Page 54 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires

I scowled. “If and when Wally and I arrive to a state where we explore an open relationship—”

“I meant ours, not your soon-to-be-dead devil, but it’s cute you’re considering him and his nonexistent future.”

“Point is, I won’t be exploring any of it with you.”

“Why not? I’ll be gentle.” Corson leaned in close, his tongue a breath away from my lips. Thank the gods neither of us breathed. “Or rough. Or whatever you want when bent over, darling.”

“I don’t bend for anyone, and I typically find fellow Diabolics boring in bed.” I slapped a hand over Corson’s face and squeezed tightly. “Personally, I’d rather fight you than fuck you.”

“Why not both?” Corson’s teeth chattered, and his body shivered with excitement.

I shoved him away. “Get off.”

“I keep trying.” Corson stood to his feet and offered me a hand up, which I didn’t accept. “Seems mommy dearest has gone and decided she’s fully unhinged, letting the most notorious devil into her home while attempting to slaughter the right hand of the devil currently invited here as a guest of honor.” He shook his head, tsking. “Madness.”

“Madness indeed.” I scoured the skies for Beelzebub.

Despite his grand entrance of tearing the sky asunder, he’d vanished just as quickly. If Lilith brought him here and opened the doors to her Hell, then it seemed she never intended on mating with Wally, merging their essence into some Diabolic demon offspring of their devilish union. No, she planned for something far more nefarious. She planned on handing him over to Beelzebub, allowing him to reclaim his glory. Had that been her intention this whole time? Why the grandstanding? Was she actually evaluating Wally’s capabilities, or was this merely the whim of a devil?

Corson grumbled. “Oh, fuck me—”

“How many times do I have to say no,” I interjected, but it wasn’t my quick attitude that silenced him. No, it was the purple smoke coiled around us from head to toe. “Ah, fuck.”

In a blink, we vanished and then reappeared at the far end of a tiny bedroom. So quaint and small, it held none of the majesty I expected of a devil.

Yet, seeing how there was barely any room for distance between Wally and Lilith, it dawned on me Lilith warped this place. My essence surged at the sight of Wally pressed to a bed that was being absorbed into a wall. Despite this hovel of space, Lilith had stretched a corridor like putty between me and Wally, where his distance slowly increased, and the flooring slopped in stringy noodled angles.

“Bez.” Wally’s eyes were black, his hands covered in claws, and his teeth fanged.

I lunged forward at blurring speed, closing the distance of the few yards that separated us, only for Lilith to warp the spatial slack further and further, sending this corridor in twists and loops that only further divided me from Wally. When I paused my chase, the distance closed, but the instant I took a step, the walls and floor rumbled, ready to keep me at arm’s length.

Lilith had only brought me here as a spectator. Someone to witness the horrors she intended to inflict.

“You spurn my offer of courtship, so be it.” Lilith’s teeth turned jagged and layered in her mouth as her head shifted and her mouth transformed into a snout. Or beak. Or something beyond the confines of her mortal guise and into her true reflection.

Wait. Wally had rejected her? The weight of relief, coupled with the heavy anchor of dread that yanked at my insides, was nauseating. I was proud and flattered and honored he stood up to a devil, clearly enough to provoke her. But that was the problem. He pissed her off, and now she’d done the unspeakable.

“Killing you, killing that pet of yours, would offer little recompense for what I am owed.” Lilith waved a hand at me,pulling the corridor distancing me closer. “But handing you both over to Beelzebub will finally make him kneel with gratitude.”

“Two things Beelzebub doesn’t do.” I scoffed. “You’re either completely delusional or more arrogant than Beelzebub if you think handing over Walter will earn you anything other than a quicker death.”

“I don’t know.” Lilith smiled. “Beelzebub merely needs to be whole again in order to be of use for my needs, so the additional essence bubbling inside The Great Lord Devil Walter Alden”—she gestured a spinning motion at the monotony of Wally’s title, one she’d conceived nonetheless—“of the Misfit Mortal Mage Hybridization is really an unnecessary surplus.”

She made it sound as if the essence I’d given to Wally had gained more power. Something which wasn’t possible. I’d taken that essence from Beelzebub and held a fraction of his being inside me for centuries. It remained exactly as it was the day I’d devoured it on the battlefield of rebellion. The essence hadn’t grown or depleted. Yet somehow, when interacting with Wally, the purity of devil essence magnified the possibilities. How?

His aura did feel more Diabolic, but I assumed it had to do with how he channeled his power while defending against another devil.

“I considered handing over the treacherous coward who’d fled with Beelzebub’s essence centuries back, but as you said”—Lilith’s venomous gaze locked onto me—“Beelzebub doesn’t kneel or show gratitude. So what good would returning you, killing you, or keeping you as my pet have ever offered me?”

Lilith had known about me from the very start. Her and likely every other devil out there, and just as the gods they were with entire worlds of their own, they expressed no interest in the meddling or actions of insignificant beings such as me.

“To make use of Beelzebub, I merely need him at full strength, a true devil reborn,” Lilith explained. “The extra boostto his power is unnecessary. As I recall, he was unfortunately quite capable already.”

“Again,” I said through gritted teeth. “Beelzebub will not show you gratitude. He won’t thank you. All he’ll do is use his power to obliterate your Hell in its entirety, something he’s already aiming toward.”

The layers of Lilith’s filtered dimension had begun to crack, and somewhere out there, Beelzebub ripped apart other regions of this world.

“Yes, his tantrums are troublesome, but nothing I can’t weather.” Lilith shrugged. “After all, despite everything, Beelzebub is still bound by the same laws as all Diabolics.”

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