Page 84 of The Demon Prince

“Why not?” Gluttony burst out. He stood, raking his hands through his hair and pacing in front of his brother. “Why can I not do this? You know as well as I do, there is nothing wrong with me. The humans fear what they do not know, but that doesn’t mean that I am in the wrong. We have needs. Urges. She understands that, and fuck, I think she might even enjoy the urges that I have. Why can I not enjoy that?”

“You know why.”

“I don’t!” He spun on his brother, glaring at him and wondering how much a fight between the two of them would destroy. “I don’t agree with or understand with anything that you’re saying. Why can Lust and Greed do this while I cannot?”

Envy’s face shuttered, and then his eyes went a flat black like Gluttony had never seen before. “Because you eat people, Gluttony. You are the first of us to fall prey to that battle form. You know why Wrath is worried.”

“I don’t.” Gluttony took a deep breath, steeling himself for the truth he knew Envy would tell him. “Wrath never said a word about anything. He just yelled at me, sent me away from this kingdom, and did whatever it was that he did here. That was all.”

His gut sank as he met Envy’s gaze. His brother looked defeated, and that was never an expression that Envy wore well. He was the brother who was never defeated. He took what he wanted, stole and maimed and killed if that was what it took. But he never looked like that.

“Gluttony...”

Another voice interrupted them, thin and reedy though it was. Spite coiled up his desk as it spoke, gathering into a ball in the center of the desk. “The battle form you wear is one that only those who have taken physical form can use. Spirits are not meant to have a physical form, and there was a time when many of us were like you. All of these kingdoms were overrun with spirits who thought they knew what was right.”

Gluttony had never heard this before. “This is not information freely shared.”

“No,” Spite agreed. “It is not. But I was in Pride’s kingdom long before I was here, demon king, and I know things that you could not imagine. You seven are not the first. You are merely the ones who have lasted in this form for the longest.”

“This form?” He looked at Envy and saw his brother nodding in reluctance.

His brother sighed heavily before saying, “I have discovered recordings kept secret and safe throughout the centuries. Even Pride does not know all of it, some of the details I’ve kept for myself. But magic is in my blood now, and I know the truth of it. The battle form we use is not simply because we are angry, but because it is who we can become.”

“So our predecessors...”

Envy nodded. “They succumbed to the madness that is in all of us. They feasted, they fucked, they did not care that the battle form is dangerous and soon they became it. True demons who roamed our kingdoms and devoured all that stood in their way.”

“And that is where the name came from.”

“Indeed. They called us demon kings long ago because they knew what we could become. Perhaps it is our bond that keeps us more human, or perhaps it is that deep down we know what we would end up as. But the promise of power has always been the reason why our kind became monsters and...” Envy shrugged. “We have all the power we need. Until you.”

Knees weak, Gluttony sank back onto his stool and stared at his brother. Dumbfounded. “So this was why Wrath intervened. He thought I was... was...”

“Turning into something that none of us could control.” Envy reached across the table and grabbed his hand. “Listen to me, Gluttony. These urges that you have, they are not natural. We feed the beast inside us as much as we want, but you are consuming people. Just as the demons of old did. Of all of us, I believe you are closest to becoming one of them, and I cannot... none of us can take that risk.”

Nor did he wish to.

But he did not feel like a monster or a demon. He wasn’t turning into his battle form regularly, nor was he losing bits of his memory.

A flash of this morning bloomed in his mind. He felt all the blood drain from his face and knew the moment both Envy and Spite had seen it. They both looked at him, strange eyes focused on his features.

“What?” Spite asked. “Why do you look like that?”

“You did something,” Envy added. “Didn’t you?”

“While we were...” He stuttered, not wanting to share those private moments with his brother, of all people. “I... changed.”

“You what?”

“Not entirely,” he corrected, stammering to make sure that his brother understood what he was saying. “I didn’t change completely into my battle form, but pieces of me did. Parts of my body shifted in a way they never have before. It was uncontrollable. Strange, but I didn’t... I didn’t mean to...”

“You’re already changing without attempting to do so.” Envy’s shoulders lifted and rose in a big inhalation. Perhaps his brother was trying to steel himself for what he had to do next, or perhaps he was just affected more than Gluttony could guess. “That settles it, then. You’ll have to leave again.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“This is your life, Gluttony. You cannot take this risk when you are so close to losing everything. What if she is killed? What if you change when you touch her and then you rip her to shreds? I have read the recordings. I have seen the drawings of what we will become and I will not lose one of my brothers to that madness!” Envy stood abruptly, his chair tipping over and striking the ground with a loud bang. “You will return to Greed’s kingdom. If that is what healed you last time, then that is what we will do again.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he repeated, his voice slow and quiet. “This is where I belong.”

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