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“Soul? What use would I have for your soul?” Humans were ridiculous things.
Her brown eyes took me in, such a similar shade to Eden’s. “Mhmm. You collect them. Blacken ‘em up so we can’t get through Saint Peter’s gates.”
“Who?” Why would I try to keep her from entering any gates? Perhaps she had head trauma I hadn’t healed correctly, nothing she said made sense.
Eden waved at Lulu, dismissing her words. “How are you, Gran? Feeling better?”
“Yes, but will someone tell me what in the hell is going on?” Lulu’s eyes hardened as her grip on Catalina’s hand tightened. “When I saw you fly across the room…” Her words hung in the air, unspoken.
Tightness gripped my chest as Eden swallowed hard. Her eyes glassed over as her chin wrinkled and her nostrils quivered. “I’m so sorry.”
“Eden Leah Perez, you tell me what’s going on right now, you hear me?” Lulu’s voice was low. “Who the hell is this… this… demon?”
Is that what all this trouble was about? They needed to know who I was?
I touched a palm to my chest and grinned. “Asmodeus. I’m Eden’s husband.”
The silence that bred from my answer was impenetrable. The look both Catalina and Lulu gave me was one that could have sliced right through my flesh as they stared at me with mouths hanging wide before they slowly turned to look at Eden.
These women, frail as they may be, were terrifying.
Eden shrunk under their gaze and it made me growl low in my throat. I hated seeing her like that, filled with a fear I could do nothing to protect her from.
Both women hardened their gaze at the noise, moving slightly before her. They were a shield they wished to use to keep me from her. How foolish. There was little besides Eden herself that could keep me from her now.
“Husband? Eden?” Lulu turned to look at her. “What is he talking about?”
“Well, you see…” Her eyes moved back and forth between the two women as she worked her bottom lip through her teeth. The muscles in her jaw flexed with each nervous move. “So the thing is, the girls and I were at my place and Vi thought it would be fun if we did something a little…” Her eyes dropped to her hands as she dug at the flesh around her nail.
As adorable as I found her fumbling over her words was, I didn’t like how small she looked as she confessed to these women. My hackles rose as I inched forward, ignoring the way they continued to try to hold her away from me.
“We didn’t think it would be a big deal.” Eden laughed then with another roll of her eyes. “Imani wouldn’t let us do the Ouija board, so we all compromised and did a silly spell from a book Vi found.”
Catalina and Lulu clutched at their chests before Catalina reached under the coffee table and grabbed a slipper. She waved it, slapping Eden over and over again in the arm as she cursed at her, a spew of fast words in a different dialect. The words were so colourful I couldn’t make sense of most.
Lulu joined in, her hands whacking her opposite arm. “Are you out of your ever-loving mind? You know we don’t be messing around with all that! You know that! Did we raise you to be a damn fool? Just doing spells with your little friends?”
“How could you be so stupid?” Catalina added.
Eden winced.
My heart seized as I reached between them and snatched Eden up. “Are you hurt?” I turned, shielding her from these women. Violent. The lot of them. Brutes.
“No, but she’s going to be!” Lulu tried to reach around my back to grab her.
I ignored her attempt as I stared down into Eden’s eyes. She looked ragged. There was darkness under her eyes, the flesh there slightly hollow. Her eyes looked unfocused as I stared into them. She was looking at me but not fully seeing me as I held her clutched to my chest.
“Did you get hurt?” I repeated the question she never answered.
“Lulu!” Catalina chastised. “Wait! She might have gotten hurt in there.”
Lulu ceased her assault on my back to peer over my shoulder. “Edie?”
Eden shoved at my chest. After a few moments of struggling, I relented and set her on her feet. Even on her feet, I couldn’t fully release her. Protectiveness bloomed in my chest, filling me with a need to stay close. I kept my arms wrapped lightly around her waist, turning with her when she looked at her grandmothers.
“I’m fine.”
Both of them looked at her with assessing eyes, as though remembering to fully look at her for the first time. There had been so much chaos since they were likely roused from their sleep, it was only now they remembered she had been in that room too and had likely been tossed just as Catalina was.
