Page 15 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires

“Our shop.” I huffed, turning back to the broken glass and small flames eating away at the entrance of the Well of Wonders. “Suppose I can fix this up while I ponder.”

No amount of cleaning cleared my head. I’d never had such an insurmountable decision before. Hell might possibly be the death of me. Entering the dimension itself or simply annoying the devil hosting the banquet in my honor. Which wasn’t really to honor me but to study me.

Tony crawled over the back of my hand, his steps cautious yet familiar. They evoked a memory, our first encounter, our first time working together with a familiar bond. A bond that had grown tremendously since then, allowing me to share a phantom form of my essence with the scorpion and allowing him to share his thoughts with me. Even if they weren’t words, the sensation struck a chord that reverberated through my entire being.

I had faced choices like this before. When I first worked with Tony, I used a spell to merge his shell into a makeshift patch meant to mend my broken arm. An arm broken by Bez, Bez who was under the thrall of Ian, Ian who sought to slaughter The Collective, The Collective who believed me to be a traitor.

“What do you think I should do?” I lifted my hand, staring into his tiny collection of eyes.

He drew upon my mana and activated his sigils to spell out his scarlet words. A vibrant choice meant to convey his feelings on this decision. “Be cautious and remember the world has done nothing for you.”

“Ouch.” I pouted. “Never thought I’d see the day where you agreed with Bez.”

Tony hissed.

“I’m not sure I could actually say ‘screw the world’ and run,” I said, to which Tony hopped off my arm and floated to the floor with a light breeze before scurrying away. “And I guess that’s the end of the conversation.”

“Oh my goddess, I can’t believe you were attacked!” Kell burst into the store—quite literally as she summoned a gust of wind through Nature’s Blessing and flew inside, causing nearly as much damage as I’d just repaired.

Thankfully, chaotic Kell had sorcery sigils at the ready. Their bright glow illuminated Kell’s brown skin and made the fabric of her puffy blouse a bit transparent. Not that the top wasn’talready quite revealing as it cut off at the shoulders and exposed her stomach.

Bristles of her broomstick flung free, controlled by sorcery, catching and restocking anything knocked off a shelf by the mini tornado whirling inside. In fact, the second she landed beside me, her broom fluttered off like an animated cartoon character and went to work tending to the parts of the store I hadn’t cleaned yet. I needed to learn that spell. All my cleaning incantations usually created a bigger mess.

“Wally, how could you!” Kell rushed toward me.

“How could I get attacked?” I raised a brow. “I didn’t really have much say in the matter.”

“What’re you talking about?” She shoved me aside and reached for a box sitting behind the front counter. “How could you nearly let this place burn down with my babies inside?”

“Seriously?” My face fell flat. “You’re worried about stuff? What’s even in here?”

Neatly tucked in the box sat three of Kell’s witch’s hats. They were similar in shape to the one on top of her head now, but each had its own color and differing lengths of curl in the stem of the hat.

“Really?” I eyed Kell up and down, scrutinizing her with my judgiest squint.

The hat she currently wore had green stitching that matched the shade of emerald looped in with her braided black hair.

“You’re more concerned about an item than me?”

“Says the guy who literally let a goblin attack me last month while he prioritized saving some old trinket.”

“First of all, you provoked the goblin,” I replied, biting back every fact on how docile goblins were, which meant Kell really went the extra mile to piss one off. “Secondly, I was saving a one-of-a-kind ancient—”

“Blah, blah, blah.” Kell stuck her tongue out. “There’s countless one-of-a-kind thingies in here.”

Kell squeezed a hat, and it chirped. Another one meowed in response.

“Do you have animals in there?”

“Worry about yourself, Walter.” She chucked the hats back into their box and returned the box under the counter.

I should worry about myself. About everything that’d unfolded today. Gods, one minute, it was just a normal day, and in a blink, this momentous decision had been thrown at me. The worst part, I couldn’t quite discern if it was an obstacle or an opportunity. It seemed more like foreboding death, but there was so much to consider.

“You’re worried.” Kell’s shoulder bumped me, casual yet caring.

“Yeah,” I dragged out the word. “It’s a big decision. Not exactly the choice I thought I’d be making today. Here, I figured topping Bez or not was by big debate for the month, week, something. Year? Ever? All time?”

“Wait, what?”

---