The Devil's Tail - The Devil Chronicles Book One - ROUGH DRAFT

Chapter Twenty-Four

Shkeesha paced the hospital waiting room as Daniel ticked away on his phone. "Your girlfriend is a fucking psycho."

"Oh, here we go," he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Really!? What did she think tagging along and getting us all in trouble? We should be out there getting the Crown."

"Last I figured, she was helping you get it – counter to my own efforts toward the Crown. So, I think you owe a lot to her. Cut her some slack. How would you feel if everything in your life suddenly changed one day –"

"It didn't," Shkeesha screamed. More eyes turned to her. As if there weren't enough cowering glances directed to her already - with her antlers bobbing along to every sway. She reconciled herself. "It didn't change for her. She pushed her way in –"

"Then you accepted her. You accepted any advances she made, despite the obvious drawbacks that'll happen later down the line. The warning signs were there, but you pushed forward, gave her the material necessary and all the information she needed. And?"

"And she fucked it up."

"Wrong answer." He stood by Shkeesha's side as she ragged her hands through her shirt. "She had no control over her circumstances, no say into being born Evian. Human, through and through. Yet, the unfortunate chance accident that Devils were around her. We all have social circles and they happen to overlap with one person or two every now and then. Marty's circle exploded and shattered," he sighed, "because we were there. We entered into her life as Devils, thus connecting her – to our world. The Devil Cycle, Society, and all. Whether we like it or not, she happens to be an Evian who knows about us and who works alongside us. She didn't mess anything up. It was the fact that our worlds are so different, to begin with that they couldn't consolidate for one another right away."

She released the one dread she was fiddling between her fingers, then gazed up at the brightly lit fluorescent ceiling to meet his face. "Did any of that make any sense to you when you were saying it?"

He sighed deeply, throwing his head back and falling into the nearby chair. "Never mind."

Shkeesha looked ahead at the automatic doors with her hands clasped together, tapping her chin. After a moment, she spoke again, "Did you do it?"

He lifted his head. "Do what?"

"Nevermind. You wouldn't have it in you." She tucked a strand behind her ear, cocking her head back to the younger teen. "Did you even study your sigils?"

A chill ran down his spine. "Hey! Those are harder than pre-cal! You can't expect a ten-year-old to be able to read, transcribe, and not to mention- cast sigils!

"Yeah, you didn't do it."

"Oh," he tucked his hands into his lap. "Marty's Mark. Honestly, I thought I did at first. We had been together for almost two years, so if a Devil's Mark appeared because of proximity – how could I not feel at fault? But Levi showed up. I – to be honest, I couldn't feel it. I couldn't feel either of you. There's supposed to be a little -twinge- " he sprang his index finger into the air and giggled "- like creepy crawlies all over your body or a soda bubbling with Pop Rocks. You're supposed to feel it, but ... it felt so weak that I didn't even notice at first." He threw his head back.

"We're not weak, you know."

"Oh, I know. But after a while, when your powers lay dormant –" he paused. "How does it even come back to you? You can't just practice tricks where you just left off. Like, you have to go brush up on the basics again, like when you're studying for a subject after you haven't been in that class for months. Jumping right back in is foolish –"