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I giggle at the mental image of Kamran, Aistan, Samsher, and Arman as children, sitting in a classroom full of little incubi and succubi, taking the demonic equivalent of an English exam.
“Are the books helpful?” He asks as He thumbs through the timeworn pages.
“Oh, yeah! I understand a lot more after reading all these.” I summon a napkin for my greasy hands and wipe them off before using projected flames to write my name in the air in infernal. “See? I can even ‘sign’ my name!”
Az’s eyebrows shoot up. “Impressive. Translating names from English to infernal is quite tricky, but you got the sigils correct. Perfect.”
I beam at the praise. It’s one thing to teach myself, but it’s another to have an expert validate what I’ve learned. “Yeah, there’s not really a sigil for the double L, but I improvised. Kind of ironic, considering Hell has two Ls.”
He laughs. “Indeed. Well, that is exactly how one would ‘improvise’ a sigil for double Ls. Good job.”
I pick up a fry and nibble as the joy of success is stomped down by the reality of why I’m studying. “How are things on the outside? I heard more fireballs going off last night, and more screams than usual. Is everyone okay?”
Az sighs and grabs some fries of His own, dipping them in the blob of ketchup on the plate. “No lives lost on our side, but several injuries. Arman came to heal them. He says that Lena is growing suspicious with his frequent disappearances to shift down here and help. He’s not sure how much longer he can keep lying to her.”
“Ugh. That’s going to be a shitshow when she finds out. We’ve gotta do something fast, head her off at the pass.”
“I would take this fight to My Brother, but I seem to recall a certain young lady who forbade me from doing just that.” He winks at me as He eats his fries, and I swear, I never knew French fries could be so damned sexy. A little dab of ketchup clings to the corner of His luscious mouth, and on impulse I lean forward to lick it off. Az catches me in a kiss as I do, and for a few glorious minutes, I allow myself to forget all the drama in favor of a hot make-out session. We kiss and grope each other, moaning and moving closer.
When Az moves the plate out of the way and starts tossing books on the floor to make room, I snap out of my horny state and push Him away. “No! I have to study.”
Az rolls His eyes. “For someone who didn’t wish to attend college, you’re quite the studious one.”
I respond by sticking my tongue out at Him. “This benefits You, too, Y’know. The more I learn from these—” I gesture to the discarded books “—the more I can be of help against Leviathan. I’ve already mastered the first through the fifth forms of astral projection, travel, and combat, plus all nine methods of flaying a rival on the fly.”
“All nine, hm?” His lips spread in a deliciously wicked grin, and He grabs my hand. The universe warps around us, and the next thing I know we’re in a new area of Hell, one I haven’t been to yet. I’ve read up on the geography of Hell, though, so the stormy, oily waters of Leviathan’s Domain aren’t too surprising. It would figure Az would take me here for a chance to show Him what I’ve learned from my studies, but I hate that He decided to venture this close to His asshole Brother’s Seat of Power. Just leaving His own Domain is weakening enough, but this?
This is fucking suicide.
“Az …”
He cuts me off with a wave of His hand. “Oh, don’t worry. We’re at the far edge of Leviathan’s Territory. Odds are, he won’t even sense us. Besides, I’ve got us shielded.”
Well, duh. I sensed the shield spell the second He cast it, right before we plane shifted. “I still don’t like this. There are plenty of other places we could’ve gone for a field trip. What about Satan’s Domain? There’s still no new Lord of Wrath, so that zone’s pretty quiet. Plenty of lower- and mid-level wrath demons for me to pick off, but less risk to You.”
“Without a leader, those wrath demons are, as you humans say, easy pickings. Too easy. I want to see how you’ve progressed, and Satan’s Children simply aren’t strong enough or coordinated enough to provide you with much of a challenge right now.”
I put my hands on my hips and give Him my best scowl. “That doesn’t mean You had to take me to the absolute worst place in existence for You to be hanging out.”
Az puffs out His chest in a show of indignation. “It’s the absolute best place for you to train.”
Ugh. He’s not gonna let this one go. “Fine. What kind of demonstration are you looking for? Sneak in and infiltrate, maybe scope out what Your Brother is up to? Or maybe this is a seek and destroy mission, and You want me to sniff out some enemy demons and execute them.”
“The latter will suffice. Nine demons, to be exact: one for each method you’ve learned.”
He wants me to hunt downnineenvy demons and kill them? Not that I have any moral qualms about it—theyaredemons, after all—but each of the methods He’s talking about takes a physical toll on the caster’s body, not to mention the ethereal drain caused by expending so much infernal energy. As a human borrowing demonic energies from the hellscape around me rather than using the innate magic that demons have, I’m at an automatic disadvantage.
I suspect that’s the true point to this exercise. Az doesn’t expect me to succeed. Sure, I’ll be able to take out a few envy demons before draining myself dry, but nine? I’ll be lucky to survive, and that’s assuming I can sneak up on all nine undetected and kill them fast enough that they can’t fight back. One wrong move, one little slip, and I’m definitely dead.
That’s probably Az’s plan. Show me that I can’t handle it, then swoop in to save the day before shifting us back home to His Domain and giving me His best “leave this up to the demons, baby” speech.
Joke’s on Him. I’m a stubborn little brat when I wanna be, and I have a sudden, burning need to prove myself.
“Nine. Got it.”
With that, I draw infernal energy from around me and focus on the spells I learned for invisibility and silence. The constant screams of the damned vanish from my awareness as a cone of power wraps around me, muffling all sound until I can’t even hear my own pulse thrumming in my ears. The sudden deafness is almost maddening, but I can’t stop now. I’ve got to carry through with this, or Az will never trust me to take care of myself down here.
Creeping forward one step at a time, I make my way down an embankment to the edge of the churning waters. Leviathan is known for being a sea serpent kind of dude in His natural form, so even though this is Hell, the water makes sense. Can’t be a very effective sea serpent without, y’know, a sea.
