“Listen, I’ll be the first to admit things got all cocked up here as the centuries passed, but if you do it like this, it could cause riots.”
“Then let them riot,” Sydney said. “No one has ever gotten anyone to stop oppressing them by asking. How many demons have lost the ability to fly because they didn’t have this spell and they aren’t the child of a Prince of Hell to have servants doing everything for them while they heal? Your dumbass brothers need some healthy fear of an angry mob.”
“The thing about angry mobs is that they can’t be controlled. I incited one centuries ago and started witch hunting, which wasn’t my intention.”
“Not your best work,” Lilith said. “Neither was allowing your brothers to hide this spell.”
“Sorry, but why did you and my father go along with this?”
That was the question. I hated everyone unless they gave me a reason to like them, not the other way around. My mother and my siblings were full on Satan fans, so I didn’t exactly like him on principle. That changed alittlewhen I met him, but my opinion was backsliding.
“So, Mammon, Asmodeus, Belphegor, and Beelzebub weren’t warriors, but they are still angels. They could easily smite an entire city of demons if they wanted to. Asmodeus thinks only angels should have wings, but Mammon thinks demons are an affront to the natural order. Belphegor doesn’t have a single original thought in his head and Beelzebub is a bit of a twisted fuck. It was either let them think they had the upper hand or deal with genocide. I know they’ve fucked up and we don’t get along much anymore, but we’re the last of our rebellion and I really don’t want to have to kill any of them.”
Yeah, Satan wasn’t really moving up on my likeability scale. I got what he was saying. He was trauma bonded to those other dicks. He didn’t need to kill them, he just needed to keep them in line. This motherfucker was willing to sacrifice demons’ wings rather than just threaten them a little.
One of these assholes kidnapped Lucifer. They put Sydney and all of Hell in danger.
Because they wouldn’t stand up to them before, we were not at the point where at least one of them was going to have to die.
Felid demons had basic demon magic and mine was pretty strong. I passed my exams with higher marks than some of the upper demons I went the school with. I was fully confident I could handle any new spell thrown at me.
Except this one. It was too important. I could be responsible for Sydney never being able to fly. And this would be posted live, so all of Hell would see it. No one would try this spell on their families and me and my entire family would most likely be executed for maiming the heir to Hell.
“Are you sure you want me to do this? There’s a lot at stake if a fuck it up.”
“I feel like I’m just talking to myself here, but there’s a lot at stake if you get it right too.”
I mean, yeah, we were all ignoring Satan. His brothers were uber dicks who were responsible for a bunch of demons never being able to fly. Satan, Lucifer, and Abaddon decided that was an acceptable payoff to just keeping them in check so they didn’t kill everyone.
This needed to be done. I got the concept of askingmeto do it too. I just didn’t think it should bemedoing the spell.
“The spell tends to work better if there’s a connection, so it can’t be me,” Lilith said. “She has to trust you enough to let your magic in. It’s more than just mental shields, which would be new to her.”
Great. Sydney hadn’t known me long enough to trust me and the woman thought her father abandoned her mother and her ex cheated on her. Yeah, the woman was going to have some trust issues.
“Celix, Idotrust you. There’s something about you, Nero, and even Kujo. If you’re worried about it, Nero can use a little magic on me and we can say in the video that he not only has my permission, but the spellneedshim because I’m an early bloomer and I haven’t been here that long. That should help the incubi and succubae too, right?”
“And enrage my brothers,” Satan muttered.
We needed to be less worried about pissing off a few angels and more worried about Sydney and the majority. With absolutely zero control of her magic, Sydney still managed to kill every threat to us and spare the people she cared about.
Satan really needed to be more worried about who pissed Sydney off. Sydney reached out and squeezed my hand.
“You can do this.”
“Come on, nerd. You know you got this.”
I flipped Nero off. Nero and I weren’t the same age, and we were both older than Kujo, but we were close enough in age that Nero and I were at school at the same time. We weren’t reallyfriends until we got assigned the same job, but we knew of each other. If anyone knew I was a bit of a nerd when it came to magic when I was a younger, it was Nero.
But yeah, Nero and Sydney were the boost I needed. Icoulddo this as long as Lilith laid out the spell. I might not haveextramagic, but I was strong with the basics.
“Let’s do this,” I said.
“Okay, so this spell is similar to how angels heal. You know all magic is about intention. This is the same across all realms. You’re going to send your magic to her wings and will them to strengthen. Sydney is going to have to allow your magic in to do the job. She’s right. She says she trusts all of you, but having an incubus here to relax her should ensure a successful spell. I’ll be on camera explaining everything to all of youandthe audience.”
That sounded super simple. Magicwasabout intention. I had powerful magic, but if someone was on the weaker power scale, they could make up for it by focusing their intention. That meantanyonein Hell could do this spell and no one would have to worry about their wings.
She was still wearing her tank top that set Mammon off. The rest of Hell would find it amusing. Nero got his phone out and so did Kujo. Kujo oddly had a large social media following for someone who only posted about what they hated. And then something happened that would change everything.
