Page 59 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires

What is his goal?

I tilted my head almost like if I lined my neck up just right, I’d see the answer, the thought dancing along Tony’s mind. It was there in the corner of my vision. Our familiar bond fully restored since my return and somehow slightly stronger.

Tony clacked his claws. He felt my presence, the return of our connection in full effect. The blossoming improvements that seemed seamless when I made no efforts yet staggered for years when I applied myself. Tony scurried out of the library he’d holed up inside to greet us.

“Devil’s takeover.” Mora hmphed. “That’s a classic.”

“Maybe you can share your wealth of knowledge with the class,” Bez said.

“Study guides and slumber parties another time,” Mora said with an obvious note of sarcasm, but truthfully, that sounded absolutely delightful.

I never got invited to many slumber parties—the few I had were pity invites because of my popular brother or my bully of a mother. And a whole party dedicated to studying? My head swam in the daydream, almost escaping the impending dangers we’d come here to warn about.

“You know, that was a quick trip.” Mora gestured, then turned her motion into a movement to telekinetically wave over a cocktail glass. “I expected something closer to six years, not six months.”

“Six months?” My jaw dropped. “Seriously? It was like a day there.”

Bez tsked. “It was much longer; you just have a very linear perspective on time.”

I frowned.

“As an immortal, you should get used to losing track of time. What’s in a century, really?”

“So, I take it Lilith didn’t scrutinize your every action,” Mora said, eyes trained on me as she sipped her drink. “Or in action.”

“About that.” I bit my lip. “Where’s Kell?”

“Must be urgent if you two rushed over to my lil ole home in the middle of the night.” Mora waved us inside.

“Dimensional jetlag.” Bez shrugged as we followed Mora upstairs and deeper into the manor.

Tony finally crossed paths with us. He scrambled toward me, climbed my leg, and nestled in the curls of my blond hair. His claws clinked against something, and when I looked, really examined myself for the first time in a while, I saw the full extent of my Diabolic features. Well, as best I could in the semi-reflective surface of a glass picture frame hanging a piece of artwork in Mora’s hallway.

Tony’s claws had hit one of my horns. A tiny set compared to Bez’s four curled ram horns. Mine were about two inches, maybe three—not that size really mattered—and pointed upward with a slight curve. They popped with a sheen black, standing out in my blond hair nearly as much as Tony himself. Veins were stretched around my solid black eyes. My wings were small but pulled taught, the feathers appearing thicker and sharper than they had in the past.

In Hell, I’d weaponized them, using each feather as an extension of my being. But now I couldn’t even feel them. Not really. Not the way I felt my arms or legs. Not the way I bent my fingers or wiggled my toes. The instinct wasn’t there. Or it was when I didn’t overthink it. A rarity, truly.

When we finally reached Kell’s study, the entire space was covered in half-abandoned projects of things she’d tinkered with and stacks of books. Books that looked similar to the annotated ones Tony had been putting together elsewhere. What had they been doing in the six months since we left?

“Hey, Scorpio,” Kell said. “You’re supposed to be working, not slacking off.”

Tony hissed and nestled deeper into my hair.

“Here, I would’ve figured you’d be the one slacking off in my absence.”

“Wish I had the time.” Kell sighed.

“Do you even have time to say hello?” I asked, lowering my head like it’d somehow catch Kell’s eyes, which had fallen back to a book. So, I imitated her to show a proper greeting. “Oh, hey, Wally! Nice to see you’re back from literal Hell. How was the trip? Did the devil treat you well? Did you bring me a souvenir?”

“Well?” She raised a brow. “Did you bring me a souvenir?”

“Oh, you wanted to know how my meeting with another devil went?” I bulldozed right past her question. “Glad you asked. Lilith was friendly. Really cool theme.”

“Tacky, if you ask me.” Mora side-eyed my tunic and Bez’s warrior skirt.

I sidestepped right around that comment. “She was also super fascinated by lesser worlds and mortal merged devils, so much so that she wanted to mate.”

“That’s right, Bael used to hold the occasional banquet himself when Lilith would let their child visit his Hell.” Mora shrugged. “Forgot what an avid collector she was.”

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