Page 36 of The Misfit Mage and His Dashing Devil

Thank you?That was the most extreme and unnecessary response ever…even if the gesture might’ve been well meaning. Like all things with Bez, it was impossible to decipher.

I ground my teeth in response, turning my attention back to my brother. “All of this seems coincidental or circumstantial at best. I’d like to study the virus used to infect the systems. I’m not the biggest expert, but if I had some resources, I think—”

“Wally, this isn’t the repository,” Al interrupted. “Everything you’re doing, will do…hopefully, it’ll be under the radar.”

“So, why are we here?” Bez asked. “What assistance could you need from Worthless Walter and a devil?”

I slammed a fist on the table, drawing more attention than I wanted. “Stop calling me that.”

“So sensitive.”

“Asshole,” I whispered.

“The goblin I mentioned earlier had an incantation branded on his back, similar to the incantation on Wally’s card key.”

“That sounds like evidence to me,” Bez said, which I begrudgingly agreed with. “Present this to your tribunal. Why send us to investigate?”

“We handed the goblin to the panacea regiment for healing. The incantation was gone by the time they finished their examination—something I didn’t think much of until I saw the evidence presented against Wally. Namely, the card key. Add to that fact, one of Chancellor Driscoll’s elite vanguard members deciphered the hack in mere seconds.” Al straightened his shoulders, broadening his chest. Two physical actions of clear intimidation which he rarely did when encountering someone else’s magic. I began to wonder how much of this was about me and how much was about his pride. “It’s my belief this particular member and his fellows released the goblin into the Atrium, had my squad sent on a goose chase—”

“Goblin chase,” Bez interrupted with a gleeful smile because, of course, he fucking did. “Completely different. Geese are far more difficult to chase and much more aggressive when you catch them.”

Statistically speaking, Bez wasn’t incorrect. Goblins were sweet, despite what the average human thought or the superior mage believed. They were gentle. Geese on the other hand, were cruel overlords who thrived in the chaos of nature. I didn’t believe that simply based on the number of times they’d decided to block the road when I drove by, chased me by the lake, or stolen snacks out of my bag when reading at the park—I had statistics on my side. Geese were monsters.

But I trembled with fury. Bez hadn’t interrupted on some pretense of accuracy. He did it to frustrate me. Everything he did was in some effort to irritate me. He couldn’t kill me, so he decided the best way to rid himself of me was to annoy me to death.

“Can you stop for two seconds?” I snapped. “We’re discussing something life or death.”

“I’m all about life or death.” Yeah, his life, my death. Bez craned his neck, looking behind me, then smirking. “Pardon. Please, arrange our investigative adventure. I need to use the little Diabolics’ room. Too many mimosas.”

“Good.” I crossed my arms as Bez strutted away, nodding politely at our server who scurried all the quicker with my correct order.

Everything had been changed. Sunnyside eggs. The toast was already buttered, soft yet the perfect crunch. Three pieces of bacon, and the third piece was extra burnt in the worst and most delicious way. Crispy hashbrowns with the cheese already melted between the softest parts. Did Bez tell her to do all this? How’d he know this was what I’d wanted to ask for when I arrived?

I licked my lips. Coincidence? Three years of listening to my rambles? I never talked about breakfast. Did I? Perhaps some connection from the Diabolic bond. Maybe his instinctual compulsion to me, whatever that meant. I had ideas, but there was too much to make sense of. “And not with Al here.”

“Are you done hyper fixating on whatever theories are running through your head?”

I took a bite of the hashbrowns and nodded.

“Wise to let your devil wander off?”

“He won’t go far.” He couldn’t. Not with the bond.

“Vanguard Corvine is the one I’d like you and your devil to question.”

“Question him?” I asked. Did he seriously expect Bez and me to capture and question a member of the elite vanguard? “Why us?”

I should’ve followed up with how, where, and maybe a not-so-friendly reminder that the entire frickin Collective was looking for us.

“You’re an anomaly, an unexpected outlier. Whoever framed you likely predicted you’d die during the attack. Just another casualty in the assault on the estate.” Al sipped his coffee. “You didn’t, though. In fact, you did the impossible. You released a devil and formed a Diabolic bond. That makes you an unforeseen threat and an adventitious element of surprise.”

“You want us to cut through the bureaucratic tape you can’t.” I sulked. Al didn’t need to further explain. An investigation like this would ruffle a lot of feathers, especially when they already had a prime suspect, namely me, so Al wanted Bez and I to work behind the scenes—illegally obtaining information that’d clear my name. “What do you need us to find from this Vanguard Corvine?”

“His grimoire. It might hold all the incantations linking him as a suspect.”

“Or he removed them.”

“Let’s hope not.” Al tapped the table, drawing my wandering attention. “And when this is done, once we’ve proven you didn’t have a part in this attack, I’ll deal with the chancellors and their fears over this Diabolic bond. I don’t know how to handle Beelzebub, but I will seal him away again. By the time the bond fades, I’ll ensure you have your old life back and that monster is locked away once and for all.”

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