17

Walter

Bez adjusted the red tie I'd materialized with an incantation to properly fit it with the dark blue suit I'd created. "We're going to have to move soon. Can't risk Eligos sensing your magic at work."

He was extra surly and less appreciative for the outfit. I couldn't decide if that had to do with his pint-sized rage, the fact he'd had his head chopped off, or the fact that Mora might actually be dead. He acted like he didn't care, willfully shrugged off her fate, but I saw how his eyes darted about scanning the essence laced throughout the villa. I'd seen him do that every time we moved somewhere new, searching for potential threats, unwilling to share his concerns, and I always remained quiet—because if he knew I knew, it'd make him even more worried than he usually pretended he wasn't. Bez was complicated. Lovely, sweet, and caring too.

"Are you listening to me, Walter?" Bez snapped his tiny fingers. "Move."

"Right." I grabbed Tony, placing him on my shoulder, and offered Bez my other shoulder. He scoffed, flying at eye level as we exited the pocket portal storage room and entered the labyrinth of the lower levels again. This seemed the best place to hide. With all the essence funneled throughout the villa, even Eligos must've struggled to navigate his way through this maze. Maybe that was wishful thinking.

Sunny barked.

"Silence, hound!" Bez snapped.

Cloudy whimpered. Stormy growled.

"Don't think for a second because of my current stature, I won't muzzle you, you grumpy fuck." Bez pointed at Stormy. I was about to intervene until Sunny licked Bez from head to toe, completely slobbering all over him.

"Disgusting!" Bez fumed, arguing with Weather about proper dog etiquette, which didn't sound like a real thing, nothing I'd researched anyway, which could make for an interesting study.

Tony's claws clacked as he cheered for their fight.

"Stop that." I gave him a look, then paused.

His powerful joy of a potential battle between Bez and Weather came in crystal clear. I felt the entirety of his emotions, the words trickling just beneath the waves of his feelings. I smiled. Despite everything, despite always failing and requiring others, I continued to show some tiny bit of progress. Our familiar bond had grown, probably more to do with the fact Tony was the best familiar a mage could ask for, but still—I was one small step toward mastering the familiar bond from the Pentacles of Power.

I tilted my head, letting my hair bounce against Tony's shell.

"Mush, beast." Bez sat on Sunny's head, holding his ears and directing Weather to run through the labyrinth.

"Wait up." I followed, meeting them at a glowing sky-blue door that led to another storage room filled mostly with paintings.

We stepped inside, and I wondered why Bez picked this place. Maybe he didn't realize the lack of importance of this room. Before everything fell apart, I did my best to study the surveillance and memorize the layout of the villa since Bez didn't want me exploring alone and hadn't bothered searching until Mora arrived.

"If I'm going to end Eligos, I'll need to restore some of my essence," Bez said, sitting crisscrossed on Sunny's head. "Normally, I'd soak in the natural energy from the environment, but there isn't much of that here in the villa, being all disconnected from reality and blah, blah."

"What about the artifacts? There are thousands of magical items in the baron's home."

"Former home." Bez folded his arms and had a cocky little expression. "And the trace amounts of Mythic residue in those isn't much help. Better than nothing, I suppose, but I'd prefer drawing upon an organic source."

I sat next to Weather, petting Cloudy and rubbing Sunny's chin, all while avoiding Stormy, who wanted no affection whatsoever. "Do you want to talk about Eligos? I know he—"

"I want to talk about how to quickly kill him." Bez glared. "Not too quickly. I'd like to break that armor of his, make him cry, then he can die."

Bez hid it—poorly—but Eligos meant something to him. We both knew that much, yet he pretended all the same, so I let him. If untangling these feelings burdened him, distracted him, it might cost him when confronting the demon knight. I had to do my part to ensure Bez survived this.

"Oh, the armor," I said, mind replaying the battle between Mora, resisting a shudder as blood and burns surfaced. "He shielded it, protected it. I think he's possessing it, if that's possible."

"Anything's possible with Diabolics. Even surviving death and escaping closed portals, it seems." Bez's angry eyes didn't waver. "I do need to figure out how he managed that. He thinks I'm Beelzebub—which I am, in a sense—but that means he hasn't been in Hell, our Hell, since I fled with the devil's heart. It's a good sign, indicating that damn dead Fae hasn't figured out how to open closed dimensions but doesn't explain a bit about how Eligos got here."

Bez needed magic, something to restore his essence, and if the artifacts wouldn't help, maybe he could use other forms. "Like mana."

"What?" Bez and Sunny cocked their heads in unison.

"Sorry, thinking aloud. But I think I can help you." I gestured to myself. "When expelling my mana, you can draw upon the residue it emits."

"One—and I say this in the sweetest way possible—you have a lackluster amount of mana. Two, the moment you cast, especially for a long period of time, Eligos will immediately detect our location."

"What about a host body?" I asked. "I could offer—"

"Absolutely not." Bez slapped a hand on Sunny's head, then scratched the Cerberus' forehead, soothing the pup after the brief startle. "Can't risk it."

"Yeah, since possession tends to kill the original host." I sighed, realizing how terrible my plan was.

"Yes and no. Not always, but I have this tendency of"—he ran his little thumb along his thin neck and rolled his tongue out, playing dead—"offing people because I'm bad at sharing my space. Mortal bodies are so cramped, the collision of consciousness tends to lead to me pushing them out."

"Collision of consciousness?"

"It's a whole thing, requiring a very delicate touch not to kill a host. Plus, possession without overwhelming a host body with all of my essence involves a lot of finesse. There's this ratio factor involved: how much flows in the veins, circulating throughout the body, versus how much radiates on the surface level, sort of like a shroud." He hopped off Sunny's head and paced the room. "It's basically impossible and a wasted effort when it's much simpler to just kick out the former tenant before securing a body."

Weather followed Bez back and forth.

Admittedly, little Bez was adorable and such a delightful distraction during this horrible event. All his mannerisms remained the same, the swagger in his hips as he strutted, the slight hunch in his shoulders when he flew about, escaping Weather's shuffle behind him, and the wicked grin on his little minxy face as ideas of revenge crossed his mind. He looked like a perfect doll replica of himself.

"Well, there's less of you, so you wouldn't need as much space, so maybe?" I hesitantly suggested.

"No." He folded his arms. "I love being inside you, it's my favorite activity, but possession is so invasive."

"We don't exactly have a lot of options," I said, thinking over everything in the villa, where we could go, what lay dormant in all the various pocket portals, but my thoughts kept going back to the helm.

Images of Kell's burning body. Mora riddled with blades. Bez's head spinning in the air as his body collapsed. I grimaced.

Mora and Kell were out there somewhere, dying, suffering, and in agony. And me? I sat there, unable to even formulate a simple plan, unable to remotely offer help. At least they both put up a fight against the demon knight. Hell, even Tony and Weather fought back while I froze. I hated how no matter what I did, it was never enough.

Bez flicked my forehead with a solid thunk. "Get out of your own busy brain. I need it."

"Huh?"

"You're overthinking. Overthinking Walter is only useful when researching. We're in survival mode. I need impulsive Wally. Angry Wally." He growled. "Show me your rage!"

"I-I-I don't know if I have any rage."

"You do. It's spectacular and calculating and able to weave masterful constructs."

I nodded. Think. Think, dammit.

Bez descended to the floor, clutching his chest.

"What's the matter?"

He ignored me, eyes darting about. Had he sensed Diabolic essence? Was it Mora? I held my breath. Was it Eligos?

Bez convulsed, falling to his knees. "Well, well. Might have a plan after all."

"What's going on?" I offered my hand to steady him, assist him up, but he remained on the floor, taking deep breaths and searching for something with each inhale.

"My essence is calling out to me." He craned his neck, eyes looking past the portal and deeper into the villa. "I can feel it reeling me back, offering a chance to reunite before it fades." He chuckled. "Surprised Eligos didn't destroy my body."

"The baron needed a devil's essence for something. Maybe Eligos needs it, too."

"I'll be sure to ask him after I reclaim my essence."

"Reclaim it?" I asked. "What does that mean?"

Bez collapsed onto the ground, eyes closed, and body as still as a corpse. I trembled. I needed to do something. Even if Bez reclaimed his lost essence, and that was a big if since I had no idea how or what he was doing, he'd still need magic to replenish his energy. Possession was out of the question since I was the only mage here, the only living being here.

Tony hissed, stinger pointing at Weather tugging at the fabric covering a stack of portraits.

"Don't even make that suggestion." I furrowed my brow.

Tony hissed again, jabbing his stinger at his cruel idea. I looked to see Sunny licking a painting while Stormy gnawed on the exquisite frame. Maybe Tony simply wanted to make sure I didn't allow Weather to trash more expensive things. I pulled the pup away, cringing at the missing paint on Medusa's face. Wow. An actual self-portrait of the original gorgon. That was probably priceless, and now basically ruined in all of five seconds, thanks to a hungry Cerberus.

"Wait a second, that's it," I said, gears clicking together to finally figure out something useful. "Tony, you're a literal genius."

We weren't the only living people in the villa. There were those gorgon statues Tony and I had seen on the surveillance footage. I hadn't mentioned them to Bez because he would've probably whined about me making a project out of restoring them, a mostly impossible task without gorgon magic.

"Or access to gorgon magic." I pointed to my scorpion familiar, who helped me piece together the idea. "Which we have. There are the fresh gorgon eyes, fully intact thanks to Baron Novus' obsession with collecting oddities and preserving all forms of Mythic magic."

I picked Bez up, cradling him in my arms, and rushed to the portal door. Weather scampered underfoot, stepping on mine, and I paused.

I kneeled down to look all three of them in the eyes. "You have to stay here, Weather. It's important, and I can't risk endangering you any more than I already have."

Sunny licked my face, playfully offering his protection, while Cloudy whimpered because I was making him stay, and Stormy bit the air, fire around his neck flaring up. Possibly his way of offering support or telling me to hurry up the goodbye—Stormy was hard to read.

"Tony, I need you to watch out for him." I watched Tony scuttle away, ignoring my request. "He's young and needs your guidance. I trust you."

I set Bez down and crawled over to Tony, who hid between a stack of paintings propped against the wall.

"I trust you because you trusted me, saved me, and I know you think I'm looking for another familiar. But I need you to know you'll always be the first animal I bonded with. I'll carry you with me always because you're precious and perfect and powerful. I love you, Tony. I love Weather, too. I hope you can accept that."

Tony skittered out and crawled toward Weather, where Cloudy had already slipped one of Bez's dress shoes off, chomping down on it. My scorpion perched on top of my grimoire and raised his claws until Weather moved next to him and sat.

"You two stay here—stay safe." I grabbed Bez and darted for the portal. "I'm going to fix this."

I raced through the labyrinth corridors, following the halls that led to the dungeon the baron held me captive in. The gorgon eyes were there. Once I got them, I could double back to the golden portal with the statues. I grimaced. It was pretty unethical to offer someone up to be Bez's host, knowing they'd die. Then again, they were living an eternal frozen life, which they wouldn't technically be freed from unless someone—such as myself—released them.

Whatever. It had to happen, and I could overthink the moral implications of how I was a terrible fucking person later.

I cut the corner and nearly knocked into someone, skirting around a haze of pink and blood splatters before tumbling onto the floor, holding Bez closely.

The pink Fae— the one from the Fae Divinity performance, the one who kidnapped me, the one who cruelly mistreated Weather—stood covered in blood, her clothes shredded, hunks of her flesh torn out. She faced away from me, likely dazed, perhaps fed upon by Eligos.

I gulped. "You're the Fae who grabbed me."

Eligos must've been incredibly fast because even Bez struggled to apprehend her given that butterfly teleportation she utilized.

"Fae?" She twisted her head, hair draped over her face as she turned to me. "Where is the Fae?"

"Huh?"

She approached, moving her hair, revealing her eyes that matched Bez's in crimson irises and pink where the whites should be. She stared at her hand, the one with visible black veins of Diabolic essence circulating through her.

"Right. I am a Fae now." She laughed, loud and erratic, her entire body shaking. I shuddered. "I never wanted to possess a Fae, just taste one. They always smelled so delectable, like sugary acid mixed with glittering blood and so much meat. Never got the chance, though. Trick. Tricked by the pretty Fae. He promised me the world, then gave me nothing but a tiny marble."

Was she talking about Baron Novus? If he captured her, how was she here? Marble. The orbs. Was Eligos unleashing other demons? There were hundreds of them. If he released them all, it wouldn't matter if Bez returned to full strength—they'd eviscerate us.

The demon possessing the pink Fae lifted her arm close to her mouth and bit down. She tore a huge chunk of flesh out of her wrist, nearly severing the hand entirely before tendrils reached out and properly reattached the limb.

"Still tastes a little sweet." She licked her bloody lips. "Shame my essence has almost soured the seasoning."

I kicked my feet against the ground, backing away without breaking eye contact. One blink, and she'd likely vanish in a blur. Her gaze tightened.

"Tell me, mage"—she bit off two of her fingers, allowing black tendrils to replace them—"what do you taste like?"