Page 73 of The Misfit Mage and His Darling Demon

The way I so urgently rejected the offer visibly upset Bez, making his eyes soften with sadness he quickly hid behind a furrowed brow and pouty scowl.

“I don’t think you understand the severity of your situation, Walter.”

“I do,” I explained. “You need all of your strength right now, and splitting any of it will put everyone at risk.”

“Bah. I’m not worried about everyone; I’m worried about you.”

“I can wait. I’m safest with you at your strongest.” I cupped my hands over his, hoping the gentle touch showed how much Icared and that my words conveyed this was the right option. “I’ll gladly let you share your essence after we’ve dealt with Eligos and the other demons.”

Besides, the demon possessing the pink Fae was sent to find the mage linked to Bez, connected to a devil. The feathered demon lunged for me, completely ignoring Kell. I wouldn’t allow myself to compromise Bez, so if Eligos wanted to use me as a ploy, control Bez or trap him—I refused to make myself a pawn.

“Speaking of Eligos…I’d like to know where he is.” Mora took Kell’s hat and began rifling through it.

“Agreed,” I said. “But we should probably take this conversation somewhere safer.”

“It’s as good as any place,” she said.

“Especially since we have our shrouds up,” Bez added. “It doesn’t cloak from fellow Diabolics—not that any of that matters on this weird ship—but it’ll alert us the second one steps into the territory we’ve claimed.”

Right. I couldn’t see their shrouds of shadows without essence. There was so much demon energy and their abilities I wouldn’t be able to detect now.

Mora pulled out a laptop, floating it toward Kell, who immediately went to work typing on the midair keyboard.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Having her pull up the security.”

“Not doubting Kell’s ability to get into the system, but that could take hours, days even since—”

“Oh, I already hacked the system forever ago.” The light from the laptop highlighted her mischievous grin.

When had she done that? I sulked. The day she arrived, likely. Not only was she screwing with the navigation system, moving us through dimensional space seemingly without forethought, but she was already setting up her own privateviewing of the villa so Mora could definitely sleuth without prying eyes like Bez or mine.

“Weird,” Kell said. “He’s just standing in the helm, not doing anything.”

We all squeezed in close, studying the screen. Eligos stood in full view of the camera, unmoving, golden eyes locked on the control panel. Three Fae with blackened veins lining their skin were behind him.

“Maybe Kell’s tinkering saved us.” I chuckled. “Looks like Eligos doesn’t know how to work the system anymore.”

“My system is flawless.” Kell huffed.

“Or he can’t access the necessary functions since releasing other demons,” Mora said. “Lacking their essence might mean he can no longer power the engines.”

“It looked like he’d replaced their loss by tossing my body and essence in their absence.”

Wait. Bez had found his body in the engine room? That must’ve been when he got stabbed in the back.

“That’s unlikely. Eligos is probably just a fool who doesn’t understand the streamlined framework I made,” Kell said. “With devil essence, he could probably keep the ship running ten times over, even if he only has a fraction.”

“Right,” Mora said, dragging the word out and eyeing me and Bez. “Still, we should take this opportunity to—”

“Attack him in the helm.” Bez snarled, extending the claws on his raised hands, practically buzzing at the idea of fighting Eligos head-on.

“No,” Mora said. “This is clearly an obvious trap to lure us into the helm.”

Thank goodness for one levelheaded demon.

“I say we use Wally as bait to lure him out of the helm and then murder him.”

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