Page 50 of Hexes From Exes

The enforcer demon left.

An unknown amount of time later, the door opened again. To Rick’s horror, it was Ynnia. He was alone, strolling slowly across the floor with his hands clasped behind his back, his face alive with delight. Ynnia was short and stooped, coming to just below Rick’s shoulder. His face was lined with wrinkles that made him look pleasant, like he’d lived a long, happy life. His lips were always upturned in a half smile. What betrayed him were his eyes – they were piercing, unfriendly, critical. His nose was so small it looked more like a boil than an actual nose. His skin was burnt orange and leathery, faded and wrinkled from years under the eternal flames.

Rick jumped up, moving to the back of his cell to get away from him. Ynnia may have been centuries old, but he was still strong. All demons knew about the strength of the council, it’s why they were left to rule so long. With demons’ lives ending sooner and sooner they had to cherish the ones who remained. Paired with the wisdom they’d collected over the centuries they were untouchable, mythical things.

And Rick was terrified of the one that was advancing on him now.

Ynnia stopped next to the box, reaching his hand down to pat the top of it.

“I’ve always loved this,” Ynnia said fondly, like he was talking about a child and not a box. “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it in action. Forgive me if I stare – the first few hours are always the worst.”

“What is it?” Rick asked.

Ynnia’s smile only grew as he placed his hand on the box again. At first nothing happened, and the terror of waiting nearly consumed Rick.

Then he felt it.

It was like a dull knife was prying off his scales, sliding in between them to wrench them off one by one. His hand went to his arm, half expecting to come away with blood. To his surprise, his scales were intact, and there was no evidence of blood on his hand. There was, however, a single scale that looked paler than the others. Before Rick could recover, the sensation happened again, this time more urgent, more painful. It brought him to his knees.

“This,” Ynnia said, stepping closer to the cell, his eyes bright, “will strip you of your magic little by little. You’re a big, young demon – it may take a few days. And when you’re left with almost nothing, when you’re begging for your own death…we will execute you in front of all of Anathamea. Their last memory of you will be how weak and pathetic you are.”

The painful sensation lasted longer this time, like the dull knife couldn’t quite pry the scale off so it needed to go deeper, hitting tendon and bone. He couldn’t help it, he cried out. It didn’t stop, every minute it amplified, digging deeper and deeper into him.

“All because I slept with a human?” he gritted out. Despite the pain he tried to hold Ynnia’s gaze. Ynnia didn’t look impressed.

“We have laws for a reason, and we are not to be disobeyed,” he said simply.

Then he sat on the ground and watched.

* * *

It was days before Cass could get in to see Rick.

Any attempts to approach the council were denied. Even using her contacts at Magical Investigations were dead ends. No one wanted to help her. As far as they were concerned, Rick was already dead. There was no execution in recent memory, much less a public one, and if anything, Anathamea seemed excited at the prospect of it.

Mostly, her bosses advised her to cut all ties with Rick. Don’t mention they dated, don’t mention they were friends, forget about him. As for anyone’s opinion on if what he did was truly wrong, well, that didn’t matter. The council made it clear with the posters that Rick was an example, and anyone else that dared break the law would be dealt with in a similar manner.

It didn’t matter that very few demons even got to interact with humans anymore. Nor did it matter that the portals to get to the human realm were heavily regulated – unless they used illegal ones like Cass. The likelihood of someone else doing what Rick did was basically nonexistent.

Cass supposed that wasn’t entirely true. She’d thought about Alice and Eric like that before. She’d wondered what Alice looked like under her flowing skirts. She’d imagined once or twice being thrown on the table at the archives by Eric as he fucked her, Alice riding her face. Ever since she read the translated texts, these images came to her unbidden. What would happen if she’d had sex with either of them?

What happened to Rick?

It was a few days before Cass could get to Rick, and it was only because of Fee. Fee had a much better relationship with their boss – probably a little too friendly – and she’d managed to get Cass a full twenty minutes to visit with Rick. Zed couldn’t come, it had to be just Cass, and she had to be fast.

She wasn’t going to try to negotiate or say no.

The place they held Rick was awful.

It was underground, with no heat or light. Cass shivered when the doors to the elevator opened, and the enforcer demon nodded for her to get off. He didn’t follow her, the look on his face a mix of a disgust and pity. Cass didn’t understand why until the elevator doors slid shut and she was alone in the cold, empty hallway.

It was silent. All she could hear as she walked down the empty cellblock was the sound of her feet echoing through the quiet air. At first, she thought she’d been tricked, she made it to the end of the cellblock and didn’t see Rick. It’s only when she turned back around to head to the elevator that she noticed him.

He was laying on the ground on his side, his back to the bars, and for a moment Cass thought he was dead. His normally vibrant red scaled skin was dull, leached of all color. He looked small despite being one of the bigger demons she knew. She’d never seen him like this before.

“Rick,” she called, her hands tightening on the bars the cell. He didn’t move. “Rick,” she said again, louder this time. She thought she saw him stir a little, but he still didn’t respond.

“Rick!” she tried again, as loud as she could muster. This time, he moved, rolling onto his back to stare up at the ceiling. His eyes were glazed over, his lips chapped, the skin on his face haggard and raw. What had they done to him?