Kissing the Demon (Seoksoo)

Joshua

Deadly silence followed Anya's statement.

"You can't be serious?" Soonyoung sputtered eventually, his face as dumbfounded as the rest of us.

"I would never joke about something like this," Anya said grimly. "Over the last century, we've felt the balance between good and evil shifting. Sin now runs rampant through society, overwhelming Heaven's influence."

"How is that a bad thing?" Soonyoung asked. Look, we might be good guys, but we were still demons. Without sin, we would have no powers.

Her gaze flickered to Soonyoung, unruffled. But the other mages shifted in their seats, exchanging frowns and whispers at his comment. "Because when there's an imbalance, it throws off the natural order of things. Our powers have been...changing. Becoming more volatile."

"I neglect to see how that is our problem," Vernon said.

"It will become your problem when it begins to affect you," Anya said. "We aren't the only supes affected. I've been approached by witches, shifters, and even a siren. Everyone can feel a shift in the cosmos—one that means change for us all."

Blaise shuffled in his seat before glancing sideways at her. I ran my eyes over all the other mages before addressing Anya. "What aren't you telling us?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Well, while you could present a masterclass in keeping your shit locked down, the same can't be said for your friends. The girl behind you looks like she's about to faint. The guy beside her started trembling as soon as you spoke about the balance shifting, and the floor is now shaking slightly. Probably thanks to matey on the end down there." I gestured to each of them as I spoke, ignoring Soonyoung's chuckle at the perplexed expression on the mages' faces. "And the less said about Blaise, the better."

The floor stopped shaking as Anya shot a glare at the guy at the end, who wore a sheepish expression. With a sigh, she turned back to me. "I see I've underestimated you."

I shot her a winning grin. "Happens all the time." I let the grin slide into something all the more sinister. "Now, why don't you cut through all the bullshit and tell us why you really want the key?"

She bit her lip. When she didn't answer, Blaise spoke in a rough voice. "They are taking mages."

"Who?" Vernon barked as the rest of us tensed. Next to demons, mages held a considerable amount of power when it came to shielding and defensive magic.

"Something we've never seen before," he said, his eyes darkening. "We first heard about it a century ago. A clan in Jersey reached out to us to say one of their water mages had been taken. Then, a few years later, two vanished from a clan in Scotland."

"Water, again?" Vernon asked.

"No, earth and wind." Anya supplied, her brows drawn in a frown. "It continued every few years but never often enough to raise any real concern until several months ago. All of a sudden, there was a burst of disappearances. Barely a week goes by without hearing of another mage going missing. There seems to be no pattern to their designations, but the way they are taken is always the same. They vanished in their sleep with no sign of a struggle. We knew it was only a matter of time before they came for us."

"And now they have?" Vernon asked.

Anya swallowed, and Blaise spoke for her again. "They've taken Willow."

I exchanged a worried glance with my brothers. Next to Anya, Willow was the most powerful mage born in centuries. If someone was able to kidnap her, it meant they were not to be fucked with. "When?"