Page 33 of The Misfit Mage and His Darling Demon

Tony ignored me, his thirst for answers bolder than mine, and continued trailing by different buttons.

“I just think…”

He clicked his claws as impatiently as Bez when enduring my overthinking anxiety.

“Let’s just wait.”

Tony hopped onto a button, then a second.

I reached out to scoop him up before he caused irreparable damage, but he reached a third, and the navigation course screen blipped away.

“Look what you did!” I backed away, tugging my curls.

What if this changed our course? What if it altered the dimensional frequency? What if Bez couldn’t find us now? What if we were stuck on this villa floating between planes of existence forever?

The screen lit up, no longer a black hue with a green dot for a destination but a hundred gray screens indicating various cameras spread throughout the villa.

“Look what you did.” I stepped closer, watching the mini screens flicker and switch views to other rooms. “Whoa.”

Some were to rooms I didn’t think Bez or I had stumbled onto, which meant the live feed worked through trans-dimensional recording. A totally intricate system beyond even what the Collective had access to. They’d often tried setting up security systems inside the Dimensional Atrium, but the technology receivers never responded outside the pocket realm.

“Tony, you’re a brilliant mastermind.” I extended a hand so he could climb up my shoulder. My palm brushed over a single letter, barely grazing it, yet the faint button glowed white and then blinked over and over.

The seven-sided star portal exit nearby joined in the flickering until the glowing doorway vanished altogether.

“No. What’d I do?” I took a deep breath. Several deep breaths. Several speedy, panicky deep breaths. “Shit.”

BANG.

My heart hammered almost as loudly as the something that pounded against the door.

BANG.

It hit the door a second time.

“Shit.”

BANG. BANG. BANG.

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” I grabbed the Demon’s Demise, holding it firmly, and desperate the door held strong. “Please don’t be a demon.”

Then again, would this Diabolic killing blade work on anything other than a Diabolic?

Tony hissed, stabbing his stinger at the air.

“Right,” I said with a shiver. It was sharp. Stabby. Stabbing worked on just about any threat.

A harsh scraping replaced the pounding against the door.

I squeezed the hilt until my trembling body settled—mostly. I swallowed the terror bubbling inside me and cast saturation throughout the helm. As suspected, the incantations on this side began to falter. Whatever slashed at them from the other side had tremendous power, hacking away magic put in place without setting off any of the defensive recoil enchantments. Those wards were supposed to create a barrier to prevent interference and explosives to strike out when tampered with.

The handle fell to the floor.

The door creaked open.

A lump grew in my throat.

Six glowing purple eyes stared from the darkness of the corridor. Literal flames danced in the irises, eyes bigger than my fists.

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