Page 86 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires

“Time works differently in different planes of existence,” Bez said in the most patronizing tone.

“I know that.” I furrowed my brows. “But when we were in Hell for the better part of one day, more than six months had passed in our world.”

I mumbled to myself, trying to account for the reversal of time and extrapolate how it moved in such a fluid way. My thoughts swam in theories and formulas, and eventually, I just surrendered before I ended up drowning in the math.

“It’s absurd and makes zero sense.”

“Look at my adorable mage trying to find the logic in Hell.” Bez playfully patted my head with a tail while holding the other two at my side like I was a little adorable display for him to show off.

“Stop it.”

“The only thing that confuses me is why the Great Mother fled to this world of all worlds,” Orias said.

My stomach twisted in on itself.

“Revenge, of course.” Satan popped his hip and fished a lollipop out of his pocket. “I could hear her shrieking all the way from my cage.”

“Shrieking? About what?” Orias asked.

“About the rejection the Devil Mage Walter Human Guy Insert Remaining Accolades Here blah, blah, blah”—Satan gave me a dramatic curtsy then sucked on his lollipop—“gave her.”

“You rejected Lilith?” Orias gasped. “The gall.”

“She said pretty much the same thing.”

“It was the highlight of my existence.” Satan smacked his lips around the lollipop, then shoved it back in his mouth.

“I’m less confused about her motive and more so about her methods,” Orias said. “How’d she manage to get here? Nearly half her essence has been shredded and obliterated. Her gates have all closed, yet she still ended up here, dragging what remained of her army to this realm.”

Wow. Lilith had pulled her forces through.

“It’s because—”

“I screwed up,” Corson interrupted, sapphire eyes locked onto me. “Lilith has keys placed throughout the universe for safekeeping. A way for her to pass between worlds even while her gates are closed. She had thousands of keys scattered across hundreds of dimensions. I thought I got all the ones here, but she must’ve had another I didn’t document.”

“Wait. What?” I shook my head. “No, what happened was—”

“Walter, please,” Bez interjected. “Don’t be rude. Let the man finish.”

“I truly believed I could remove all of them, preventing Lilith’s escape routes.” Corson sighed.

“How did you intend on destroying them?” I asked.

“She has a map—had, whatever—in her palace that displayed and connected to the various keys she’d scattered across the universe.”

“Lilith had a map of the universe?” My eyes widened, wishing she’d shown me that instead of a dinner party with a dance number from a knockoff devil, who currently stood a few feet away, sucking the life out of a piece of candy.

“Yes,” Corson said. “It displayed most of her keys, and I thought I knew how to reveal the hidden ones so I could disrupt her connection from her core base of operations, but I obviously deluded myself into such things. Because I clearly missed some here in this mortal realm.”

“It’s quite shameful,” Bez said with a click of his tongue to add to the disgrace. “But at least you’re owning up to your failures.”

“Bez,” I whined because he knew damn well this was most likely our fault. That copy of the flame key Kell made, the one I encouraged, the one Bez allowed, the one we assumed would help prevent a situation such as this.

“So, that’s why you dragged me along on this foolish plan?” Satan bit down on his lollipop with a heavy crunch. “A guilty conscience, Corson?”

“No,” Corson protested. “We’re stuck in this world anyway. We might as well team up with the only living souls to buck Lilith’s authority and survive to tell the tale.”

“Plus, she is vulnerable with so much of her essence depleted,” Orias added. “But we won’t win. At least I can have a glorious death to entertain those in Oblivion with.”

---