Magpie cocked his head from one side to the other with his lips in a thin line. “You don’t.”
Cold sweat began to cover Jake’s back. “What do you mean I don’t?”
“If you’ve become a gargoyle, shifted twice already from what I hear, there is nothing to be done. Azog has penetrated your heart, and you are now one. Pulling him out would kill you.” Magpie waved his hand dismissively. “Just enjoy it. Don’t all humans claim they want to live forever?”
“Forever?” Knight asked, but the wide smile he flashed at Jake seemed fake. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”
Magpie swallowed the remainders of a macaroon. “His body will remain immortal for as long as he eats, drinks, and sleeps enough, same as Vars’s. The boy’s mind is another matter altogether. Once he shifts the third time, going back will no longer be possible, and Azog will consume what is left of him before he needs another host. I’m sorry.”
Jake remembered the bones in the tomb Azog had been imprisoned in before Jake let him out. Was that really his future?
“But what if he doesn’t shift?” Vars asked quickly. “We got this collar for him to control Azog, so… it shouldn’t happen?”
Magpie nodded. “I guess if he never shifts again, there will be no way for Azog to consume his mind, yes. But if he allows Azog to take over one more time, there will be no going back, no matter the collar.”
Jake’s heart wouldn’t stop pounding, and knowing that the gargoyle had set roots in it somewhere only made him more frantic. “Are you really saying I will live forever? Like a vampire?” He couldn’t even comprehend it just yet.
Magpie smiled. “Forever is good, isn’t it? You’ll enjoy it.”
Vars cleared his throat. “Is there no other way for him to be freed? Can’t you.... ah, do something?”
Magpie cleaned his mouth with the pristine fabric napkin. “I’m afraid not, because that magic isn’t mine.”
Knight kept glancing at Jake, worry obvious in his eyes, but he spoke to Magpie. “And… that bothers you, right?”
Magpie’s perfectly soft, gentile smile flattened into a tense line, and he put the napkin on the table. “If it were up to me, I’d have sent Baal on his way. Sadly, his... resources are far greater than mine.”
Jake’s mind was still bloated, but he had another look around the room, thought of the countless riches Magpie boasted, and couldn’t understand how a demon living in their half-abandoned clubhouse could possibly have more resources.
“But… all you have here, it must—”
Magpie dismissed Jake with a growing frown. “It’s not what he has on the outside, but what he’s been storing on the other side of the mirror for hundreds of years. And I have to admit I’ve helped him with that at a certain time in my existence when I still believed his plan a splendid idea.”
Knight cleared his throat and shared a glance with Vars, who leaned forward, focusing on Magpie.
“How much do you dislike this plan he has?” he asked, and Jake couldn’t help but feel like they were talking of something completely abstract, yet no one dared to outright ask what Baal’s plan was.
Magpie scoffed and leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs in sharp movements that suggested annoyance. “Believe me, I would do anything to send him back where he belongs. I like it here. Your world offers so much more in terms of entertainment and sensation than mine ever did. But we must tread carefully. Baal doesn’t understand the way you humans think, not as well as he thinks, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t hold the strongest cards.”
“Why? Why is he stronger?” Jake asked, but Knight nervously licked his lips, and nudged Jake under the table, which made Jake unsure if he should have been asking that question in the first place.
Magpie’s beautiful face contorted into a scowl. “Because I’ve been made of him, so my power is merely a splint of his. I am like him, but also not like him. I am only a small fraction of what he is, like a shard from a mirror that can reflect back at you but isn’t nearly as grand as what remained. A bit like your Azog, my dear Jake. There was once a man who wished to be beautiful, rich, and to live forever. He summoned Baal, and made a pact with him to make his wishes come true. Sadly, he wasn’t very clever, because for Baal it was an opportunity to send a part of himself into the world, uninhibited by territory restrictions. This man’s flesh is still a part of me, so in a way his wishes have come true, even if his mind isn’t here to witness it all.”
“So you’re Baal’s servant?” Jake asked, but Knight slapped the back of his head.