Page 17 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires

“But ultimately, how far would I get?”

“With a wicked witch like me and the baddie boyfriend you plan on bending over?” Kell asked, dimples deepening from the smile that filled her face. “I think we’d make quite a showing outrunning some petty devil.”

“I’ll let Lilith know how little you think of her when I go to her banquet.”

Kell shoved me. “Your banquet, little devil.”

I smirked, letting the weight of this decision roll off my shoulders. “Thank you for the distraction.”

“Thank you for not destroying my things.”

“Well, if you showed up to work regularly like you’re supposed to, then—”

“I hate to interrupt.” Bez knocked as he sheepishly stepped inside. So the opposite of him. He’d even tucked away all his Diabolic features, from the horns on his head to the wings on his back to his three tails, his clawed hands, even his crimson eyes held less luster.

“You’re fine.” I half-smiled, hoping to encourage one of his playful grins, his minxy smirks, or his beaming, full-faced, wicked expressions.

The stoic look he had didn’t shift, but his eyes softened some when he saw my smile.

“You boys talk.” Kell strutted past me. “I’m just gonna sneak a peek at that fiery key Wally received before I head on home.”

“What?” I asked. “No. No tinkering with a devil’s invitation.”

“Not tinkering.” Kell averted her gaze and hid her smile. “I just wanna make a copy of the frequency layers.”

I blinked at her, conveying my most befuddled expression. “You’d like to tamper with a flame created by a literal devil meant to only be used to and from her Hell at her bequest?”

“Yeah. Imagine the breakthroughs in interdimensional traveling I could make.”

“Or you could set yourself on fire a fourth time.”

Kell hopped onto the front counter, kicking her legs up as she crossed them and sat with flair. “Life’s too short to worry about trivial things like burning alive.”

“Says the immortal witch.”

“I’m just throwing it out there.” Kell gestured with her hands, reaching out for the intangible idea that’d likely only flitted across her mind a second or two—after all, the more impromptu the concept, the more enthusiastic it made her. “As a baby devil mortal mixture walking into Hell, it might be wise to have an extra key if you needed to slip out early.”

“You’re gonna get yourself killed.” I flitted my gaze to Bez, who silently watched. “Or us. You’ll get us all killed.”

Admittedly, I itched with curiosity, too. But Bez was already so worried about this Devil’s Banquet, about me choosing to walk through Hell, about how Lilith might very well slaughter me the second I stepped into her world. I didn’t want to add to his concerns. However, devils had an innate way of carving through any world with ease, yet their Hell realms required tremendous strength to open.

The whole reason Beelzebub couldn’t chase Bez was that a fraction of his devil essence had been stolen. That tiny missing piece locked his Hell behind a door that could only be opened by a fully formed devil.

But the Diabolic Oasis? Mora’s hidden kingdom proved no challenge for a devil to slip inside. Well, her proxy diplomat by extension.

“Admit it.” Kell kicked my knee with the tip of her heel. “You wanna know how they got past our system.”

She knew me as well as I knew her.

And it didn’t make any sense. We had countless layers of security. The spell required to make the dimensional walls came from ancient artifacts and darker magics only Kell could harness. It pulled together Diabolic essence, witchcraft, and Fae magics to make something completely unique. Archaic and new simultaneously.

And to top it all off, we added security measures. Spent months upon arriving cataloging every possible way to slip in or out unnoticed and created the most advanced technological checkpoints that tied together the best magical detections to analyze every variable.

“No,” I said firmly. “No messing with stuff.”

“Do you think you could successfully make a copy of the frequency used by the invitation?” Bez asked, leaving me shocked in silence. I’d expected him to play it safe, cautious, careful, calculating.

“Hehehe, yes!” Kell clapped her hands, then took off her hat to rummage through.

---