Page 44 of Witch's Exile
"So what's the deal with the witch boy?" Sal's lip curled. "Was your theory correct?"
"Yes." Ash's face hardened into an expressionless mask and he glanced at me with some emotion I couldn't place.
"What do you all look so glum for?" I demanded, turning around to see all three of them looking at me with the same sad puppy eyes. "Ash, what the hell was this theory of yours?"
He nodded at Sal, ignoring my question. "Bring him up here."
As Sal disappeared down the basement stairs, I moved closer to Ash. My stomach twisted into a knot as I wrapped an arm around his waist until he looked at me.
"Angel, why do I have the terrible feeling that this has something to do with me?"
He let out a weary sigh as his arm wrapped around my shoulders. "It does, love. But it's not necessarily bad news." He gave a weak smile. "It's a choice that's entirely up to you."
As if I wasn't confused enough already. I just stared at him in bewilderment until Sal roughly shoved Seth into the kitchen. He blinked under the lights and looked well in need of food and a shower, but not one of us was ready to give him such luxuries yet.
"Are you going to tell everything or should I?" Ash removed his arm from my shoulders and folded them both across his chest. "I know the whole story, so don't even try to act dumb."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Seth muttered but I saw his bravado waver. Ash's power had that effect on people. "I can tell my own damn story."
He turned his stormy gaze to me and I swore my blood pressure shot up right in that moment.
"I'm notexactlya demon in the same sense that you're not, Deja," he began. "Although my history is a bit more convoluted than yours."
My brows pinched in confusion but I waited for him to go on.
"I'm a descendant of Beelzebub. My ancestors were born from one of his trysts with some random human woman thousands of years ago," he said with a flippant wave of his hand. "From there, my lineage is a mixture of incubus, non-magical human, and witch. In the most general sense of the term, I am a witch. But apparently, I'm also something more."
He looked to Ash nervously, almost shyly, who looked to me in turn.
"How much do you know about Beelzebub, love?"
"Not much," I admitted. "I've met him briefly but you and Lucifer are the only ones I really know in the First Hierarchy."
"Right." Ash chewed his lip. "Even when he was an angel with Lucifer and I, he was always a bit odd. After, ah." He began to look incredibly uncomfortable. "After all of us fell, you included, he was apparently jealous of what you and I had. He wanted you for himself."
"Oh-kay." I lifted an eyebrow. "I don't recall ever getting that vibe from him." My memories of Beelzebub were fuzzy at best. Millennia had passed since I last saw or spoke to him. When I did, it was always with Ash and Lucifer present and my attention had been primarily focused on them.
"Honestly, the three of us were infatuated with you." Ash shrugged and allowed a tiny smirk. "Lucifer got over it and thought of you as a daughter eventually. As Hell's ruler, he's always had plenty of humans and succubi to keep him occupied. But supposedly Beelz secretly pined for you for centuries. After adding these two in the mix," he nodded at Raum and Sal. "His jealousy got even worse but he still kept it under wraps."
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "That is flattering I suppose, but what does this have to do with Seth?"
"After your soul became whole again," he continued awkwardly. "We all knew you'd be an adult woman before your memories returned and you came into your power again. He saw your return as a chance to have you to himself, in his weird, only Beelzebub-logic way."
My gaze shifted over to Seth, who looked back at me expressionlessly with those stormy eyes. For the life of me, I couldn't remember what Beelzebub's eyes looked like.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked barely above a whisper.
"Like with witch's magic, the strength of demon abilities doesn't diminish as it gets passed on throughout the generations," Seth explained. For once he sounded normal, not like he was trying to insult me. "It stays constant or in rare occurrences, genetic mutations strengthen abilities or reveal dormant ones that didn't show up in previous generations."
"I still don't understand where this is going." My voice began to tremor. Even with all this information, I didn't know what to expect. But with how grim my guys looked, I was certain I wouldn't like it.
"Through his blood link to Seth," Ash picked up on explaining. "Beelzebub was able to essentially genetically enhance his demon abilities."
"That's a polite way of putting it," Seth snapped, the harsh bite returning to his voice.
"While developing in his mother's womb, Beelz enhanced Seth's innate shadow magic on top of his regular witch powers." Ash licked his lips and looked away from me with a sigh. "He also brought forth and amplified dormant incubus powers."
"Incubus powers?" I repeated. "You mean, like seduction?"
