It occurred to her that he was the most powerful thing in the forest. That was only because of who his master was, and she wondered if she was doing the right thing in teaming up with him. She knew she had to rescue Lily. She owed Iris that much. And if that meant working with a servant of Valefor, then so be it.

The sun was starting to rise over the Necrosilvam as they reached the edge of it. The light allowed them to get a better view of how far they’d really gone, and how far they had left to go. Lux had started out leading the way, but as they walked on, he’d started to lag.

At first, Wick thought it was because he was purposely trying to sabotage the rescue mission and slow them down. But eventually she realized that he wasn’t as healed as he’d claimed to be. Ira’s attack had left him favoring his right leg, and she slowed a bit.

“Why don’t we take a break for a minute?” Wick suggested.

“No.” Lux shook his head forcefully and pushed on. “We have to keep going.”

“Not at the pace we’re going.” She stopped, and he took a few steps forward before looking back. “Sit for a minute. I have some ringa root that I can put on your leg. It will help you so we can go faster.”

He paused for a minute, considering it before nodding reluctantly. Lux took a step back toward her and sat down on a large boulder. She knelt before him and rummaged through her bag. Wick pulled out a gnarled bright orange root, the root of a ringa plant. It had strong healing properties, which is why she’d brought it along. She’d meant to use it if they got hurt in a fight, but she needed to use it now, if they wanted to get there quickly.

“Roll up your pants,” Wick commanded, and Lux did as he was told.

Lumps of bone were malformed under his skin, bulging out below the knee. His bones hadn’t set themselves right where Ira had broken them.

Without warning him, Wick pulled out her knife and sliced open his leg above the bump. Lux howled and swore under his breath.

“You could’ve let me know you were doing that,” Lux grimaced.

“Sorry,” Wick said without emotion. She snapped open the ringa root and held it over his fresh wound, letting the orange juice drip inside so it could do its work.

The juice began to sooth his pain, and Lux relaxed a bit. Wick pulled a rag out of her bag and pressed it to his leg, holding the liquid inside.

“It will take a few minutes for it to work fully,” Wick said.

“Thank you,” Lux said, and Wick looked up at him when she realized he’d meant it. She’d never heard of a peccati saying a kind word.

“How are you like this?” Wick asked, not hiding the awe and confusion in her voice.

“Like what?” He leaned back a bit on the rock and met her baffled gaze evenly.

“Kind. How can you be kind?”

“I …” He didn’t really know the answer, so he sighed and shook his head.

“How did you end up working for Valefor?”

“That was a very long time ago,” Lux said, as if it answered the question.

“You chose to, though,” Wick clarified. “You chose to do this, to be the luxuria.”

“Yes.” He nodded and lowered his eyes.

“Why?” Wick asked. “Why would anyone willingly choose to be in the service of something so evil?”

“It’s not that simple.” Lux shook his head again.

He didn’t like the way Wick looked at him, so he moved her hands and tried to stand up. His leg wasn’t fully healed, but it felt better, and it could heal as he walked. Wick stayed crouched down for a moment, watching him as he walked away, then she got up and followed him.

“I was engaged,” Lux said finally. It’d been so long since either of them had spoken that Wick had nearly forgotten what they were talking about.

“When you were still human, you mean?” Wick asked when she realized what he meant.

“Yes,” he nodded. “I was the Prince of a very large kingdom, the only son, and I was set to inherit it all. My father had arranged a marriage with the daughter of a neighboring kingdom, so we could join them and become nearly unstoppable.”

“Who were you engaged to?” Wick asked.

“I’ve forgotten her name,” he sighed. “That’s the horrible truth of it. I forgot about her long ago. But she had a younger sister, Saphron.” He paused for a moment and licked his lips. “I fell in love with Saphron nearly the instant I met her. I tried to convince my father to let me marry her instead, but she was already betrothed to another.”

Lux stepped carefully over the brambles of the Necrosilvam, and Wick noticed that his gait was almost back to normal. The ringa root was working quickly on him.

“And Saphron loved me in return,” Lux went on. “Somehow, I think that made it worse. We began an affair together, and we did our best to keep it secret, but eventually her sister found out. I’d expected her to call off the wedding, but she did something worse.”

“Worse?”

“She banished Saphron and insisted we go on with the wedding,” Lux said. “I was irate and heartbroken, but my fiancée wanted to rule the most powerful kingdom, and she wouldn’t let a thing like love stand in her way. So in retribution, I decided to live a life of debauchery. I slept with everyone I could.”

“You couldn’t be with the one you loved, so you decided to sleep with every girl in the kingdom?” Wick asked dubiously.

“I was young, rich, and spoiled,” he shrugged. “I didn’t know how else to act out. And really, all I wanted was for her to call off the wedding. By the time she finally did, the entire kingdom knew of my exploits. They were legendary.”

Wick scoffed, and Lux stopped and turned back to face her.

“I’m not proud of what I did or who I was, but I won’t make any apologies for it, either,” he said.

“I never asked you to.” Wick returned his gaze evenly. “But you still haven’t told me how you came to work for Valefor.”

“After the wedding was called off, my father banished me,” Lux sighed. “I’d ruined the greatest deal of his life, and he was pissed off. Not that I blame him. I was homeless and penniless. I tried to look for Saphron, but I couldn’t find her.

“And then, Valefor found me.” Lux turned and started walking again. “He’d heard of my conquests, and he offered me a job. I had no other prospects. No other talents other than an ability to drink, spend money, and seduce women, and that was exactly what he wanted me to do. So I took it.”