Page 11 of Hexes From Exes

“Yeah, I’ll send it right over,” he said, hesitant to give up the guy who summoned him. He didn’t tell Cass that the particularly summoning spell they’d used was very, very strong and very, very specific. Poppy kept recommending him specifically for some unknown reason and it made him uncomfortable.

“Great. But what’s so weird about this case?” she prodded.

“I think…I think the summoner may be in the wrong,” he replied.

“So? They often are. That’s why they turn to demons. All the human forms of justice fail them because they’re wrong, so they have to turn to the supernatural,” she reasoned.

“Not always - sometimes the human forms of justice fail because they’re flawed. Remember that woman who cursed her ex-husband? The one where he planted all this fake evidence and made her look crazy to take their kids? And really he was an abuser?” Rick pressed.

He’d found that women turned to revenge more than men over the last few decades with similar situations. Being a revenge demon helped him to realize the human world wasn’t as black and white as he previously thought. He’d tried to explain that to Cass before, but she waved him off, reminding him that humans were by nature emotional and flawed, not rational like demons.

“I guess,” she allowed slowly. “But why care now?”

“This woman, she does a lot of good in the world. I followed her for a few days and she’s pretty harmless, especially for so many guys to form a pack against her. It didn’t sit right with me so…I confronted her.”

“You CONFRONTED her?” Cass asked, her eyes wide.

“I did - and don’t look at me like that, it’s not unheard of. The rules of Anathamea say that I can reveal myself to anyone I have a contract with. Technically, she’s part of an unwilling contract. So, I confronted her.”

“That’s some loophole. I would keep that to yourself, the others at the department may not see it the same way. What did she say?” Cass asked, running a hand through her hair.

Rick paused, wondering if he should say much else. He was toeing a delicate line that he wouldn’t with anyone else; he was getting dangerously close to illegal territory. Human-Demon interactions were strictly forbidden outside of deal making, most likely due to the messy nature of the possessions and exorcisms of the earlier part of the century.

“She…countered,” he said carefully.

Cass barked a laugh. “Countered?”

“Yeah. She said if the men were in the wrong and not her, I’d have to amend her punishment befitting the crime,” he said.

“Can you do that?” Cass asked, her eyes wide.

“I don’t know,” Rick admitted. “I mean, in theory I probably could. I know that once the deal is made the magic is already at work. It would be pointless to have revenge demons at all if we didn’t have some control over it,” he reasoned. It was a line of reasoning he’d been using on himself over and over the last few days.

“That makes sense,” Cass said slowly, but her brow was furrowed.

“What are you thinking?” Rick asked.

Cass shook her head quickly, waving him off. “Oh, it’s nothing. I’ve just been…well, I’ve been chasing my own leads lately. I have a theory I’m working on.”

“Yeah?” Rick asked. It wasn’t hard to feign interest in Cass’s line of work - she was brilliant. Before being moved to Magical Investigations, she was a head researcher into ancient demon texts. She’d stumbled upon a store of old texts in a human museum and was working on translating them. They were so impressed with her work they promoted her to a field role in Magical Investigations. The promotion came from the council themselves. Cass never saw it as a promotion though, even though the benefits were way better than she had in research.

“I won’t bore you with it. Just…tell me more about Poppy and the summoning,” she said.

Rick sighed, shrugging. “Not much to say. She has a specific spell to summon me, I think it’s an adjustment of the general summoning spell. But…it’s pretty powerful. I can feel the pull even if I’m not near a portal. Sometimes I can feel physically drawn by it, like if the caster knew what they were doing I may not…” he paused here, feeling that familiar sensation that he was toeing some line between acceptable demon work and illegal activity.

“May not what?” Cass asked.

“Need a portal,” he finished with a wince.

Cass’s eyebrows shot up nearly to her horns. “That’s pretty serious,” she said.

There were unregulated portals in the slums of Anathamea, but they were finicky. They were run on illegal, stolen magic that was faulty at best and dangerous at worst. To think that a spell could summon a demon to the human realm without a portal was powerful magic. Demons used to be able to portal on their own, but that magic had long since been drained.

“Yeah, that’s why I didn’t mention it to the department yet. I don’t know what to do with that information, and you’re familiar with Starshine.”

“Poppy,” Cass corrected.

“Yeah, Poppy,” Rick agreed.