Page 73 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires

“Just making an observation since you’re quite combustible,” I teased.

“He makes a valid point, hun.” Mora nodded toward me.

“It’s irrelevant.” Kell waved a dismissive hand. “I’ve got an actual Cerberus, so if the flames act up, this good boy right here will keep me safe.”

Sunny barked in agreement, tail wagging faster.

“That’s right,” Kell said with a baby voice. “Who’s a good boy? Yes, you’re a good boy. Such a good boy. The best boy, huh?”

“Don’t deceive him,” Bez said, adjusting the sleeve of his dress shirt. “He’s an adequate boy most days.”

Sunny grumbled and lowered his head with disappointment.

“Wait, which ex?” Bez asked, a hand pressed under his chin to appear musing while he used his tails to pet and soothe Weather. “Not the one I gutted, right? That guy was a bag of dicks.”

“Who really knows.” Mora shrugged. “That boy’s got a higher body count in the bedroom than victims he drained dry.”

Maurice was one of Mora’s many host bodies that she’d alternate between possessing. An old vampire, in fact. One who Bez apparently had a colorful history with.

Kell finished lining up the last of magical gems and bones necessary around the summoning circle she put together and began her ritual, speaking a mix of ancient languages, both mortal and Mythic, as she evoked the spirits of the other side. Itcast shadows across the store, curious lost souls eager to lunge on this summoning, intercept it, and interfere for their own possible gains. But the candles placed around burned brighter until all the wax disappeared, replaced by an aura of vibrant colors dancing around the room. This kept the unwanted away while casting a guiding beacon to the one Kell summoned.

Every word Kell uttered carried a drumbeat that sounded all around us. Weather’s ears perked up, heads turning in every direction as he sniffed the magic in the shop.

The inverted symbols Kell traced on the floor lifted up, forming something tangible. They fluttered around us like fall leaves.

She grabbed the jar, pouring the flames out. Red, blue, and purple fire spilled onto the floor. They splashed embers in every direction. One by one, those sparks clung to the floating symbols, lighting them up and adding a fiery spiral of colors to the vibrant aura already in effect.

Bones rattled, adding to the magical drumbeat. A few exploded to dust, merging with the fiery ashes of the symbols.

Sunny tried to grab a floating femur bone but was halted by Bez, who used his tail as a leash to pull Weather back.

Fire whirled in an inferno, sweltering but contained, shrinking as quickly as it erupted. It formed into a human silhouette, fire swelling in and out like lungs breathing heavily until they poofed into smoke, and the ashes fell around the room like snowfall.

“Welp.” Kell brushed her hands, knocking away soot. “Hope you had a plan B because we won’t be summoning Desmond from the dead.”

“Lemme try,” I insisted.

“Wally, there is no trying. It’s not a competition on which of us is better at casting.” Kell flipped her hair and shot me acocky smirk. “But to be clear, it’s obvious that I’m the better spellcaster.”

“So you say, I’m telling you if you just follow the directions appropriately then—”

“Nature has claimed him and his coven,” Kell clarified. “She’s got them bound in the deepest trenches of the earth. And if I know anything about the goddess—which I know everything about her—she won’t be sharing the souls of that coven until she feels they’ve learned whatever lessons she deems appropriate.”

“Which would be?”

“Who really knows with her.” Kell tsked. “Fickle bitch.”

“Dammit.” I sighed. “Guess that’s that, then.”

I really thought this might’ve worked, might’ve helped, might’ve taken the weight of the unknown off my shoulders, off Bez’s.

“Maybe we can put the orbs back together ourselves.”

“I do love projects,” Kell said. “Might take a century or two of tinkering, but we’re bound to figure out all that Fae and Diabolic balance and the medley of whatevers Baron Novus used.”

Baron Novus would be the real expert opinion here. But like all things involving the Fae, even their spirits remained elusive and impossible for anyone to track.

“There might be another expert you can summon.”

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