That Old Black Magic

She actually laughed at that. “You think that’s all this is? Just some horny witch who needs to get it on with the closest available demon ASAP?”

“Is it?”

“Oh, yes. You’re just that irresistible that suddenly I can’t control myself. I need you, I want you, I have to have you.”

He mock-glared at her. “Sarcasm is not necessary. I’m very sensitive lately, you know.”

A smile tugged at her lips. “Who says I’m being sarcastic? I do need you. I do want you. And I do have to have you. Desperately.”

He leveled his gaze with hers. “The feeling is entirely mutual, but I’m not sure about this.”

She didn’t want to argue. She didn’t want everything to be a struggle between them. “He seemed to think there was only one other solution if this doesn’t work, Darrak, and I don’t want you to even think about that. Ever. If I can remove the spell, then I might be able to remove the curse. Problem solved.”

He studied her for a moment. “Just because he said it doesn’t make it true.”

Eden wrung her hands. “Don’t you want to be free again? You could have your own body all the time, not just during the day. No more possessing me, no more feeding off my celestial energy. You’d be free to do whatever you want, go wherever you want.”

Darrak was silent for a moment. “What if I don’t want to go anywhere but here?”

Her heart skipped a beat. “Then… well, that would be your choice. But at least you’d have a choice.”

His expression turned thoughtful. “What if this doesn’t work? What if he was wrong and your and Selina’s magical signatures are not identical?”

“Then we’ll figure something else out. But we won’t know unless we try.”

The alternative hung between them like a dark, bottomless pool. She’d resolved herself to having Darrak possess her indefinitely, but according to Maksim, if he was the root cause of her pain, of her erratic black magic, then their days were numbered.

Much like the oncoming bright lights of a truck in the opposite lane, this possibility was too painful to look at directly.

This had to work.

“Come on, Darrak.” She pushed a confident smile onto her face. “This isn’t like you. I’m usually the cautious one, remember? Aren’t you a gambler? Somebody who’s willing to take a chance, roll the dice for a shot at the jackpot?”

His expression didn’t change. “Not at the risk of your immediate safety.”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing this isn’t entirely your decision. Because this is happening. Right now.

“Eden—”

“Shhh. I need to concentrate.” She sat down on the edge of her desk. “You can either help or you can get out of my way. What’ll it be, demon?” She squeezed her eyes shut.

Darrak approached and gently grasped her wrist. She opened her eyes to look at him warily.

“I’ll help,” he said, although he didn’t look happy about it.

“Good. So I’m open to suggestion at the moment. I haven’t exactly done anything like this before.”

His handsome face was now set in grim lines. “Okay, well, look at it this way. The spell Selina cast on me when she summoned me out of Hell should still be on me, kind of like a residue. It will be nearly impossible to detect by your average everyday magical practitioner, but it would have remained on the surface. That’s the sign of a spell. A curse is deeper, like rust. A spell is more like a light coating of paint.”

“Magic for Dummies,” Eden murmured.

“Present company excepted. If you share Selina’s magic, you’ll be able to clearly see the spell, and you may be able to focus on it enough to remove it. But don’t delve too deeply into the black magic for this. It’s not worth it.”

She couldn’t disagree with him more. This would be the solid proof of whether her future was bright or dark. It was something she didn’t think would even be possible, so she didn’t want to get her hopes up. But there they were — hopes up high.

“I can’t see anything.” She scanned his body as he took hold of her other wrist as well.

He grinned a little. “Well, no. Not with your eyes open. Human eyes are not the best things with which to see true magic.”

“Then what do I use?”

“Your soul. And you can best access that sight with your eyes closed. Magic 101, Eden. Class is now in session.”

Learn something new every day. “So how do demons and other non-souled entities do magic if they don’t have souls?”

“We don’t do the same sort of magic as witches and wizards. It’s very complicated stuff, trust me.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it.” She exhaled and closed her eyes.

“See past the darkness. I’m touching you, so you should be able to sense me a bit easier on that level. To see me.”

He was right. With enough concentration she did see him. He looked different at that level of perception — not like a human form with two legs, two arms — more like a metaphysical presence, but it was still Darrak. She would recognize him anywhere. He was a warm presence who held her anchored to the real world.

“Do you see me?” he asked.

“Yes.” She saw shapes and colors shifting together and pulling apart, sort of like what it might be like to swim inside a gigantic lava lamp filled with black water.

“And what about the spell?”

She focused harder, and it felt as if she slipped down another level or two — as if she was in a high-rise apartment and the elevator had sunk down a couple of floors in the lava lamp world. Everything deepened and became more dimensional. She felt pressure — a force that pushed against her on all sides. She concentrated on the being that was Darrak. His form contained equal parts of light and dark — two separate pieces butting up against each other every few seconds like bumper cars at an amusement park.

He didn’t feel that light inside of him, she thought, but it was very bright. As bright as the darkness was dark. It was his celestial side, growing brighter every time he absorbed her endless supply of celestial energy. It fed him, kept him from fading away, allowed him to take form when for hundreds of years he’d been stuck bodiless and needed to possess humans. He’d absorbed humanity from those humans, even the nasty ones. He’d developed stronger emotions than what he’d had as an archdemon. He’d developed a sense of right and wrong. It hadn’t been a conscious decision, and perhaps he’d always had that sense, but he’d sided with the darkness before. He hadn’t been able to feel empathy, sympathy, worry, or compassion. Seeing him like this, the proof before her very eyes that he was changed, was a powerful thing to witness and it made her throat thicken with emotion.

He was different now and he’d never go back to how he’d been before, even if he wanted to. What had changed him hadn’t been a spell. It hadn’t been a curse. Those things had propelled him in this direction, but it wasn’t who he was at a core level.

This — darkness and light combined — it was Darrak. And it was there because of her. No demon had ever been infused with celestial energy before. It was like an experiment gone wrong. Or right, depending on how you looked at it.

Eden worried that when Darrak learned of this it would shake his sense of self and his confidence even more than it already had. Darrak liked being a demon. Sure, he’d made his peace with being a demon who had a little humanity to deal with. But being told he was now part angel…

He wouldn’t be happy about that at all.

That was something to worry about another day.

She focused on the task at hand instead. “I can see it — I think I can see it. The spell.”

“What does it look like?” he asked cautiously.

“Like a film — a transparent film that coats your entire being. It shimmers and moves and it… it feels like pure power. Like you’re coated in a perfume of power.”

“Does it have a scent?”

She inhaled. “It smells like… hmm. It smells really good.”