Page 97 of The Misfit Mage and His Darling Demon

“It was. You earned it. I just died.”

I caressed Wally’s face, gently dabbing the welling tears. “I scavenged a bloody battlefield of demons against a devil. You fought. You fought the strongest demon I’d ever known in Hell, and unlike me, you won. You earned this.”

“Well, guess I just have to hold out, wait until this essence fades away and hope there aren’t any major complications in the meantime.” Wally had an inquisitive expression, gears of his beehive mind grinding and whirling with thoughts.

“Devil essence, unlike demon’s, doesn’t fade,” I said, gesturing to myself. “Otherwise, it would’ve been lost to me centuries back.”

“Right. Duh.” He huffed. “And you can’t take it back?”

“Maybe one day, but you need it after all the Diabolic essence you consumed shredded your body.”

“I’m so stupid. I knew not to do that, but I wasn’t smart enough to figure out something better.” He dropped his head in defeat of his own thoughts. “Anything better.”

“You’re the most brilliant, beautiful, methodic person I’ve ever known.” I kissed his warm forehead, the heat of Diabolic essence changing the integrity of his mortal body in ways I had no idea how to comprehend yet. “I will note, the longer this essence is connected to you, the less likely it’ll be that we can remove it.”

“I’ll be like this forever?”

“I wish I knew. You’re the first mortal devil in existence,” I explained. “I’ve known demons to live with a piece of their devil inside them for millennia, unable to detach from the essence unless killed by another Diabolic. Fun fact—because you love those—Lucifer was not as popular a devil as modern fiction would depict, and his demons slaughtered that beautiful bastard forever ago, marking him the first devil to die so-to-speak at the hands of rebellious Diabolics.”

“We should run tests, form some type of case study. I don’t like not having facts to rely on, texts to reference.”

“We can do it all, but I imagine this will be a learn as we go kind of experience.” I raised my eyebrows. “You know, your favorite thing: improvising.”

He shuddered.

“I’ll miss being connected to you, but I don’t need the essence to feel connected to you,” Wally said, skirting the subject until he had a course of action for his research. “I’ve felt our connection since the day we met.”

“You mean when I tried to murder you and neither of us realized you’d stolen my essence?” I teased. “To be clear, we were connected that day.”

“First off, I didn’t steal.” Wally held up a single finger, indicative this was an infallible fact, and he wouldn’t hear otherwise. “I’m not a thief.”

“I think a certain fairy at the Fae Divinity would disagree with that sentiment, seed stealer.”

Wally rolled his eyes, ignoring my comment on the Fae Divinity—an event that likely soured all his wonder over the mysterious Fae. “I don’t mean during the attack on the estate where we first spoke and had like the worst introduction in the history of introductions. I mean, the actual first time. The day I walked into the repository.”

I swallowed hard, my throat constricted as my voice fell silent, unable to utter a response in the form of a quippy comment or clarifying question.

“You may not realize this, but I was fanboying over all the artifacts in the repository on my first day of work. First week. Month. Okay, year.”

Oh, I realized. He gushed daily, hourly. I could clock it by the second on when his next delighted discovery would lead to an unnecessarily long tangent explaining the history of whatever trinket he’d been tasked with cataloging.

“On that first day, though, I was immediately entranced by the essence stirring in the Diabolic orb. Essence I wasn’t allowed to ask about because, well, Remington never liked too many inquiries on the topic.”

Burying my disdain and memories of Abe, simply grateful the prick had died, I reminisced on the doe-eyed boy fresh out of the academy, working in the repository after having failed his practitioner exam. I grinned, thoughts about all the mocking jokes I’d made of his longing gaze, the delicious puns Wally had never heard me make about his failures over the years.

I’m glad he never saw me like that. Not truly.

In the orb, I was my most jaded, bitter, and broken, believing everything I’d endured in Hell, in the mortal realm, had led to an unending sentence in that damned orb.

That hadn’t turned out to be true though, thanks to Wally’s intervention, I found my freedom from Abe’s imprisonment, and an early reprieve from the foul intentions Eligos and Novus had in store for my future as they pulled the strings behind the curtain.

And now, I had the chance to continue growing with Wally, becoming whoever I wanted to be with him at my side.

“Besides, we both know I can have you inside me whenever I want.” Wally smiled, goofy and embarrassed at his own terrible joke.

“Certainly, considering this dick doesn’t quit.” I leaned in close, savoring how his ears burned red and relishing the taste of his skin as I grazed my teeth along a blushing ear, making my way down his neck, nibbling, kissing, and letting the sensation envelop Wally. “If you’re feeling well, perhaps we can test some of your new physical limitations.”

His pulse thrummed faster, body warming, and I found myself in complete bliss.

---