Page 25 of The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires (Diabolic Romance #3)

Wally

Corson stood at the door in tattered armor, not like the Roman gear he sported the last time they crossed paths. He looked more like a knight errant, except his chest plate had several holes, the right arm piece had broken off entirely, and his clawed feet clicked against the floor free of any armor. Though, that might’ve been an aesthetic choice given his long claws and the hooked arch of his feet, similar to a werewolf. The men on either side of him didn’t dress nearly as distinguished or ready for war.

“Those pitiful magics you call a barrier didn’t even register our essence,” Corson said. “We just waltzed right inside.”

“Biggest mistake of your soon-to-end lives.” Bez’s stance shifted as he prepared to lunge forward.

“We’re not here as enemies.” Corson raised his hands in surrender. “Just here to help. Starting with the shitty barriers.”

“It’s devil-proofed,” I explained.

“You sure about that?” asked a man with crimson red eyes, indicating a similar aura to Bez’s Diabolic essence.

Although, that was where the similarities came to an end. He possessed a slim athletic guy with a deep amber complexion wearing a white crop top and glittery skinny jeans with more rips than fabric to cover his legs and nearly exposed ass. His top revealed his stomach, but his arms were covered in hot pink-mesh sleeved stockings that went all the way to his wrist, where he wore bubblegum pink fingerless gloves that matched his combat boots.

Did he possess the guy in this outfit or modify the wardrobe to his liking upon taking over? His fashion sense seemed as eclectic as Bez’s tastebuds.

“We are sure,” Kell chimed in, answering the guy’s question, even though her focus needed to be locked on the task. “I know my way around essence, and those barriers are absolutely devil-proofed.”

“I’m a devil.” The guy in the crop top boasted, flexing his washboard abs.

My eyes widened. Lilith. Fuck. She’d possessed this body and slipped right inside with two demons at her side. So much for Corson wishing for her downfall. He’d likely turned on us the second we fled.

“The name’s Satan.” He grinned.

“Oh.” My face dropped, along with my heart rate. I couldn’t believe I was meeting Satan. The actual Satan. Again! Properly. Sort of. Considering the whole end-of-the-world thing. “You look different than the last time I saw you.”

“We’ve met?”

“I saw your performance.”

“Aww. My dance. Perhaps the only thing I’ll miss about Lilith’s Hell.” He twirled around, performing what looked like a pirouette, followed by a high kick and a flawless bow. “She spared no expense on choreography.”

“Your body has some nice moves to it,” Corson said.

“Thank you. It’s called a twunk, and it specializes in dancing of the grinding variety. Also, gym life, parties, sex, and something called ecstasy.” He spun around one more time. “And I found it the cutest little outfit.”

“To be clear, you’re not a devil,” Kell said. “The barriers aren’t designed to shield against knockoff devils.”

“Yeah, or else Wally would get stuck too.” Bez pointed his tails at me.

“Hey!”

“Lilith would never be bested by such a barrier,” said the third man, an older, lanky guy with thick salt and pepper hair. “Nothing can fend against her glory.”

He clutched his vest, prideful in the way he raised his head high and straightened his posture. There was something incredibly familiar about his emerald green eyes and the lime shade of his whites.

“You’re Orias, right?” I asked.

“That I am,” he said with the most dignified demeanor.

He was the octopus-like demon who hosted my Devil’s Banquet.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“We’re here to help,” Orias said. “Obviously.”

“You sound quite loyal to the devil currently set on destroying our world,” Bez said.

Ours.

For as much as he professed not to care about this dimension or anyone in it, his true feelings occasionally surfaced.

“My loyalty only extends so far,” Orias explained. “Beelzebub destroyed half the dimension in their battle, and Lilith devoured the other half to fend him off. Between the two of them, there’s nothing left of our Hell. No place to pledge my eternal allegiance.”

“So you’re all here to help?” Bez asked, suspiciously squinting at Corson.

“Well, currently”—Corson playfully knocked on the door—“I’m here to huff and puff and blow you down.”

“Blow your house down,” I said with a deep frown. “The expression that you butchered. It’s about a house.”

“And here I thought it was about squealing lil piggies and big bad wolves.”

“I believe he was performing a flirtation ritual of innuendos,” Orias clarified as if I needed it.

“I caught that.” I glowered. “Just giving him the benefit.”

Not that I was opposed to folks hitting on Bez—he’s a catch, after all—but the world was literally facing Armageddon.

“I don’t have time for Corson’s particular brand of come-ons.”

“Are you jealous?” Bez asked with a little cocky glimmer in his eyes. Oh, I’d never hear the end of this.

“Of me cumming?” Corson added. “Who wouldn’t be? I can cum on just about anyone. No need to fret, misfit devil. I have plenty of cum to go around.”

My entire face burned hot, and suddenly, the idea of the world ending didn’t seem so awful if it brought an end to this mortifying conversation.

“Wait.” I shook away the embarrassment. “Lilith destroyed her own world? The whole dimension? Everything?”

“She attempted to salvage the world in the first century,” Orias said.

Corson and Satan tsked.

“But as the battle dragged on for nearly a millennium, Lilith resorted to any measures to distance herself from Beelzebub.”

“Which meant hurling her army of children,” Satan said.

“Or devouring us,” Corson added. “Anything to keep Mommy at peak performance.”

My jaw had fallen slack, not from Satan or Corson’s commentary or the fact I was actually having a conversation with the Satan—who dressed like a slutty circuit boy. No, what left me completely befuddled was how casually they discussed a battle that raged on for centuries.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I muttered. “We just left Hell not all that long ago.”

“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.”

“This is not the morale boost I was hoping for.” I sighed. “Let’s come up with a plan and figure out who’s best at what.”

Much to my protest, Bez convinced me to stay behind at the shop with Orias so we could reinforce barriers. Being the most humble servant of Lilith for longer than I cared to ask, the octopus demon had a lot of insight for tweaking spells so that they’d remain resistant to Lilith’s thrashing essence, which lapped at our barrier walls.

Her essence didn’t move with a purpose, mainly on instinct. I wondered how much of her was still in there as she fought to regain herself, reshuffle her mind, restore her lost thoughts. This wasn’t like the tiny piece of devil essence I had, a piece so small it lacked sentience. But after nearly a thousand years of clashing in a battle against Beelzebub, it seemed to have left Lilith riddled with injuries beyond repair.

Mora strutted outside to join Orias and me as we secured the very shallow perimeter not consumed by chaotic essence.

“How’s Kell coming along?” I asked.

Mora shrugged, not exactly informed on the process of restoring a Diabolic orb. I didn’t want to distract Kell, and I knew for a fact if I stayed inside, I’d hover and question and point out everything she did or didn’t do. Plus, I wanted to be out here, at least able to watch Bez from a distance.

“She would’ve healed faster in Hell.” Mora folded her arms, glaring at her destroyed city. “Any Hell, in fact. Instead, she foolishly dived into a world not suited for essence.”

“She didn’t exactly have much of a choice with her limitations on the keys.” I shrugged.

“She only needed the key to escape her sealed Hell,” Mora said. “Once she was in between realms, she could’ve strolled anywhere. Knocked on Hell doors to one of her allied devils. For fuck’s sake, she’s got enough.”

“No way would Her Royal Supreme dare risk exposing herself to an ally in such a state of vulnerability,” Orias said. “She’s rightfully fearful one of her so-called comrades would pounce upon her current state, slaying her in an act of grabbing power and securing their station among the hierarchy of devils.”

“You know, you’re looking as lovely as ever, Orias.”

“You two know each other?”

“Long ago, back when I reigned in Bael’s Hell,” Mora said. “Orias was a young diplomat. He would visit, and I’d entertain him. Though, he did most of the entertaining.”

Orias nodded. “I do miss your Court.”

“This body suits you. The suit, not so much.” Mora grabbed Orias’ vest, tugging at the buttons. “I usually prefer a sturdy mortal body in the bedroom, but admittedly, you look so much better with all your limbs.”

“Seriously?” I blinked at them both.

“What?” Mora smiled. “You wouldn’t believe the things Orias can do.”

“Now might not be the time for tentacle porn,” I suggested, an edge in my voice.

“Shame. Life or death situations are the best aphrodisiacs.”

“If you like, I can accommodate your fancies.” Orias dug a clawed hand into his chest, wedging his fingers between his ribcage like he planned on actually ripping open his body.

“Stop, stop, stop!” I demanded. “I am not watching you rip apart your body so you can bang Mora.”

“What? These are as strong as they’ll ever be.” Orias gestured to the barriers. “If Lilith wants in here, she’ll break through no matter the stop gaps in place.”

“Wally has a point.” Mora gently plucked Orias’ bloody hand from his chest cavity. “It’s important to treat hosts with proper care. I was actually planning on adding this gentleman to my collection. Assuming we all survive this hellish situation.”

“Oh. You have a collection?”

“Yes, quite a versatile selection, in fact.”

“You must show me sometime.”

“Certainly. And you must take care of this body because I hate a torn outfit.” Mora adjusted Orias’ tie. “I’ll have to teach you all the etiquette of building a fine wardrobe if you intend on remaining in the mortal plane.”

I ignored them, focusing on Bez, who flew above the thrashing ocean of essence. Corson used telekinesis to stay afloat, albeit without the grace of Bez. Satan, on the other hand, sat with both his legs hanging over a broomstick while he rode side-saddled and playfully stroked the tip of his broom. He breezed through the air quickly and seamlessly. It turned out he’d possessed a misfit mage of his own and utilized the Pentacles of Power to access our traditional flight styles.

Each demon battled against Lilith’s essence, helping Nature, who rampaged with the strength of every witch, living and dead.

I growled, biting back my own essence. It surged in my core, ready and eager to lash out and strike down Lilith, to help turn the tide of battle, to clash against another devil. The way I’d instinctively defended against her in Hell, in her Hell, I couldn’t help but believe my abilities were being utterly wasted. Sidelined because what?

Bez turned his gaze toward me, and a calm washed over his face despite being entrenched in battle, slashing at essence, summoning elements in flurries, utilizing dark artifacts to lay curses and commands that might’ve at least stunned their devil target momentarily.

I took a deep breath and exhaled my frustration. As much as I could, at the very least.

Bez needed me here so he wouldn’t fret. Our entire relationship, he always worried about me, about how breakable I was compared to Diabolics. But I was a Diabolic now. Adjacently, at least.

He could have his combat with me safely out of the battle if it made him happy. But he best believe we were going to have a discussion about this. I’d saved him on more than one occasion, so I was no damsel who’d die in a fight.

It’s not like it’s a pattern or something.

My heart pounded in my chest, erratic and pumping blood so fast it boiled. Essence bubbled inside me, defensively swelling, ready to burst through my pores any moment.

“What’s happening?” I squeezed my head, trying to calm my thoughts, sway my essence, soothe the power circulating at hyper speed.

The broken sky tore asunder again, the tear splitting wider as four beastly arms barreled their way inside the dimensional walls.

The worst possible thing happened.

“Beelzebub is here.”