AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hmmm, we’ll have to keep an eye on that and see if it happens again. Make a note of what’s happening around you when you glow, Diana.” I went inside the green house and took out an empty terracotta flower pot. “I want you to try to make the pot levitate. Then try to move it to the ground behind me.” After a few minutes of concentration, the pot stayed still.
Then I had an idea. “Try to freeze it when I throw it in the air.”
I reigned in my strength, gently tossing the pot high enough in the air that she could track it coming down. She waved her hand, and it momentarily froze before crashing to the ground and smashing. Bash picked a blunt piece up.
“Can I throw it at you, Birdie? I’ll make sure not to hurt you.”
“Yeah, try that. I only froze those critters at The Cellar because I was scared. Maybe I need to have an actual threat to do magic.”
He sped backwards a few hundred feet, and pitched it at her like he was throwing a softball. She froze it in mid air when it was about a yard away from her.
“So your powers are heightened when you experience sharp emotions, like fear,” I commented. “Magic is like a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets. We’ll train you to be able to flex it.”
That was an awful dad joke,Bash linked me.
You all keep calling me Daddy, what did you expect?I scoffed.
We ran more tests, including measuring her magical combat skills. The blasts she hit Ares and Bash with were impressive. For someone who had no magic less than a week ago, the force of her magic surpassed fully trained witches and warlocks. After some cultivation and training, her magic could rival ours.
A shrill beep sounded from my pocket, and I dug my phone out. A text from one of the club managers bannered across the screen, something about a patron harassing one of the dancers.
“We have to cut this short,” I sighed. “There’s an issue at Bounce that needs to be handled.”
“Bash and I can get changed and handle it,” Ares offered. “You still have hours until dinner to educate our star pupil. Send us the information, and we’ll update you.”
When they faded away to put their suits on, I realized that I was alone with Diana. Her blue eyes peered up at me, and she threw me a wicked smirk. I had killed ruthless political figures, criminals, magical traffickers, and traitors. I even made an angel fall from grace, which for them was basically death. But for some reason, a twenty-two-year old witch made me uneasy.
"So how do you know so much about witches, considering you're a demon?"
"I'm actually half warlock," I corrected her. "My mother was a witch, and my father is a high-ranking demon. Long story short, he found her one night and knocked her up, then left. I didn't meet him until I was older." I hated talking about my family and was desperate to change the subject.
"How old are you?" she asked. "And how does being half warlock and half demon influence your magic?" Her curiosity knew no bounds, apparently. Hopefully she would apply that thirst for knowledge to her actual studies.
"I was born in 1105… not a great time to be a supernatural being. I spent a lot of time with King Arthur so I was protected from the witch hunts of the day." Thinking about the past made me chuckle. The ignorance of the Middle Ages was comical if you ignored the rampant death it caused. "In my opinion, it makes me more powerful, although there are demon purists who would disagree. I have demonic powers, but because I'm half warlock, I’ve mastered witch-specific powers like necromancy, anthropomancy, alchemy, and chaos conjuring."
Her curiosity was insatiable. I could see a million questions forming in her brain, the wheels spinning out of control. It didn't surprise me that she had planned to attend law school. Her mental sharpness would have done her well in a courtroom.
"I know what necromancy and alchemy are from books, but I haven't heard of the other things. There's so much I don't know." Her face fell, her eyes spacing out into the distance.
"Sometimes our fate is chosen for us. It rains down, soaking us to the bone. You're already wet, Di, you may as well learn how to swim. You need to or else you’ll drown.” I couldn’t help but consider how she felt. She knew next to nothing, and she didn’t choose this life. I didn’t regret my choice to take her–we needed her to free ourselves from this Hell on earth we’d been living–but we did her a favor by saving her.
After a minute, she slid on a firm mask of determination. “Desmond, if my entire life has to change so I can survive, I want to be the best. I want to learn everything I can so the sacrifice is worth it."
Somehow I found myself closer to her, our shoes touching. I ran my hand up her arm, feeling the warmth of her skin. My fingertips passed over her collarbone, lightly wrapping around the back of her neck. She peered up at me from underneath her long lashes, with questioning eyes.Please, don’t ask me to kiss you. I can’t.
“Then you need to let me take control. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you the best. I’ll work you until you’re broken, then build you into something fierce, someone dangerous and deadly enough to end the Devil himself.” Her rich, rosy scent intoxicated me, and I felt surrounded by her. I wasn’t sure how long I could hold up the crumbling walls I used to keep her out.
Her bow shaped lips parted as she sucked in a shallow breath. They were so close. All I'd have to do was capture them with mine to feel how pliable they would be, how velvety soft her mouth would feel as I slid my tongue inside. I squeezed her neck, trying to hold onto her as firmly as I could.This shouldn’t be happening right now. I should let the moment slip away.But I couldn’t. I leaned down until our foreheads touched. If I moved the slightest bit, those lips would be mine…
But I couldn't do it. As badly as I wanted her, I couldn't cross that line. I stepped away from her to put space between us. Her wistful sigh spoke volumes, and she’d have to stay disappointed. The mission would always come first.
Desmond and I were so absorbed in our studies that we barely touched the sandwiches and fresh guacamole and chips–which I'm sure were via Ares’ request–for lunch. We ran magical drills for over two hours. He taught me how to aim and shape magical energy for combat. The magic wouldn't actually form real lassos or daggers, but it would manipulate the magic to assault the target like those weapons would. I tried to shape my energy into a sword, but couldn't quite get the hang of it.
Everything about magic, from casting spells to its history and sociology, fascinated me. The Underworld was actually formed and ranked like a hierarchy. That's why there were circles of Hell. There were so many ways to conjure magic and every magical being had to recharge in some way. Incubi like Sebastian recharged via the lust that came from sexual activity. For witches, we just had to get adequate sleep and stay relatively healthy, since we were mortal. For hellbounds like Malcolm, it was feeding off negative emotions, such as fear and sadness. I'd have to make a note not to rise to his bait in the future. I'd rather have him magically starved than contribute to his existence.
As the hours wore on, Desmond did just as he said he would. He spent hours breaking me down, making me repeat the same drills over and over again until it became annoying. He had a fuzzy, lime colored tennis ball that he'd throw in the air, make me freeze, and send back to him, like I was his pet and we were playing fetch. Every time I succeeded, he'd saygood girlor pat me on the head and smile. That condescending prick even had the balls to sayGet the ball, Dianabefore he threw it. The third time he said it, I got so annoyed that instead of freezing it, I swished my hand toward him, lobbing the ball directly into his face.
He pressed his lips together and his entire body tensed. Someone lost his sense of humor when he was the butt of the joke.
