Bryce

It took a considerable amount of effort, but I stood. Trying to negotiate in my current position would be a worse case scenario. I needed to heal first, then when I made a deal with Thea, I could do it from a position of power. Or, worst case, I could just banish her back to the lower planes.

“You’ll have to escort me to the med-lab. Once I’m healed up, we can talk through the specifics. As I am now, there’s no way for me to cast the series of spells required to form the pact.”

I limped towards the door. My heart raced as I turned my back on the demon. In order for my plan to work, she needed to follow me without arguing.

The idea of her killing me with my back turned only briefly crossed my mind. It’s not that I wasn’t worried about it. I was terrified.

It’s just that I would have no recourse. It was a completely unwinnable scenario and therefore wasn’t worth considering.

“Hah! Good one! You’re funny, you know that? I’m not gonna let you heal up and get your magic back before we talk about this pact.”

Well, shit. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy.

I slowly turned back towards her. My vision was darkening around the corners, so I was trying to keep my movement to a minimum.

“Like I said, without access to my magic, I can’t create the pact. There’s no point in talking through the details until I get my magic back. Which means I’m going to need to get healed first.”

Thea shrugged dramatically. “Yeah, that’s a good point. If you couldn’t form the pact, then there really would be no reason to discuss it now. I mean, no matter what we decided here, you could just change your mind later and I wouldn’t be able to do shit about it.”

She didn’t believe me. She had told Ava earlier that she could tell I had been cut off from my magic. So, why didn’t she believe me now?

“If that’s the case, then wouldn’t it be better for us both to act in good faith right now?” I asked. “Once I’m healed, we can take all the time we need to get through the specifics of the pact and come up with something we’re both happy with.”

“Sure, except you’re lying about not being able to create the pact.”

I froze. My thoughts raced as my heart rate spiked. Thea didn’t move to attack me, which was a good sign. She just stood there unmoving, with a half-grin on her face.

She hadn’t sounded like she was accusing me of anything. She just stated it as a fact. I was lying.

How did she know? She already said that she wasn’t skilled enough with magic to get back to Hades. That didn’t mean she was entirely unskilled, but I had taken it to mean she hadn’t studied it.

Even if she had studied magic, she didn’t offer to create the pact herself. Which means she somehow realized that I had thought of a way to do it without my magic.

I must have taken too long to respond, because Thea’s half grin turned to a cocky smirk.

“Have a seat. You’re pretty bad off, and we’re not going anywhere until we deal with this.”

I sighed before returning to where I started, sitting against the wall across from her.

Okay, plan B, I had to try to reason with the demon.

“Alright, what’s your offer?” I asked.

“It’s not like I enjoy watching you suffer like this, so I’ll make it easy on you.” Thea held up her hand and started counting off on her fingers. “First, standard pact rules, you won’t hurt me, I won’t hurt you. But none of that ordering around business. I’m not your slave. Second, once you’re all patched up, then I have free rein in the mortal plane. I’m not sticking around you like some sort of sick puppy. Oh! But once I’m done here, you’ll come get me and send me back to Hades. Finally, I want half of your maximum mana.”

I stared at her as the room fell into silence. I kept staring at her and had absolutely no intention of even acknowledging the absurdity of her offer.

The standard pact rules were fine. In fact, they were vital. Creating a pact with anybody would nearly always include some sort of nonaggression agreement.

It was everything else she was asking for that was a problem.

I was already in enough trouble with the federation government. There’s no way in all the hells I was going to release a demon into the network with no supervision and no way to stop her from going on a killing spree. Not when my mana signature would be all over her.

Sending her back to Hades after it was all done was fine, except I would have to hunt her down from gods know where in order to do it. Not to mention how in the hells would I even know she was ready to go back? And how would I be able to get to her?

I was an indentured worker. Assuming I even still had a job after this failed coup attempt was all over, I couldn’t just get up and hunt down a rogue demon so that I could give her a ride home.

And besides all of that, there was one last massive problem with her proposal.

“What’s wrong?” Thea asked. “I think that I’m being more than reasonable. We both know that without me, you’ll die.”

“Two things. First, I’m not unleashing a rogue demon out into the network so she can go on a killing spree.” Thea scoffed at that, but I continued. “And second, half of my mana is too much.”

“I’m a devil, not a demon, and I wouldn’t go on a killing spree. Probably just find a bar or someplace to hang out for a decade or two.” Thea thought for a moment before deflating a little. “If you’re that worried about me killing people, we can add a stipulation for that, but I’m not budging on the mana. Half of your maximum is nothing compared to your life and if I’m stuck on the mortal plane, then I’m at least going to get something out of it.”

“Half of my mana is too much because if I gave you that much, it would kill you.”

That certainly seemed to get her attention. Thea shot up and stared at me wide eyed.

“Oh shit. You’re serious, aren’t you? I can see your mana reserve and sure it’s a lot, but it’s not ‘overload my core and wipe me out of existence’ amounts.”

I couldn’t help a smirk at that. I had assumed that she could judge my power level based on her conversation with Ava, but I didn’t realize she could actually see the amount of mana I had available.

I also suspected that she could detect when I was lying. I just wasn’t sure how she was doing it. Maybe it was a demon thing? Regardless, it was probably a good thing. I hadn’t been sure that I could convince her I was telling her the truth about my mana reserves.

“This morning, Ava, the woman that you so kindly put out of our misery, poisoned me with a lethal dose of mage’s bane. It’s tearing through my meridians as we speak and I’m having to devote nearly every ounce of mana that I can produce towards rebuilding and rerouting the poison away from my core. If you’re detecting my current mana levels, that means you can see a little under seven percent of my maximum.”

The demon just stared, slack jawed. I resisted the urge to laugh, instead I focused on the wildfire that was raging uncontrolled inside of me.

I must have lost some time, because when Thea spoke again, she had repositioned herself to sit on one of the dead dolls. She wore a contemplative expression instead of her usual cocky one.

“That changes things, I think. Okay, what’s your counter offer?”

It seemed like she was finally taking this seriously, which I appreciated, and I wanted to return the favor.

Besides, if she could detect when I was being less-than-truthful, then there was no reason to try to hide anything from her. It was time for both of us to put all of our cards on the table.

“First, I want an honest answer. Why don’t you want to return to the hells?” This information was vital. I was under no illusion that I could control her and if she was only wanting to stick around for some fun, then that could mean real trouble for me. But if she really had a powerful motivation to be here, then maybe I could use that.

Thea watched me for a moment. It felt like she was sizing me up, determining how much she could trust me. Or maybe just considering how much trouble I was worth.

Hells, she could have just been trying to figure out the easiest way to dispose of my body. My vision was getting worse, and that was making it difficult for me to read her expressions.

“I got lucky, I mean with the whole getting summoned thing. I had upset a lich along with a few demons who don’t forgive easy and never forget. If I had stuck around for even a few moments longer, I wouldn’t have made it out of there alive.”

“So you’re wanting to hide on the mortal plane for a bit while they cool down?” I asked. That didn’t sound like a good plan. Actually, it sounded crazy dangerous to me.

I had never met a lich before, but I had read about them and I wasn’t super excited about harboring somebody who made one of them their enemy.

Not that it mattered all that much. I really only had one option and there she was, treating a corpse like a chair.

“Yeah, that’s basically it.” Her posture melted with the admission and her long ears wilted in a way that was incredibly elf-like. The whole thing reminded me of one of my exes in a way that was strangely endearing.

I couldn’t help but think of the little demon as cute and in need of rescue. I would one hundred percent be blaming my libido right alongside my sorry physical state for what happened next.

“We can start at five percent. Once your body gets accustomed to that, then we can talk about adding more. Basic safety contract, no additional privileges and either of us can cancel the pact. In exchange, you help me get safely planet-side and we can renegotiate. I’ll even throw in a clause stating that we will do future negotiations on equal terms, without coercion.”

Thea looked up from her sulking, her pitch black eyes open wide in surprise. “Wait, seriously? Yeah, okay. That seems pretty fair to me. Want me to write up the contract?”

“Don’t bother. I’ve already got the spell prepared. Do you still have that soul fragment from the dolls? Hand it here.”

Thea reached out a hand and a floating crystalline structure materialized above her palm. I forced a fragment of my will through it, causing the shard to shatter into particles of mana and rush towards my outstretched finger.

It took all of my will to not just absorb the mana and use it to fight off the mage’s bane coursing through my body. Instead, I forced it into the spell formation that I held in my head.

A semi-corporeal scroll appeared in front of me and I had to fight back a wave of dizziness in order to read it.

Something about the contract nagged at me, but I couldn’t figure out exactly what. Instead of trying to nitpick the wording, I push the scroll over towards Thea. Hopefully, she’d be able to catch any major fuckups.

“Read over that and ensure it’s all correct. Usually, I’m pretty good with contract magic, but you’ll understand if I’m not at my best right now. If it’s all in order, then sign it with mana or blood, either should work.”

I coughed again. There was enough blood to flow out of my hand and down my forearm. I wouldn’t last like this.

“It looks good, your turn.”

I didn’t bother to reread the contract. Instead, I placed my bloody hand on the lower portion of the scroll, causing it to burst into illusory flames.

Thea shot me a questioning look.

“I love a bit of showmanship but, all things considered, that felt like a waste.”

“It’s the same spell I use for corporate contracts… intimidates suppliers… shows… I mean…”

Thea caught me as I fell forward. Pain flared before my body went completely numb and my vision faded to black.