Page 16 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires (Diabolic Romance #3)

Bez

Everything rumbled. The sky split and shattered into a billion shards, which fell like meteorites. Rage seeped through the air, so haunting and familiar, I almost fell to my knees on instinct. Demons shrieked and fought and clawed and cast against the palpable fury which lashed out erratically. One by one or a hundred at a time, demons erupted into nothingness as their essence was spent and their lives were forfeited.

I stared out at the harrowing sight of an empty, broken sky where the stars cried and war rained down everywhere. A shadowed silhouette of a form I’d never forget filled the darkness, standing taller than any mountain, a sight that’d make titans terrible if any still lived in the deep depths of the earth of the mortal realm. Somehow, someway, Beelzebub had stepped through the threshold and into this world. How?

“How is he here?” I conjured black ice to shield the shards of fiery sky crashing down onto the temple, onto every part of Lilith’s dominion, slaughtering tens of thousands immediately.

Beelzebub simply setting foot into this world had sparked destruction. He wasn’t even fighting yet. This destruction was merely a greeting. A reminder that everything about my devil roared with war.

“Look out!” Corson tackled me, knocking me out of the way of several purple-scaled spikes that shot out of the floor and ran the length of the corridor before sinking into the ground, much like a shark’s fin.

Ominous and alluring and completely out of my purview, with all my attention fixated on Beelzebub’s arrival. How’d he get here? How’d he get out of his Hell where I’d locked him in? How long before he realized I was here in Lilith’s domain?

I trembled. If he didn’t already know.

“You feel so good quivering beneath me, wrapped in my grip.” Corson lay on top of me with a fiendish smile of wicked delight.

The spikes sprang up so quickly they nearly impaled me, while Corson of all beings saved me. Not that him shoving me to the ground and landing on top of me was much of a save.

“What’re you doing?” I snarled as his hand reached around to comfort me in a hug.

“Can’t have my mommy go and kill you before I have a chance to bend you over and bed ya.” Corson grinned. “Though, if you prefer missionary, I’ll gladly gaze into your eyes as I impale you in such a more satisfying way than my mommy ever could.”

“One, get off.”

“What do you think I’m trying to do?” Corson winked.

“Two, your mother issues aside, thanks, I suppose.” I shoved him off. “Three, how the fuck did Beelzebub end up here?”

“My guess is Lilith, in her feisty omnipotence, determined his visit during your banquet would make for quite the entertainment.”

“It’s not my banquet.”

“It is now. You think your devilish human boy is gonna last long now that the devil he robbed is here?”

“Wally didn’t steal…” I growled, furious and frightened and fucking confused. Beelzebub would kill Wally. He’d break my love apart into a billion molecules and devour every ounce of his being to restore his full strength.

“Look, the way I see it is this Hell is going to fall apart. In a day or decade, but with Beelzebub here, let’s just say Mommy doesn’t remember the wars she sent us into, and he came here himself instead of the buffer of his armies. No, thanks.” Corson pursed his lips, then twisted them into a minxy grin. “So why don’t we enjoy our time together before we all fall into Oblivion again?”

My insides stirred, anxious at the idea of returning to such a devoid realm. A place of sleepless slumber. A world of silent wails. An eternity of internalized war with my mind while granted peace from the horrors of Hell. Such a tragic afterlife that Beelzebub had dropped me into more times than I cared to remember, only to drag me out gasping and flailing and missing the misery of nothingness because my devil had grown bored and sought torment for his prized possessions.

Corson’s smug expression, coupled with the way he slid his leg between mine at the idea slipping more between me.

“Uukk, you realize that’s never going to happen?”

“Never say never. Relationships blossom.”

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 boost to 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.”

I furrowed my brow. What was she plotting?

“I’d always planned on mating with Walter, securing a piece of his essence through sheer bliss. Mortals enjoy their carnal pleasures. But pain is a swifter method to achieving my goals.”

I snarled.

“Walter, you will hand over your essence. Just a piece. A piece Beelzebub won’t require to be whole again. A piece that will link him to be forever in what your mortal things call a Diabolic bond.”

“What?” The question spilled from my mouth along with exasperated shock.

Lilith intended to bind Beelzebub to her will, forcing him to serve her. And she intended on using the very ritual that’d first brought Wally and I together. A ritual we could no longer use, but I still clung to the sensations that synced between us. The accident that originally connected us, offered us a future, would now be used to divide and destroy us.

“Walter Alden, False Devil with Mortal Stain, you will carve out a piece of your ill-gotten essence and offer it to me.” Lilith moved the floor, pulling me closer to her grasp. “In doing so, I will offer your pet a quick death. With Beelzebub under my thrall, you will have no fears of the devil plucking your demon’s strings and dragging him out of Oblivion.”

I growled, teeth barred, claws drawn, tails switching, and wings raised high as if anything I could do would pale in comparison to a single strike a devil unleashed. All the same, I’d go down swinging before I allowed her to threaten Wally. If I only landed one blow before she killed me, hopefully it’d offer Wally a few seconds to flee.

“Don’t listen to her,” I said, ready to pounce on the devil who’d slaughter me in an instant. “I need you to—”

Purple spikes sprang forward, aimed at my head. Fuck.

Metal clashed, and the spikes shattered.

“Stop it,” Wally spoke with ground teeth, his horns sprouting out and growing atop his head like a gnarled tree.

Thin black wires circled me. Not wires. Essence. His single tail split into a million threads, which stretched long and shielded him from Lilith’s attack.

“You dare.” The devil chuckled. “Oh, simple little thing you are.”

“Awkward times.” Corson stretched his arms wide like some attempt to bid an offish farewell at a party he’d overstayed. “I’ll just see myself out.”

“Oh no,” Lilith said. “You’ll stay.”

“It’s not like you need my help.”

“Help? No, no, no. I plan on slaughtering you alongside this false devil and his phony Beelzebub pet.”

“Why?” Corson’s brows knitted into a scowl. “I’ve done everything you’ve demanded since—”

“You interfered,” Lilith interjected. “You think I didn’t note your essence strike mine when I went to break this little demon trash.”

“Oh, mother, you misunderstand. Deepest sincerities for the confusion.” Corson didn’t even do a remotely decent job faking his apology. “I merely meant to detain him on your behalf while brutishly ravishing him in the process. You see, I can be a team player.”

Lilith’s essence moved in a blur, wiping away Corson’s smirk by breaking his jaw in one swift motion. “So pretty to look at, so vexing to listen to.”

Corson gurgled as his tongue spilled out, and his essence healed the shattered lower half of his face.

“Corson’s first words were a lie, and his last have been vulgar and vindictive every time I’ve sent him to Oblivion to learn a bit of respect.” Lilith circled the demon prince. “Perhaps this is the time I leave you there. Focus on future progeny like the splendid spawn Beelzebub will grant me once I make him my true champion. Yes, a being worthy of serving me, unlike the billions of wasted efforts spent on children such as Corson and all the other forgettable demons.”

Corson redirected his essence, transforming his hands into blades while locking eyes with me. It wouldn’t last long, but perhaps our combined efforts would offer Wally an extra step or two while he fled.

“You two wish to attack?” Lilith held her winged arms out invitingly as flames formed around her. “Do your worst.”

“I said stop.” Wally’s threaded tail looped around Corson too, offering us protection from Lilith while his cherub wings sprang out.

They created a gust of black wind, blowing the fire away. A few of Wally’s feathers fell loose, captured in the blaze of wind.

Feathers fluttered, slashing at Lilith and the essence she redirected, nearly striking her as she shuffled away in a blur, dodging the attacks. Of course she would. Wally was a fellow devil, and even if his damage was insignificant, merely a scratch or two, the weakness it’d reveal in her glory would be offense enough.

A feather collided with the threads of Wally’s tail that shielded me from the collision. I understood. He’d guarded us not from Lilith’s attacks but from his own devil essence.

“You think you can fight me?” Lilith waved away the feathers, the fires, the furious wind. “The gall.”

Wally pivoted his feet in a way I’d seen a thousand times over in our trainings. It meant he intended to fall back and flee, which would be wise. But he hunched forward, funneling essence through his tiny wings in a way that suggested he meant to rage in combat. The shadows of his horns twisted in ominous horrors, painting portraits of the anguish he sought to unleash, the torture he plotted, the darkness of his essence.

“You truly think you can fight me alone?”

“Nope,” Wally muttered, then clamped his jaw tight.

I wanted to help him, to prove he wasn’t alone, yet the threads of his splintered tail acted as barbed wire that held Corson and me in place—protected and immobilized. Not certain Wally fully thought out his shield technique.

“You don’t have to face her alone. Wally, let me—”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” he said, containing the wrath of his horns. “Also, wasn’t planning on risking you.”

“You wish to do this the hard way, fine by me.” Lilith lunged forward, her body crumpling apart as she slithered faster, wings expanding, teeth glistening, and spikes swelling.

She hissed, ready to pounce and strike Wally, when the walls of the room burst wide open, and a giant hand snatched Lilith up like a worm instead of a serpent.

“You were so fixated on me, you didn’t even feel Beelzebub thrashing at the barrier you’d placed around the temple.” Wally leapt away from the next hand that swept into the room. “Then again, I suppose essence is a tricky thing to sense, and the chaos cast across the entire dimension probably made it impossible for you to pinpoint his next target.”

But it wasn’t difficult for Wally to track, not with a piece of Beelzebub inside him. Perhaps we could win this thing.

Lilith shrieked, furious and frightened. Her body transformed more and more the longer she remained in Beelzebub’s grasp. Soon, it took all four of his arms to contain her as she coiled around his limbs and fought back.

The temple trembled as both devils took full form. Beelzebub towered over the lands as a behemoth of a being who snatched up demons in waves to crush between his fingers before hurling their shattered essence at Lilith. She shrugged off the remnants of her children used as fodder against her and coiled around Beelzebub. Her wings stretched far, carrying freezing flames and crackling earth in each gust.

Beelzebub snatched Lilith by the razor-taloned blades of her wing tips and snapped off one of the seven to use as a weapon. Her mouths of a thousand tendrils squeezed his arm tight until he released her broken form and then proceeded to redirect her strike to choke him.

Unveiling their purest form shredded the very fabric of Hell’s walls, twisting and tearing pieces of reality as their very perfection reflected against the sky.

Wally grabbed my hand. “We need to get the hell outta Hell.”