Page 42 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires

No love was lost for the demon or the action on Bez’s part. It didn’t seem anyone cared to note Lilith’s absence or deign to acknowledge me as I sat alone. I grabbed Bez by the bicep and guided him to the empty seat.

“Wally.”

“Sit,” I demanded.

He didn’t protest, and no one stared or shuffled to alert Lilith.

I needed to clear my mind, focus my split vision.

Flames from my phantom sight stole my concentration.

I blinked away the confusion of the dual sight I’d nearly buried while prioritizing Lilith’s attention. But my connection to Tony persisted a whole dimension away, and I wanted to explore it. Every part of me wanted to panic, but I willed myself to be still, even steadying my breathing and hoping the patter of my heart didn’t catch any Diabolic attention. Most of them likely didn’t understand how or why organs functioned, so maybe they wouldn’t notice the fear I quelled.

“Since my expectations here have lessened, for the time being, I’d like to study my new ability.”

“Of course,” Bez agreed. “I will keep anyone beneath your worry occupied if they approach for an audience.”

“Thank you,” I said as I let Tony’s aggravation for the fire fill my sight.

Tony hissed loudly, clacking his claws at the flames which nearly engulfed him.

I tensed, stifling every desire to call out to Tony. He couldn’t hear or sense me. But I had more than a visual connection. This devil’s takeover allowed Lilith to embed her consciousness inside any Diabolic of her making. It allowed me to cross through the infinite layers of dimensional space and spiritually link to my familiar.

Carefully, he channeled mana and waved the flames away from himself. I tensed for the artifacts, but as swiftly as Tony had saved himself, he went to work redirecting the fire and sending it back toward the corridor it’d tunneled out of.

The click of heels intercepted him as Kell rushed out of her back-room lab and waved the smoke away with her hands, coughing.

Kell. Of course this was Kell. It’d taken her all of five seconds to find a way to destroy the Well of Wonders in my absence.

“Stop being dramatic,” she said, adding a wave of icy mist with the flick of her wrist. Part of me thought she meant me, but then I saw her judgy stare fall to the floor and meet Tony, who clacked his claws.

The frost released in the room cooled everything, sucked up the air to remove the fuel for the fire, and ate away at the stray flames that Tony hadn’t hurled to the back.

In the time it took me to scoff at Kell’s nonchalant attitude, she’d disappeared, and Tony had reappeared at the countertop early in the morning, contending with a customer.

“Bez, when you said this banquet would potentially be six months to six years, did you mean because time dilation seems to be off entirely from one dimension to the next?” In the seconds it took to ask that question, Tony had upsold thecustomer and talked them out of several artifacts I doubted they wished to part with in exchange for a useless bauble. Honestly, he was less of a scorpion and more of a shark with the way he fleeced our clientele. That said, he acquired some really epic pixie products, and I couldn’t wait to return home and study them.

Home, which seemed to change with every blink of my eyes.

“Time dilation?” Bez tilted his head. “Is time high or having a baby? What kind of dilation are we talking here?”

“What?” I asked with a squeak that I quickly buried by clearing my throat to appear gruff and confident and devillike despite the fact the demon lords continued offering privacy while they focused on their feast and conversation amongst themselves. “I mean, it’s moving differently here and there. There—home—is moving faster. Is that why the banquet is expected to run so long?”

“Oh, fuck.” Bez grimaced. “Yeah, I sort of forgot about time in the whole equation thingy. Devil’s Banquets are painfully long. But yeah, guess that means we should expect a much more delayed passage of time when we return.”

I sighed. A sigh that washed away the day Tony had and brought on an evening where he closed up the shop and tended to his usual checklist of tasks. This was a painful reminder my familiar was far too good for me and worked far harder than he should to keep this business afloat. A business Kell and I treated like an extracurricular while prioritizing our true passions for cataloging, analyzing, and whatever destructive tinkering Kell labeled as research.

The bell chimed despite the sign to the Well of Wonders clearly stating the store was closed—and not at all sorry about it.

“We’re Closed. Come Back Later.” Because Kell and Bez refused to apologize to people who showed up outside of working hours.

A group of cloaked people shuffled inside, levitating in fact, which meant mages or witches or possibly vampires if they’d fed on witches or mages prior to arriving. Not that it mattered. They barreled inside so quickly, they didn’t even notice the tiny arachnid tucked away in the aisles as he dusted the artifacts.

Tony kept quiet and observed the situation.

They were witches, clearly based on how they circled around Kell’s doorway and cast sorcery to check for traps. I furrowed my brow, offended they’d dare and perplexed they’d try. It was no secret Kell was married to the King of the Diabolic Oasis, and Mora did little to hide her bloodthirst. I mean, seriously, the number of odd jobs Bez had taken for her. It was like they thought I was too dense to piece together golems who threatened the status quo had suddenly vanished around the same time Mora would have a marble statue commissioned. Or the time mages mouthed off, and Bez came home with a new host body. There were dozens of examples. While life was mostly content for folks in the Diabolic Oasis, it was no secret Mora didn’t tolerate rivals.

So why the fuck were these witches attempting to break into Kell’s lab?

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