Page 31 of The Misfit Mage and His Darling Demon

“Absolutely not. Especially since I have to step out.” Bez grabbed a stack of books I’d pulled from a short visit to the library.

“Hey. What’re you doing with those?”

“Selling them,” he said casually. “What? You said they held no intel on the villa, so they’re useless to your studies.”

“They hold ancient rites on countless Mythic practices, secrets seeped in spellcraft that could take decades to decipher, knowledge that’s priceless.”

“Not that priceless. I’m certain Mora will find a buyer real quick.”

“W-what?” I jumped out of my chair. “No. You can’t just sell them to anybody.”

“We have bills to pay, and this junk isn’t doing anyone any good sitting in storage.”

“I’m the one who manages our day-to-day expenses, and we’re fine.”

“That Fae performance you insisted on attending was rather pricey,” Bez muttered.

“I didn’t even know about it until you took me.”

“Well, it cost a small fortune, and I refuse to be indebted to Mora even if it was a ploy on her end.” Bez swaggered across the room, eyeing up anything and everything he could pawn off. “I can’t have her pleading I owe her favors if I ever decide to rip out her manipulative heart one day. It’s undignified.”

“So, you’re just leaving?” And taking priceless items beyond either of their comprehension. I swear, Bez and Mora tossed artifacts about with no regard. I wondered if Kell dealt with this from Mora, too.

“Only long enough to send these off and return. I’ll be back soon.”

By “send them,” he meant using the stealth incantation for the Hawk’s Eye Traveling spell. Cloak their presence and ship them discreetly to Seattle, where Mora would, in turn, find a buyer and then wire us the payment—minus her exorbitant commission.

“And by soon, I mean very soon. Don’t get any ideas about snooping around.” Bez glared. “Now that the wards are down, I can feel your link with ease.”

I folded my arms, not in a pouting way. A furious way. He’d stumbled onto that discovery when he went home to retrieve our clothes and knew I’d wandered around. Or so he said. Honestly, I think he just rolled the dice on that one and got lucky. Bez knew there was a ninety-percent likelihood I’d explore, so he happened to guess right.

He jabbed me in the forehead with a sharpened black nail, not his claws, but the glamoured almond nail shape he liked so much. “I mean it, Walter.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I brushed his hand away. “I heard you.”

“Yes, but you had the gears-turning expression, which means you probably weren’t listening.”

“Yes. I’m listening.” Mildly. Bez tended to think I overthought things and thus acted rashly, which was the opposite of overthinking, but I didn’t have the time to have that argument with him because I wanted him gone, so I could explore.

Bez reached into his blazer’s inside pocket and pulled out a dagger.

I quivered. Not just any blade. The Demon’s Demise. I hadn’t looked at that weapon since stabbing Ian in the chest and watching the life drain from his face. My stomach twisted. I didn’t like thinking back on Ian. How much I hated him. How good it felt ending his life. The way he convulsed beneath my hips as I straddled him, the stillness of him as everything about Ian faded to nothingness and he died.

I snatched the dagger from Bez. “How’d you even fit that in your pocket?”

“Magnetism incantation. Works better than the refrigerator.”

“What’re you doing with it?” My stomach churned; I’d put this in a tightly sealed and enchanted box for a reason.

I couldn’t very well leave it behind, but I couldn’t risk it being used on Bez or me or Mora or anyone with Diabolic essence since it could easily carve it out. That was the only reason.

“We did keep it on the off chance we stumbled onto a menacing demon, and we might get our chance,” Bez said, smirking.

“Huh?”

“This boat of a home seems quite empty, rats included, but there’s a lot of essence and Mythic residue circulating throughout. I haven’t investigated nearly as much as I’d prefer…”

He hadn’t snooped because he wanted to keep an eye on me.

---