Page 67 of The Misfit Mage and His Darling Demon

“Mora dropped me someplace private to heal up, and I was zonked out on magic, pain pills, essence, and then I heard someone screaming murder,” Kell said, pointing an accusatory finger at me. “So, being the benevolent witch I am, I hopped my happy ass out of bed and saved the damsel.”

I glowered, then sighed. I was a damsel, incapable of handling anything remotely at this level, and the only reason I managed anything against the demon possessing the pink Fae was all thanks to Kell’s timely intervention. Moving forward,securing the villa, removing Eligos and any other demons he brought, I’d do better. I had to.

“Okay,” I said, changing the subject, perhaps burying my ineptitude. “But how are you standing right now?”

“Do I look like I’m standing?” She lazily gestured to herself, clearly too exhausted for flair.

“You know what I mean. You were on fire and…”

“And Mora’s essence works miracles.” Kell chagrined. “Though she didn’t have much to work with, so I might’ve cast a bit of wicked sorcery to amplify the reserves I’ve got.”

“Dark magic?”

Kell scoffed. “No such thing. It’s only considered dark because it works around the rules and doesn’t ask for Nature’s blessing. And to be clear, she doesn’t want to offer her permission for every little spell a witch casts.”

“Nature?”

“Yeah.” Kell’s expression shifted into something happy, excited, and the undertones in her complexion lit from the green essence working its way through her. “She’s primordial, chaos, and everlasting. Rules around the Four Corners are the construct of covens, not the goddess of all.”

Witches abided and served only one deity—Nature herself. Kell had a point, too. If Nature didn’t want witches casting so-called dark magic, she wouldn’t make it readily available to them or continuously provide them full access to their Four Corners after accessing ‘bad’ magics. No, the only thing that stripped witches of their magic was their coven binding them, their Mythic Council imprisoning them, or the Collective discreetly killing them to save face with rules and regulations.

Kell clapped her hands; the loud pop echoed in the crumbling corridor. Thankfully, my incantations still held because I was just starting to like Kell, and given her knack for destroying things and making my life difficult, I highly doubtedour friendship would survive being buried beneath rubble. Mainly because we’d die or I’d kill her.

“Oopsie daisy.” She grinned. “I say we drag our butts back to the little hidey hole I was in and rest up until Mora and Bez handle this. Honestly, that knight might’ve got a drop on your baddie boyfriend. But challenging a devil? That’s absurd.”

Devil. Kell didn’t know the truth about Bez. I guess that was a secret Mora kept safe for Bez from everyone. Even so, Bez was too weakened to do this on his own.

“No.” I quaked, legs fighting me every inch I pushed off the ground. “Bez is out there. I have to help him. I have to stop that demon knight.”

“Hun.” Kell sucked her teeth. “I think you’re out of your league. I think we both are. Let them handle the Diabolic drama.”

“No. I refuse to accept that.” I extended a hand to Kell. She didn’t have to help me, didn’t have to come with me, but I wouldn’t abandon her here in the darkness of the labyrinth. “I’m going to prove I can do better.”

“To who?” she asked.

Myself.

20

Beelzebub

I brushed away bits of crumbled stone clinging to the clothing and skin of this host, picking at the eggshell-sized rock like some tragic gargoyle waking up. Taking a deep breath, I exhaled the last remnants of the former mage whose body I possessed. He put up less resistance than the previous body I’d seized, grateful for the reprieve of the solitude in stone that filled the last six centuries of monotonous memories. I shuddered, pushing those dull, repetitive recollections summing up his existence away. He had a nice build and a similar facial structure, which helped hasten my composite to look like something resembling myself faster. My mortal aesthetic, at least.

Stretching side to side, I tried to loosen up this stiff shell of flesh and blood and bone and muscle. I didn’t have nearly enough essence to feel stuffed inside, but I hated breaking new bodies in. I’d finally gotten everything about the last one just the way I liked it.

Feasting on the stale mana locked inside this mage’s body, I replenished my essence a bit and leapt through the golden portal of this storage room, returning to the labyrinth of the villa. I immediately went to work enhancing my senses to search for Wally. I couldn’t risk Eligos or the demons he’d swayed to find Wally first. Having lost our bond, I tensed at every trace of Wally in this maze. His scent filled every hall, sweat and blood and lost mana, all in equal measures, each thick and palpable in the air. I swallowed hard. Had he been harmed? Was a demon stalking him down here?

Diabolic essence continued seeping from every pore of the villa, making it impossible to tell if it came from the encased demons powering the dimensional traveling Fae ship or if it belonged to those Eligos had released from their orbs.

I darted through long, stretched halls, barreling ahead until I found a more concrete trace of Wally’s presence. I needed to hear his heartbeat, see him take a breath, feel his warm body. He might’ve fled back into a pocket portal. No. Wally was smarter than that, which was why his scent filled every route down here. Knowing he couldn’t hide, he led whoever stalked him down too many false trails to follow.

“Don’t you look lovely,” Mora said, braced at a corner, one hand balled into a fist and at the ready.

No. Not ready. She trembled, subtle, frightened, but unwilling to show it, to relent to any enemy that might’ve presented themselves.

Mora dragged a bloody hand along the wall, using it to steady her tattered body. She was riddled with stab wounds that hadn’t healed. Her essence served as a thin thread stitched across her flesh, holding the blood and organs from spilling out entirely. Wally said Kell had been set on fire, but Mora didn’t have a single scorch mark, which meant she prioritized healing those injuries, likely for Kell’s sake more than herself.

I smiled at her. My heartbeat surged, a quick, uncontrollable feeling I almost confused for sentiment. It wasn’t. I had a new host body—one with a heart irregularity, practically knocking on death’s door before he ended up petrified by gorgon magic. That was the reason behind the excited thump in my chest.The only reason.

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