Page 38 of The Misfit Mage and His Darling Demon

I quirked an eyebrow. “How do you even have service here?”

We were literally hovering between worlds.

“I don’t even know what Wi-Fi stands for,” he said, dragging a finger over the red end button and clicking the green accept. “Why would you suspect I know how it works?”

Seriously, one hell of a service provider. Probably a Collective conglomerate that I should look into, but still, impressive reception.

“Bezzy, can you hear me?” A muffled voice called out, but only one person called Bez Bezzy.

“Dammit. I hung the telephone up.”

“You hit accept.” I chuckled.

He was more obstinate in learning how modern tech worked than my late grandmother, both favoring that the best advancements came during the 50s and everything after that was downhill.

“Where are you?” Mora asked. “This place is a maze.”

“Wait, what?” I sprang up, nearly knocking the tray off my lap. “How’d she get here?”

“I might’ve told her if she wanted answers on this Diabolic kerfuffle, then she needed to help.” He sighed. “She wasn’t supposed to just waltz in until after I talked with you. Leave it to Mora to just invite herself in.”

“You know I can hear you, right?” Mora asked loudly.

Geez, when had Bez hit the speakerphone?

“It’s not like you own this place,” Mora added. “It’s not in your name or anything, so it’s as much mine as anyone else’s.”

“Hang up on her,” Bez grumbled and tossed me his phone. “I better go find her before she snoops around for the deed and tries to evict us.”

“You’re kidding?” I half-grinned until Bez’s very serious expression remained unchanged. “You are kidding, right?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time. I should tell you the story of how she had me kicked out ofmyfirst-class suite on a boat. And all so she’d have an extra room for her luggage.”

“That’s rude,” I said, hanging up the phone.

“It’s fine. I threw an iceberg in her path, so in the end, I won.”

“Wait, what?” I practically jumped off the bed.

“Better find Mora before she causes havoc.” With that, Bez zipped away in a blur leaving the door wide open, allowing Weather to bulldoze his way inside.

“Wait,” I said to them both—Bez for bolting away and Weather for bolting onto the bed, tackling me.

Sunny licked my face while Cloudy nuzzled my neck, and Stormy glared, definitely annoyed to be dragged along for the ride.

Bez couldn’t be referring to what I thought he was referring to, right? I considered it, then rolled Weather off me and climbed out of bed.

“We’re finishing this conversation on shipwrecks and icebergs,” I shouted, half expecting him to dart back for a last word and disappear again. But he didn’t. “Okay then, guess I’m going to explore on my own.” I patted my thigh, coaxing Weather to follow me. “Might find our way to the kitchen. Maybe I’ll give Weather one of your juicy sirloins.” I muttered the rest, “since we all know you didn’t feed him this morning while making breakfast.”

No response. Well, not from Bez anyway. Weather barked—a yappy squeak from Cloudy, who had the biggest appetite of the three.

I shuffled over to Tony’s tank, carefully keeping my steps close together since Weather had a tendency of nudging me with each of his heads when walking underfoot. Tony immediately crawled up my arm and settled on my shoulder. Usually, Tony’s a big fan of making his own way around, but since Weathertended to thud about and his paws were awfully big, I figured Tony wanted to avoid dodging the pup stomping about.

“I can’t believe Bez invited Mora here,” I said with a clear edge of aggravation based on Sunny’s cocked head of surprise. “Sorry. It’s just he really doesn’t think I can handle anything, does he?”

I knew way more than Mora on all things unknown, based on the fact I’d properly upsold nearly half the trinkets she didn’t realize were treasures. She didn’t bother doing research—not even on her clientele, I’d wager. How was she supposed to help figure out the schematics behind the villa?

Tony clicked his claws, possibly supporting me or a show of dominance toward Weather since he trudged close behind, practically stepping on my heels as Sunny rubbed his head against my leg, looking for pets.

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