Chapter Seventeen
Esmeray
I didn’t think I’d make it another day in the place, alone in quiet, visited by Gre every other day. We couldn’t have sex, couldn’t kiss or touch save for fingertips through small holes in plexiglass. My only company was my babe and Ausmius who grew weaker by the day, separated from me.
My father sent word that he promised he’d have me out, but Malarthe wasn’t making his demands known quite yet and motioned to extend the court date for further investigation and discovery.
They’d taken an amniotic fluid sample to test his claims of paternity but, of course, Malarthe refused to submit a sample.
Gre had submitted a sample, too, to push his claim.
The child was his, after all, but, as a hybrid, his blood needed far more time and an aura sample to prove…
and an aura on a babe couldn’t be tested until birth.
At least they’d be able to prove the giraffe part.
I held my belly in quiet contemplation and relished the sensation of my child moving within.
I’d missed several doctor’s appointments, so I couldn’t even know my child’s gender.
Demonic pregnancies, according to incarceration standards, didn’t need prenatal care, so even then, I couldn’t get any additional care.
Never in my life had I wanted to be in my childhood bed more than at that moment.
For me, this was hell.
Greginald
I sat in Draevus’s office with Bellard Bellend Beaumont and a representative of The Church, my chair on my father-in-law’s side of the desk for once.
“This is extortion.” Draevus hissed as Beaumont propped his feet up on the end of Draevus’s desk.
“Call it what you like. It’s negotiations. Gre converts to Singulatarianism and rejects his goddesses and the deic realm. We take a minimal settlement and we drop the accusations.” Beaumont slicked his hair back and grinned, not even showing the decency of looking at us.
“One does not revoke the goddesses without damning themselves.” I stared fiercely.
“Well, your father-in-law here can secure you a nice little toasty pit right next to mine.” Beaumont smacked loudly over a piece of gum as the pious troglodyte next to him grinned, smarm clearly written over his face as if they’d won.
I glanced at Draevus who shook his head once.
A plan began to toil in my mind. Death had gotten me into this situation with Esmeray.
Death might be a way to get myself out. I glanced down at Ausmius who boiled at my feet, smaller than he’d been in a while.
Stripping myself of my magic very well might strip Esmeray of his blessings and cost him his life.
I knocked a pencil and paper to the floor and, beneath the desk, waved a finger for an animus spell to write. Words scrawled over it as I maintained eye contact with the religious nut and his pet lawyer.
“So, did they promise you an extra nice heated rock in your terrarium for this?” I sneered at the lawyer, who snorted.
“Nice jab coming from a mongrim.” Beaumont popped a bubble as the pen flitted and flicked.
“I will be stripping myself of all my power,” I said, clenching my fists atop the desk as I kept the back of my mind on that letter. Ausmius swirled around me, tendrils crawling up the wall and over my chair. I felt them as much as saw them.
“That’s the point. We don’t want you in The Church, just out of our way,” the cleric said. “Leave you powerless until death. How is your mate faring? Our connections in the prison say he’s losing his grip.”
Death had gotten me into this, but death was a way out, though, too. The comment he’d made was a threat, and if my mate died…I didn’t know what I would do.
“I want paperwork drawn up. I want yours, Malarthe’s, and your cleric’s authority on behalf of The Church.
I will nullify my powers, strip them from this plane at once.
You must agree to immediately drop all charges against the entirety of the Lowell Valley Coven, including myself and Mage Atwood.
You must agree to never threaten or pursue legal action against us again.
My mate must immediately be released with full dismissal of charges.
That judge is in your pocket, and I know he will write the order dead of night if you demand.
” I clenched the edge of the desk as Draevus glanced over, and I nodded sharply.
“Draevus, please write this up as spoken. And Malarthe Lymmings is to be deemed a vexatious litigant and never to seek suit again without two judges’ approvals. ”
“Done,” the cleric said immediately.
Beaumont glanced from him to us and narrowed his gaze. He should have known better than to negotiate with a demon. A tendril of Ausmius wrapped my waist, climbing higher up my body.
Draevus typed with whirlwind speed and read as he did so, adding a few clauses here and there that I approved of.
Beaumont seemed to be following and nodded as well.
He hit print, and they read the paper together once more as Draevus cast demonic magic over the document and produced a blade-tipped quill. “In blood.”
“Ordinarily, our god does not approve of signing a contract in blood, but this is on behalf of our greater good.” The cleric pricked his finger and signed, as did Beaumont, who signed with authority for Malarthe as they patched him in for a phone call.
I pricked my finger and signed, tensing as my power burned under my skin. I had rejected their blessings on paper, but only two things could strip a mage of his power on the mortal plane.
Revocation of my deities.
Or death.
I closed my eyes as Ausmius wrapped a tendril around my neck and whipped it across my throat with a violent slash not unlike the death Esmeray had been given.
It barely hurt.
Clean, sharp, and the horrified looks on Beaumont and the cleric’s face made my day.
“S-suck it.” I choked over fluid that I refused to look at, which conveniently became impossible as my vision whited out.