Page 24 of The Misfit Mage and His Dashing Devil

With a hand firmly pressed across his face, squeezing his cheeks tightly, I lifted him off the floor and spun him around. The fall had slowed my speed, which gave the mages a chance to strike. I kept my wings shielded over Walter, his back pressed against my torso. He squirmed the entire time. Little dick even stomped on my foot a few times as I guided us to the iron door.

“You could make this a bit easier,” I whispered. “They’re planning on killing you in an effort to kill me. Now, I don’t know if a devil bound to a mortal would die if that tether snapped, but I’d rather not find out. Would you?”

His body stiffened, no longer resistant, which made one obstacle easier.

“Not a hypothesis Worthless Walter wants to test?” I chuckled.

He mouthed something, biting my palm in the process, but he kept backstepping with me.

“Good boy.” I grinned, reaching the door. He gnawed harder. “Naughty.”

“Aff-hol,” he attempted to say.

I turned around, using my wings to buffer a barrage of magic and blades. Slamming a fist into the iron door did nothing. I sighed. “One tiny break.”

An onslaught of spells continued shredding my wings. I circulated Diabolic energy into them, but if it continued, it’d take flying out of the equation. Damn. I missed the sky, too.

I reeled back a fist coated in Diabolic essence. This was strong enough to rupture a Fae dimensional portal, so if it didn’t break this door, I’d have to somehow manage to kill every single mage in this room while keeping Walter safe and muzzled.

The door cracked. Walter’s shoulders tightened, adding to the tension in my own body. His eyes were wide and searching for the mages I kept at bay with my tail. My poor tail. Unable to look, I had to rely on reflex and instinct. Thank the gods I’d had centuries of thrashing about to avoid a punishing blow.

“Relax.” I guided Walter’s head, showing him the Diabolic energy seeping into the cracks, poisoning the magic saturated in this door and eroding it from within. “Time to go.”

I tackled the door, bursting through into an empty open area. No time to observe. There weren’t enemies awaiting, so I bolted away from the threat behind us. Walter’s heart pattered swiftly, almost as swiftly as my steps, which accelerated my heartbeat and the adrenaline coursing through me. And then I crashed into a goddamn wall.

“Stop doing that.”

“Ooing wat?”

“Stop panicking.” I climbed out of the rubble and darted down a hallway before the vanguard caught us. “It’s irritating.”

We raced toward the glass-panel double doors. I had no intention of crashing through something else, so with a bit of telekinesis, I shattered them so we could leap outside.

My eyes bulged. “Gah! What hot hell is this?”

Streetlights ate away the night sky, devouring each star and obscuring the moon herself. Cars. I’d forgotten how awful they were, and there were so many more on outstretched roads, which lacked the room to carry this jammed traffic.

Noise everywhere. So much louder than I’d remembered. Not simply the sound of vehicles, but everything. The tippity tappity of devices I’d grown accustomed to from my time with Walter and every insufferable mage glued to their cellular devices, but also the devices in their ears as they strolled down crowded streets blasted. It stung my ears, a symphony of chaotic beats from a thousand horrid places, so loud it practically buried the heavy footsteps of our mage pursuers.

I swallowed hard.

Ugh. The taste. I dropped to my knees, releasing Walter and gagging. Odors had grown foul in the air, casting a thick sludge which sat on the roof of my mouth when I tried to swallow. What had mortals done to their realm? Such suffocating air.

I took a deep inhale, dulling my senses, limiting my perception. I couldn’t work at full capacity. Not in this hellhole they called a city.

“Are…are you okay?” Walter pressed his hand onto my shoulder. The last extreme sensation I had before dimming the world.

“I’m fine.” I shrugged him off, then snatched him back into my grasp, mouth covered because I didn’t need or want his commands.

“Lend me your strength so I can end this devil!” The vanguard chancellor bolted forward in a haze. He muttered a mix of elemental lightning and incantations, amplified by the saturation his squad of practitioners imbued him with.

Shit. Dimming my senses added a sluggish reaction to my surroundings. I couldn’t undo it. Not until I adjusted to the horrid world mortals had created. But I couldn’t remain idle either.

Casting a barrier, I blocked the chancellor’s strike.

“I don’t think so!” The frail artisan chancellor wielded a massive hammer twice her size with ease. One smash with that crafted tool, and my barrier crumbled.

No time to dodge. Especially not with Walter in my grasp. Once the barrier collapsed, she fell back and let the vanguard chancellor move ahead. Oh, him I’d gladly slaughter before making a break for it. I pulled back a fist, preparing to punch a hole right through the old man’s head.

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