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The book I’d been foolish enough to hand back to her hit me hard in the chest. Eden marched over, scooped it up from where it fell by my feet when she threw it and struck me with it in the chest before the book hit me in the chin. The momentum snapped my head up.
“Who are you calling ridiculous?” She struck me again, her brows low over her eyes. “My girls are not ridiculous.”
She was a loyal thing. That might serve me well.
Eden struck me again.
“What is it with you women?” I grabbed her hand around her wrist and held it. “Barbaric little things.”
Her foot whipped out and hit me in my shin. It surprised me more than it hurt, but she wouldn’t stop until she accomplished something.
“Ouch,” I said, my voice flat.
Her brow quirked.
“Stop battering me,” I pleaded, though my voice lacked true fear or distress.
“Are you…” She yanked her wrist out of my grasp, her lord book still in hand. “Patronizing me?”
“What answer will stop you from hitting me with your lord book?”
“Book of the Lord,” she corrected, teeth bared.
“Right. Your book of the Lord.” I rolled my eyes at the ridiculousness. “Any trinket is a weapon in this world. It’s no wonder you are not good at battle. Weapons need to be specially crafted to your foe’s weakness. Do you really not know this?” I had an assortment of weapons for those I wished to do harm, each one capable of bringing them to their knees.
And this woman used a book. Her friends used furniture and that statue.
Bizarre… and useless.
“Well… the Bible is supposed to get rid of demons,” she explained. “As was the cross Imani was using.”
I pursed my lips at the absurdity before I shrugged. “As I was saying, the key cannot be carved from your flesh, no easier than I could carve out your heart. It could be done, but not if you wish to live.”
Her anger ebbed.
“I would apologize for this, but it’s not my doing.”
Eden sunk into the chair. “Is that why the witch’s fury is after me? Because I have this… key thing inside me?”
Those answers were ones I didn’t have. “We need to find the book’s origin. Only the author will know why a witch’s fury seeks you out now that you keep my key.”
“So…” She hunched over, dropping her face in her hands as she muttered against her flesh. “What now?”
“As my wife, it is my duty to protect you. We should remain together until I find the origin of the book.”
“Would it matter if I said no?” She didn’t move, remaining bent over with her face out of view.
Her emotions were too quiet to decipher. The quieter emotions were… difficult.
It would matter if she said no. If she told me to leave, there would be nothing I could do. I would be once again stuck in the woods, forced to watch her from afar until she called for me. Until the witch’s fury returned and I had to use the fires of hell to disband it for a time.
Madness would take me if I had to watch her from afar. Mortal emotions moved through me as I was forced to remain outside the barrier of her command until she called for me. The intensity of my wife’s pain raked claws over my chest.
“Yes.” My mind said no, but my lips could not lie to her.
“Will the witch’s fury come back?”
My throat was suddenly too tight. I looked at her, craving some sign that this storm of emotions that nearly brought me to my knees would quell soon. This type of storm was one I was worried would destroy me. Tear me up as I battled to navigate wanting her with this desperation I couldn’t force away. Wanting to fix her. To quiet her thoughts and still her emotions.
