Page 55 of Hexes From Exes

“He accepts it?” Zed asked, disbelief audible in his voice.

Cass nodded and placed a hand on his shoulder. “He did. He told me to tell you he’s sorry. He hopes he didn’t embarrass you and the office too much. He was very adamant that his actions were his own, and that you had no idea. No one did, really,” Cass added.

Zed blinked again, and Cass willed him to understand. If he thought Rick was truly sorry and accepting of his punishment maybe he’d leave it be. No one could blame him for being upset that his friend and coworker was going to die. It was everything else he needed to calm down about. Cass knew better though, and it shouldn’t have surprised her at all when he set his jaw and got up to walk away. This wasn’t the end of it for Zed.

Cass grabbed her things and nodded to her coworkers. “I think I’ll take the day. Is that okay?”

They waved her away, watching the spectacle unfold as Cass followed Zed out of the building. By the time she cleared the door he was gone.

* * *

Cass shot a tentative look around, satisfied that the coast was clear. No one saw her head this way, no one saw her leave her apartment, no one saw anything. As far as everyone knew she’d taken the day off to get some work done around her home. Or she was feeling ill, she wasn’t sure which lie she’d settled on.

She stopped just a few blocks from the council building, feeling her heart beating hard enough to break out of her chest. She had no idea what Dread planned for the day. She had no way of getting ahold of him to go over their plans. She was going in blind.

When she was just a few feet from the council’s chambers, she ducked behind a building, ensuring again she was alone, before slipping the ring Dread gave her onto her finger. The magic hit her instantly. It was an enchantment to change how she looked, much like the one she used when she went to the human realm. She felt her body widen, her horns harden, and her shoulders suddenly felt heavy and strange. When she looked down, she caught sight of her suddenly blue chest and graphite-like armor. She had an enchantment to make her look like an enforcer demon.

What the hell was Dread planning?

She stepped out from behind the building and made her way slowly across the square, squinting at everyone to see if they were Dread without his disguise. Anyone who saw her looking scuttled by quickly, not wanting to be sized up too much by an enforcer demon. The general anxiety around breaking rules had risen since Rick’s arrest. It was the first public display of punishment that Cass had ever heard of. Demons were mostly peaceful, and there weren’t many laws to break. Well, if you counted using an illegal portal to go to the human world and conducting research you’d been taken away from, she guessed there were a few laws to break.

“Come,” came Dread’s voice near her shoulder. She jumped at the closeness of him, of how he could sneak up on her like that without her knowing. Getting a good look at him now, she realized Dread was a bit older than the average demon still working, especially the enforcers. He gave her a brief once over before nodding to the entrance of the council.

“Remember our rules,” he said under his breath. Then, “I added another one. Keep your mouth shut. Don’t speak unless spoken to.”

Cass nodded. She wasn’t sure pitching her voice to sound like a male enforcer demon would be very successful.

She followed him to the entrance of the building and was stopped by a security force. One pulled out a wand – an enchantment checker! Cass’s heart raced again and she hoped none of them could hear it. Did enforcer demons have better hearing, or was that a myth?

“Put that ridiculous wand down,” Dread growled at the enforcers, who hesitated with the wand raised in front of them.

“Sorry Captain, it’s protocol…” started one.

She heard Dread growl out a reply, but she didn’t comprehend it. She was too busy having another freak out over what the security demon said. Captain. Whatever he said caused the demons to put down the wand and wave them through. She followed him, her eyes roving over the back of his head, trying to make sense of it.

He was an older demon. He was an enforcer. He was the fucking captain of the enforcers!

Dread was the widely feared Captain Julian of the enforcers.

She’d heard rumors about him, including that he hated any sort of technology. He was old enough to remember days without computers or detection systems. It clashed horribly with the image she usually had of him, burrowed deeply into his computer and creating a ragtag portal system for anyone who paid enough to use.

Cass tried to clear her thoughts as she followed him through the building. He moved with such assuredness that no one stopped him, and no one questioned what he was doing there. Well, that and he was the captain, so why would anyone?

They finally met resistance after they’d gone through a few hallways and were in front of a large door, which was guarded by two other enforcer demons.

“Captain,” said one, suddenly straightening.

“Let me through,” he told the one on the right, waving his hand.

“We have orders…”

“So do I,” Dread cut them off. He looked between the two of them slowly, his eyes narrowed. “I heard that you let someone visit the prisoner the other day, is this true?” he pressed.

The demons nodded. “She had permission from someone higher up, it was only for a few minutes…”

“Did you do a sweep to ensure there were no enchantments left behind?” Dread barked.

Even Cass wanted to jump at his tone, feeling like she was being punished even though he wasn’t talking to her.