Bent Out of Shade (Magic After Midlife #6) Paperback

Chapter 1

Given the demon’s smashed-in snout, large ears sprouting dense, bristly hair, and pustules encrusting a flabby crab-shaped body, its anger issues were well warranted. That still didn’t mean I was comfortable with it attacking my kid. Even if it was a practice fight in my ex’s side of our duplex.

“Watch the pincers, Sadie.” Eli Chu, my baby daddy, sat forward on his sofa, his elbows braced on his thighs, as glued to the action as a coach during the finals of the Stanley Cup. Well, a coach who flinched at every scuff imposed on his precious house, endured thanks to this home game, but who concealed his anxiety whenever his star player looked over for encouragement.

Sadie caught her dad’s eye, and Eli flashed her a big thumbs-up.

Today’s evil crustacean foe had come courtesy of Naveen Kumar, our demon wrangler extraordinaire, who presided over the event with all the dignity he could muster, despite clenching his jaw every time Eli flinched. Thanks to a small screw-up involving an angry goth girl and her overly enthusiastic fists, the practice fiend Nav had intended for Sadie to dispatch was no longer an option, so he’d brought this awful crab instead.

Apparently, it was the least lethal one he could get on short notice. I’d tried to call the session off because neither Eli nor I had a basement or rec room in our duplex, our garages were too cramped, and our backyards too exposed for our child to face down a demon with a two-foot leg span. However, here we were, because a certain other parent had broken down in the face of Sadie’s puppy dog eyes and told her it was fine to proceed. I smirked. At least when she’d tried to guilt me into this mess, I’d protested.

The furniture in Eli’s large living room had been pushed to the side, effectively turning this event into theater in the round. Perfect for my drama club daughter.

Behind her, Sadie’s animated shadow poured out enough light to power a solar system. I winced, adjusting the sunglasses Nav had provided us with.

Nav flung the agitated demon toward the corner, wielding his staff made of solid light with the same calm awareness and infallible instincts he brought as leader of our local spawn-killing organization.

The demon skittered over the plastic sheeting on the floor, hissing and seeking an opening.

Eli dug the heels of his palms into his thighs, scrutinizing the tarps for any gap that would lead to his hardwood floor getting injured.

Nav boxed the demon in. “Deep breath, harness the magic, poppet.” His posh British accent was all kinds of charming, though it would have been better if, when he placed a hand on his abdomen in demonstration, his admirable six-pack wasn’t hidden by his shirt.

What? A woman could look.

Sadie did as instructed but her shadow oscillated.

Eli tsked. “You’re going too hard, too fast. Pace yourself.”

Nav arched an eyebrow, a muscle once more ticking in his jaw. “We agreed I was running this session.”

“You are.” Eli didn’t take his eyes off Sadie. “What did I say about tight shoulders?” He shook his out in demonstration. “The more you tense, the more you flare.”

Poor Naveen white-knuckled his weapon while I debated whether the demon or Eli had better odds of surviving.

My daughter flung a lock of lank black hair out of her face. “Daaad.” I swear she rolled her eyes, but as they were jet-black pools—including the sclera—it didn’t land.

It amused the crap out of me, though my grin turned to a gasp as the demon clicked its pincers together twice and they doubled in size, knocking a photo of Eli and Sadie off an end table.

Eli winced. “That was a nice picture.”

“Glass is replaceable.” Nav toed the broken frame closer so it wouldn’t get trampled on, and the demon shot past him, crackling with blue light.

Sadie kicked the evil crab away with a screech, narrowly avoiding having her toes smushed.

“Sades!” I jumped out of the chair, my scythe in hand. One of the many, many perks of being a Banim Shovavim was that my magic could take the form of a sharp and deadly shadow scythe. Extremely good for slicing crabs and defending my child.

Eli had shot to his feet as well, but only to yank an armchair out of demon range.

“Ew! Ew! Ew!” Sadie did a little hopping dance, almost tripping over the large carrier crate infused with magic that the demon had been transported in. “I felt its pus jigglies.”

I sank back into my seat, shooting Eli a warning look over the tops of my sunglasses. He returned it, stroking the top of his armchair entirely unrepentantly.

An electric sizzling sound was followed by the reek of cooking flesh, and Nav yanked his staff out of the demon’s eye. “Stay put, you little bugger.” He ignored the growling monstrosity flailing about with clacking claws and one blazing red eye to frown at his mentee. “Darling, what were our rules? We don’t touch it directly, am I correct?”

Sadie hung her head. “Magic or run.”

For reasons we had yet to confirm but suspected had to do with Sadie being an Ohrist baby carried to term inside her Banim Shovavim mom, my kid’s magic didn’t manifest like normal. My daughter was definitely Ohrist, albeit with rare nulling magic, yet she required an animated shadow to use her powers. That was a Banim Shovavim trick, though ours were normal where Sadie’s was pure bright light.  

Another key difference was that if a demon slashed her shadow, Sadie’s insides wouldn’t ooze out, nor would she feel pain like I did when anything hurt my shadow, Delilah, as we’d learned fifteen minutes ago.

“Your reaction was understandable, but ‘magic or run’ must become instinct,” Nav said. “Unlike your mother, you don’t get injured if your shadow does, so use it for all physical contact.” He bonked the fiend on the top of its head to shut it up. “We’ll double down on those drills.”

“That’s an excellent idea.” I rested my scythe in my lap. “Let’s practice running away.”

Since Sadie’s power and its unique manifestation would never be explained beyond conjecture, Sadie, Eli, and I had decided to focus on her mastering her abilities instead. Running away was top of the list as far as I was concerned.

Eli smoothed out the bunched-up plastic sheeting. “No drills. Nav has enough to do keeping the demon away from the walls.”

Murder in his eyes, Nav swung his staff in my ex’s direction.

I smacked the big dummy, who clearly wanted to never get laid again. “Sadie’s had enough demon exposure for one day.”

Sadie took a few deep breaths, her hands on her belly and her shadow’s brilliance dimming from midday-sun-on-snow to floodlights-on-a-soccer-field-at-night. “Stop helicopter parenting me.”

I wagged a finger at her. “Or ‘Thanks, Mom, for valuing my well-being over that of furniture.’”

“Mir.” Eli draped an arm over my shoulders. “Sadie’s got this.”

She preened at his words. I, however, knocked the traitor’s arm off me.

“Nothing is going to happen to her,” he continued. “Especially if she doesn’t ever touch the damn thing to see if she can null its magic.”

“Oh my God!” Sadie snapped. “You touch it if you want it that badly.”

Nav whistled loudly, shocking the humans into silence and the demon into rearing onto its long hind legs. It swiped a pincer along the mantel, hitting Eli’s framed Canucks’ jersey, which hung in the spot of honor above the fireplace and was signed by his man crush Henrik Sedin and Sedin’s twin brother, Daniel.

The jersey thudded to the ground, the glass shattering.

Eli emitted a half swooning, half guttural cry that was almost operatic in nature, freaking out the demon, whose pincer then caught on the hem of the uniform.

Nav herded the creature away from the jersey. “It’s merely a snag.”

Eli grabbed his prized possession, examined it with laser precision, then clutched it to his chest with a sigh of relief.

“The stupid hockey jersey gets you more upset than the smashed photo of me?” Sadie’s white shadow flickered wildly.

Her dad carefully folded the garment. “I mean, I have lots of wonderful pictures of you, pumpkin.”

I slashed a hand across my throat.

He deflated back into his chair, the jersey out of harm’s way. “Love you, baby girl.”

“You suck!” Her shadow pulsed like a strobe light.

“Breathe, poppet,” Nav drawled. “Let’s try this again.”

I slapped a hand over my sunglasses. “I can’t watch.”

“So you keep saying, and yet you remain,” Nav said.

“Less sarcasm, more demon minding.” I jerked a thumb at him.

“Amen,” Eli said.

Making a snarky face at both of us, Nav herded the demon toward a corner where it bumped into a large planter.

“My ficus,” Eli moaned, earning a huff from our child.

“Yes, darling,” Nav said absently, raking a lock of platinum hair off his brown skin.

Smirking, I nudged my ex, who blushed.

“What happened to not watching?” Eli muttered.

He’d informed me about a week ago that he and Nav were giving a relationship a go. I was thrilled that my gay ex-husband had found bliss with the best friend of the man I was stuck in relationship purgatory with. Would Laurent and I be as entertaining as the two of them? My smile dimmed. Maybe a better question was: would we ever get a chance to go on a date?

Eli pried my fingers off his hockey jersey with a scowl, smoothing out the wrinkles I’d made.

Sadie cracked her neck from side to side. “Okay, hold that chump down, Nav. I’m going in.”

He forced the demon onto its belly, pinning it in place with his staff. “Approach it from the side because its peripheral vision is rubbish.”

The crab-demon broke into a high-pitched, distressed chittering.

While Sadie waved at it like a photographer attempting to get a baby’s attention, her shadow sidled up next to the creature and laid its palm on a cluster of pustules.

Sadie shuddered.

“Gently,” Eli said. “Don’t break them.”

“Or I’ll die a painful death. Yup, I heard Nav the first thirty-seven times he warned me.”

“I don’t want to repaint,” Eli said mildly.

Sadie didn’t appreciate my smothered snicker.

Nav snapped his fingers. “Hush, the pair of you. What do you feel, Sadie?”

She narrowed her eyes. Unlike Delilah, her shadow didn’t have its own vision she could utilize. “A buzzing under its skin.”

“Can you catch its magic with yours?” he asked.

She bit her lip, her face screwed up in concentration, then shook her head.

“You said it was a long shot that she’d be able to null demon magic,” I said. “She tried. It didn’t work. Let’s wrap it⁠—”

Sadie, Nav, and Eli turned identical looks of exasperation on me. I swear, even the demon looked annoyed.

Resigned, I swept out an arm. “By all means. Carry on.” I poked at a seam on a cushion, until Eli covered my hand with a look that said cut it out.

“Remember the visualizations I had you working on?” Nav said.

Sadie exhaled slowly. Her shadow moved its hand over the demon’s back, pausing and hovering over a back claw. “Here.”

“Now try,” Nav said.

The shadow’s light rippled like a wave crashing against the demon’s hard shell.

I leaned closer, engrossed despite my anxiety.

Sadie planted herself in a low squat. Her shadow rippled faster, but the demon continued to struggle, kept in place by Nav’s weapon. Finally, her shade fell apart, reforming on the ground like a normal one. “Its magic slips away. I can’t null it.”

Nav patted her head with his free hand. “It was a good try. Now we know that demons are a no-go for you.”

Letting out a relieved breath, I pulled off my sunglasses.

Bouncing on her toes, Sadie swung around to her dad with a gleam in her eyes. “Can I?”

Eli rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, though Nav looked as confused as I was.

My shoulders crept up and I turned slowly and menacingly to Eli, who’d once again fallen prey to Sadie’s puppy dog eyes. “Can she what?”

“I might have promised her a feel-better treat if she couldn’t null its magic.” He tossed his shades onto the couch.

“What kind of—” I put two and two together and groaned. “Not Phoebe.”

My kid had whipped the mini flamethrower out from the back of her loose shirt with a flourish.

“Our duplex is not insured for inside use of that weapon.” I’d checked.

“It’s on the lowest setting, Mother.” With a dramatic sigh, Sadie uncapped it, her finger on the trigger.

“Don’t ‘Mother’ me, child. Not committing arson is a perfectly reasonable request.”

“Dad promised.”

I ground my teeth together hard enough to take off a layer of enamel. Oh goody. Now I was somehow Bad Cop for telling our daughter not to incinerate her father’s home. “A little support here?”

“Sadie,” Eli said, “your mom is right.”

I leaned back into the couch and crossed my arms smugly. “Thank you.”

“You have to use it on the patio.”

I face-palmed.

“Yay! Come on, Nav! Let’s flambé this puppy.” Sadie flung open the sliding door and bounded into the yard.

“By all means,” Nav grumbled, poking the crab-demon with the light staff. “Allow me, a respected and formidable demon hunter, to do all the grunt work while you sit there, Your Majesty, and bask in the glow of your child’s love.”

Eli blew him an air kiss, and Nav whacked the demon in response.

Stunned from all its up close and personal time with the light staff, the demon wove precariously as if drunk.

“You are so making it up to me later,” Nav said.

“Gross!” I yanked my feet onto the sofa before the demon crashed into them.

At Nav’s prodding, it slid across the plastic, but he prevented it from bashing into the dining room table and spewing venomous pus. Or was that poisonous? Whatever. Dead was dead.

“‘Gross’ says the woman sleeping with my best friend.” Nav pushed his sunglasses into his hair. “None of us are overjoyed at the incestuousness of this situation.”

“Not you and Eli, dummy. The demon. Its pus bubbles were vibrating.” I threw a hand over my face. “Look out!”

The demon spun like a tornado, knocking Nav’s feet out from under him, then scampered nimbly outside.

I jumped up to run after it, but Nav was already halfway out the sliding door, staff held aloft like a spear. Remarkable reflexes, that man.

Eli lifted a corner of the sofa to release the tarp. “Thank God that’s over.”

What an adorable optimist.