Page 77 of The Misfit Mage and His Darling Demon

“I finally found my will to restore myself when whispers of a barbarous devil emerged.” Gloved fingers dug into rock, and the piercing scrape dragged my attention back. “A sadist who swept across the New World, slaughtering mages who defied his reign, chasing Mythics to devour, and flaying mortals who attempted to settle.”

I’d been very loud and hostile in my early years after Mora’s tutelage. She offered me the tools for survival and allowed me to choose whichever path I sought. In finding my footing, I learned all too quickly that no one wanted a kind demon, so I became a cruel devil. It was the best way to evoke a name for myself, create fear, force respect, and refuse to silently exist as some unknown weakling like I had for so long in Hell. I carried that name across the continents, exploring every crevice of the world and leaving a trail of mayhem in my wake.

“You knew this entire time?” I croaked, swallowing the pitchy fear in my voice. “For centuries? Why wait? Why attack me now?”

“As the former baron would say, patience is its own reward. It was my hubris and hasty plans that led to my downfall against Beelzebub. After such a massacre, I swore I’d never lose to a devil again. With the life and blood and essence of a phony devil, I won’t have to worry about that.”

Eligos lunged ahead, snatching me by the collar, and dragging me into a void of his making, a hidden layer of Diabolicessence circulating throughout the villa, allowing him fast travel anywhere and everywhere unseen.

This was unlike any demon-void world I’d entered before, with the pitch blackness illuminated by trickling comets in the background of this secret shadowed space. The flaming rocks burned in an array of luminescent colors, a rainbow of fiery destruction using Fae magics that further amplified his cloaking. No wonder I couldn’t detect Eligos’ presence when I arrived or pinpoint anything in the villa. He used the exact magics the baron used.

A fist rocked against my jaw, cracking the bone before disappearing into the darkness of the void. Light shimmered against the armored suit, where the helmet lay abandoned next to the empty suit. Here, in a world of Eligos’ making, he favored skirting the shadowed walls of his reality in his own skin, which would make him even faster.

I gripped my jaw and wiggled it back and forth until the throbbing passed, and the healing began. Quickly, I manifested my essence, circulating it around my forearms and shins once again in preparation for his next assault.

A flurry of strikes hit me from every direction. By the time I’d memorized the pattern, Eligos had vanished back into the darkness once again. I reprioritized my essence to healing since guarding seemed utterly impossible in his world. Next thing I knew, something whipped me dead center in my back, breaking a vertebra. A heavy foot collided with the back of my knee to further assist in knocking me down. Then balled-up tendrils hit me in the stomach before lifting up and uppercutting my jaw. I spun through the air, all my bearings lost, my jaw refractured, and seeing only stars. Granted, the stars of Fae magic, but those blows really had left me dazed.

I had to escape. Eligos had the advantage in this void realm. He already possessed more combat skills. Add to that the facthis essence flowed strongly while mine still waned. My exposed secret offered no reprieve from this battle, only a revelation the valiant knight made a goal to bring me down all the same—since he saw me as nothing more than a devious demon playing the role of a devil.

Truthfully, was I anything more than that?

Exhaling a deep breath, I released my fear. I couldn’t allow him to win. Whatever he had planned for me, for the fragment of devil essence I carried, I had to prevent.

23

Walter

I was practically hyperventilating as I approached Bez’s headless former host, which twitched from the electricity circulating through the wires attached to the large golden lance impaled through the stomach. I stared through the holes of the metal-grated floor of the railing, cautiously searching for anything in the darkness. Meanwhile, Kell lay on the railing, sprawled out on her stomach, kicking her feet back and forth behind her while casually typing away at her laptop.

“You realize this is a trap, don’t you?” I asked.

“No.” Her fingers strummed with a steady ticking along the keyboard. “It could be a trap, I suppose. It could also be a coincidence.”

“Oh, definitely.” I scoffed. “The portal just coincidentally sealed right after we stepped through, separating us from Bez and Mora.”

“They’ll be fine. We’re perfectly fine. They’re probably trying to open it from their end right now.” Kell snickered. “Withoutthe slightest clue in what they’re doing. Eons of wisdom between the two of them, and they wouldn’t know how to flip a light switch here.”

“Nope.” I shook my head. “This is a trap. We’re trapped here while Bez and Mora are out there, likely being attacked by who knows how many demons. We’re going to be attacked next. Captured or killed or—”

“Stop catastrophizing.”

“I’m not catastrophizing,” I snapped, mostly due to the fact I was unaware of the term, and that pissed me off more than Kell’s nonchalance.

“Point is, you’re manifesting a lot of negativity preparing for all these unknown outcomes, and it’s clogging the air and bad for my pores—you know, the ones recovering after being set on actual fire. I get it, keep your expectations low and assume the worst will happen. Mora does the same thing. Really says a lot about your personality, though, Wally.”

“This isn’t paranoia for the sake of paranoia. We know Eligos has been running this place or helping at the very least. We know he’s after us. We know he knows”—or thinks—“Bez shares his essence with me. We also know there are other demons working with him. What we don’t know is how many there are, where they are, or if they’re here plotting right this second.”

“That’s a long way of saying you have no idea what’s going on.”

I furrowed my brow.

“Focus less on what you don’t know and more on what you do know,” Kell said, still playfully kicking her feet back and forth, not a care in the world.

“Well, maybe if you planned more for the unexpected, you wouldn’t get set on fire so much.”

“Rude,” Kell said, twisting her lips into a soured expression. “If I let all the unknowns of a situation, of the world, control me,I wouldn’t accomplish anything. But in the few minutes since you started spiraling, I’ve already gotten into the systems, taken a looksee, and achieved step one of what I can control. What have you done?”

I huffed, releasing my frustration and some of my fear. She had a point. If I dwelled on all the potential and very likely horrors, I’d stand here frozen, incapable of doing a damn thing to help.

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