Page 4 of The Fearless Witch

“He’s a fucking demon!” Isaac jumped to his feet. “He tortures people for a living! So no, this is of no consolation to us!”

Malakai grimaced, saying something about Beleth expressing himself differently from normal people, but I barely heard him. The calm slowly returned to my veins, my back straightening as a sense of purpose filled my chest. Most of my body had healed already, only the insides were still being regenerated, but I didn’t have much use for those, anyway.

I had a place and a name—that was enough for a start. I had wasted enough time on rage and speculations. Neither of those things was going to get Celeste back. I needed a clear head for this. For her.

Moving past Chester and Lily, I headed toward the door leading to the lower level so I could get down to business. I was going to need a pentagram, the strongest ward I could find, and a lot of candles. Blood too.

“Hey, where are you going?” Isaac called after me. “We need to figure out what to do!”

“You can’t go to Hell unless you cease to exist on this plane,” Malakai said, his voice rising with concern. “And you can’t kill yourself to get to her, Roman. She won’t forgive you.” When I turned to glare at him over my shoulder, he was watching me with a surprisingly harsh look on his face. “She doesn’t deserve another heartbreak.”

“I know that,” I snapped. She would never forgive me if I gave up my life before exhausting all other options first. But that wasn’t what I had in mind.

“I don’t need to go to Hell,” I said, tapping my fingers against my leg in an attempt to stifle the urge to throttle someone. “I just need to get Beleth here. Demon or not, he can feel pain, and I’m prepared to teach him a lesson or two about torture until he brings her back to us.”

I headed toward the door again, determined not to get delayed any longer.

“Do you know his name? You’ll need his true name to summon him!” Malakai said just before I stepped out. I didn’t stop, but I had to grit my teeth to stop myself from cursing.

Fuck, I had thought Beleth was his true name. But of course it wasn’t. Demons’ true names held immense power, so he’d be an idiot to share it so openly. From what I have observed over the time I’d known him, Beleth was many things, but an idiot he was not.

“No,” I replied, loud enough for anyone with supernatural hearing to hear me. My brain was already forging a different plan, which I hoped would yield the same results even if it took longer. “But I’ll keep summoning demon after demon and sending them back in pieces until Beleth is the only one left and has no choice but to appear before me.”

Chapter 2

Celeste

It had been four days. Or seven. Or a month. It was hard to keep track of time when you were locked in a windowless room in Hell. But that didn’t matter because today, I was getting out of there, even if it killed me.

I wanted to know what happened with Roman and Isaac. I wanted to know what the burst of magic was. I wanted to know if Mariam reappeared and if she was after them.

I wanted to be with them and face this threat together, like we promised.

Most of all, I wished I had drained my medallion’s power when I had the chance. At that moment, I was so stunned that I found it after all this time, in Roman’s clothing of all places, that I didn’t think to use it right away. A grave mistake for sure, because my captor wasn’t entirely immune to my magic as I first thought; he was just able to match it with ease. But there were very few living—or dead—creatures that could best me when I was almost at my peak. A demon with bad manners and a very punchable face wasn’t one of them.

The ward I had put around the room rang in warning, and I let my magic pour out, ready to strike. Mostly, he had left me alone in this place, but every time I tried to blast the door out, he’d show up angry and kick my ass. He’d also return at random hours with food or water, ignore me when I tried to have a conversation, and leave again without so much as a goodbye.

Despite dragging me to Hell against my will, I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, as Malakai would no doubt have suggested, because, for some reason, he didn’t hurt me or try… anything. He just kept me there, safe and alive, as he claimed, and annoyed the fuck out of me with his silence. I had even tried to negotiate my release in return for… whatever he wanted, but that didn’t work because he wouldn’t even tell me what he wanted from me.

This made no fucking sense! He kidnapped me and then acted like I didn’t exist. He didn’t touch me, he didn’t talk to me, he didn’t even torture me. No demands, no taunting, no… anything! Why did he bring me here? To keep me as a pet he didn’t care about? Well, this pet was about to go feral on him because I wasn’t putting my life on hold for no fucking reason.

My magic lashed out the moment the door opened. The demon stopped at the threshold, watching my spell shoot toward his chest when all of a sudden, the tattoos on his skin shimmered. Shadows erupted from his back like tentacles made of darkness and air, blocking the crackling energy that should have blasted a hole through his torso.

As annoying as it was to see him win this round, I was prepared for it. He might have had powers very much like mine, but his vessel had weaknesses, too. If I damaged him badly enough, he would have to abandon this body, and without it, he couldn’t stop me from leaving. I couldn’t do this with magic, though, because he knew exactly how to redirect it—or devour it. Unfortunately for him, I had vast experience dealing with someone who wasn’t affected by my power, and that same someone had taught me how to fight the likes of him without it.

Even before his shadows receded, I was swinging with my makeshift weapon. I had snapped one of the bedposts and fortified it with magic, so both sides were as sharp as a real blade. I even threw in a spell that protected it from all flames except mine. I wasn’t going into this fight completely outmatched. He could dodge my hexes all he wanted, but I’d love to see him dodge this.

My weapon passed through empty air, but I just turned sideways, allowing the edge of the staff to continue its flight as he appeared a couple of steps away from me, wearing his usual annoyed expression. His eyes, though, were watching me with growing wariness, like he couldn’t figure out what to expect next. Good, that’s exactly where I wanted him.

“Must you always be such an exasperating bitch?” he snarled when I charged him again. He sidestepped me with ease—or so he thought until the other tip of my staff caught him on the arm, leaving a shallow graze.

“If I’m so annoying, you should let me leave. Everybody wins.” I smiled sweetly, aiming at his calves next. He vanished, and my weapon missed again, but at least when he reappeared, he stumbled a fraction.

“If you don’t put that thing down right now, I’ll fucking tie you up!”

My grin only widened. “Joke’s on you because I’m into that.”

I attacked again. I had used my previous ‘temper tantrums’, as he called them, to test his limits—now that I knew his reaction time and his giveaway ticks when he was about to translocate, I planned to kick his ass in a way that would make even Roman proud.

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