminding her of a leech as it suctioned to her skin. “Why wasn’t it glamoured from me?”
“That is the question, isn’t it?” Envy asked, his tone curious. He shifted to his brother. “It wasn’t part of your collection, correct?”
Lo shook his head. “No. I don’t have an orb on the premises.”
“Then this is definitely our next clue.” Envy faced her again, face grim. “Try to set it down now, Camilla.”
“I… I don’t think I can.”
“You can and you will.” Envy seemed coiled to strike out at the orb. “Once it’s been touched, only the person who picked it up can set it back down. I can’t take it from you.”
With fear surging through her veins, Camilla gently set the orb back on the shelf, mindful to step away as slowly as she could in case it decided to take a tumble on its own. She exhaled only after it was several feet away from her.
Envy drew her behind him.
“Where should we destroy it?” Envy asked.
Camilla stared daggers at his back. “Breaking it seemed like a very unwise idea a moment ago.”
He glanced over his shoulder, his expression inscrutable. “You’re more… breakable.”
“Give me a second,” Lo said. “I’ll draw a containment ring. It should be safe there.”
One of the assistants brought the Prince of Sloth a piece of chalk, and while he drew a perfect circle and added runes she assumed were for protection, Camilla racked her brain for what it was. She couldn’t recall any stories.
“What is the Orb of Golath?” she asked again.
“Golath is known as the Fear Collector, an ancient being often thought to have possessed the first spark of evil,” Envy said, still standing guard over the ball. “No one knows how many orbs are in existence, but they open doors even we demon princes fear to pass through. That one is here indicates we need to seek Golath next. He gifts them when he has a message. Or when he has a fear to collect.”
The Fear Collector.
Of course, the next clue had to be some ancient evil. Why not the Wish Granter? The Dream Weaver?
And she’d been the one marked to find this clue.
Envy’s attention remained locked on the orb, his expression set in hard lines as he concentrated. He’d dispatched the Hexed Throne with barely any effort, so to see him taking such care was anything but comforting.
“Are you ready to break it?” Lo asked, looking up from the containment circle.
The Prince of Envy took a step toward the orb, then glanced over at Camilla.
“Stand as far from the circle as you can, Miss Antonius.”
She moved to the far corner of the room where the two assistant demons were crouched, books clutched to their chests. They’d likely been intrigued by the hunt for information, the excitement of finding a clue. Judging from the way they trembled, they hadn’t expected things to get so dangerous. An oversized desk sat between them and the circle, which didn’t seem like much protection at all.
Lo and Envy exchanged long looks, their conversation silent before Lo inclined his head, agreeing to whatever his brother had asked.
Without looking at Camilla again, Envy finally grabbed the orb.
He walked straight into the chalk circle, gave his brother one last hard look, then shattered it at his feet.
Camilla inhaled sharply.
A mammoth, nearly incorporeal creature reared up. It had the head of a goat and the body of a muscular man. Its horizontal irises landed on Camilla, taking her in.
It remained silent, cocking its head, its gaze never straying from where she stood.
“Golath.” Envy’s voice carved through the tension building in the room. “Where are you?”
“What are you, when are you, these are more interesting queries.”
The creature didn’t remove its dark gaze from Camilla. A forked tongue shot out between its overlarge teeth.
She remained very still, willing it to look elsewhere.
“Golath,” Envy warned.
“You know where I am, Prince Envy. Below. Far below. Beneath the place where the tombs burn and the ground withers. Come find me if you dare. Bring the silver-haired one. I do so enjoy gifts.”
The Fear Collector spun its nearly incorporeal body like a cyclone and disappeared into the circle, vanishing the shattered orb with it.
A heavy silence fell. Envy remained where he was, attention fixed to the floor, as if waiting for the creature to spring back and attack. But once it became clear it wasn’t returning, he stared directly at Camilla.
His expression was carefully blank. Lo didn’t look at her at all. Nor did the other two demons.
Unease clawed at her. She did not want to be that creature’s gift.
“Grab your cloak,” Envy said to her softly. “We’re traveling below the flaming tombs. The fire that burns there produces ice, not heat. Making survival… unpleasant.”
“No.”
The only one who didn’t seem surprised by her refusal was Envy.
He expelled a frustrated sigh.
“Unfortunately, this isn’t a negotiation, Miss Antonius. If the decision were up to me, you’d remain here. Better yet, I’d deposit you back in Waverly Green. Since we are both without choice in the matter, grab your cloak.”
Camilla’s attention slid to the others in the room. She did not want to debate in front of them.
“Sloth, a moment of privacy, please?” Envy said, surprising her.
Once the other demons had left, Envy pulled her against his chest.
“Let’s play a little game of truth, Miss Antonius.”
She nestled against him, nodding.