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“Let me.” I positioned myself between Eden and her Abuela.
“I will kill you, you hear me?” Gran yelled.
“Wait, no, Gran!” Eden gently grabbed her wrist. “He’s here to help.”
“Help?” she shrieked. “How the hell is this… devil going to help us? No help can come from him. Just look at him.”
Ignoring her rambling, I pressed a hand to Abuela’s arm and let my magic coat her. She felt so broken. Every inch of her was lanced with pain. Eden’s sobs only added to the ache I was forced to feel as I pressed my free hand to her head and poured more magic into her. I focused on stitching up her flesh, soothing her muscles, and crafting her bones.
Humans were fragile things that only grew more fragile with age. How tedious their lives must be.
The woman called Gran clasped her hands before her and began to mutter. The words were ones I was annoyed I knew. Passages from the thin pages of the book that had been used as a weapon against me more than once. At least now, they were being used for something else. What? I didn’t fully understand, but the words were aimed at Abuela instead of me.
After a few moments, Eden’s Gran quieted. Eden’s sobs and her Gran’s sniffles filled the space where her reciting of the Lord Book had been. As my magic receded, Abuela’s eyes fluttered open.
“W-what happened?” her blinks were heavy as she pressed a shaky hand to her head. “I had the weirdest dream.” Her eyes settled on Eden. “Eden, baby, why are you crying?”
Eden took the cloth from her Gran and wiped it across her Abuela’s brow. When it cleaned away all the blood, her eyes whipped to me. “She’s… healed?”
“Yes.”
Her Gran’s wide eyes took us both in. “What? Healed? Are you both out of your mind? We have to get her to the hospital. Catalina, how do you feel?” She grabbed Catalina’s hand with both of hers.
Catalina pushed up. She swatted Eden’s hands when she tried to keep her where she was on the floor, stopping her with a single hard look that made Eden shrink back.
Curious.
“Stop fussing, I feel better than I have in years.” Catalina stretched her arms out in front of her before she looked at me and her mouth gaped. “Dios mio.”
Eden looked over at me and rolled her eyes. “Asmodeus, could you not terrify them anymore tonight?”
“I’ve done nothing but provide aid.” Why was she angry with me?
“Could you look less like a demon, please?”
I scoffed but did as she asked. Even the polite ask was a command I couldn’t deny. The mortal flesh felt a size too tight, but I donned it to satisfy her. The transformation did nothing to ease the two women in our company. Catalina continued to gape as she clasped her hands together and began muttering. Her face turned up to the ceiling as she spoke quickly, her words indecipherable to me.
Her Gran took up a similar stance. Hands steepled as she muttered to herself.
Eden merely rolled her eyes. “Apparently prayer doesn’t work.”
That did nothing to stall their efforts.
“Prayer?” I asked.
She let out a slow breath as her brow cocked and she looked over her grandmother. Her hand clasped the side of her cheek and her Gran winced. “Gran, you’re hurt!”
“Lulu.” Catalina quickly got to her knees. “Where does it hurt?”
“Quit fussing over me. We need to get Catalina to a hospital.”
“I told you, I’m fine,” Catalina argued.
Confrontation must be a family trait. The three of them started yelling at one another in two of their dialects. They switched between the two, hands gesturing in the air as their yelling climbed and climbed.
Exasperation became me as I pressed a hand to Lulu’s back. I pushed my power into her and watched as she let out a relieved breath. It was short-lived as she turned to me, ire in her eyes.
“What have you done to me? I won’t trade my soul for it, you hear?”
