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“Are angels—”
“Annoying? Yes.” He pressed his lips to my brow, sending heat radiating through me. “They are anxious downstairs.”
My girls and I had been together so long, I had long lost the fear that went with confrontation. We all had. We made a pact so long ago to be open and honest with one another, and I wasn’t about to let a demon husband or my hormones get in the way of that. My fingers shook slightly as I combed them through my hair.
“How do I look?”
“Beautiful. Always.”
The compliment wrestled that smile out of me as I turned and he slowly released me. I felt his fingers in the fabric of my shirt, his hold light as he both held and surrendered me as I walked from the room.
Voices hit me as I reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Why are you two so freaking calm about all this? I mean… yeah, he looks better without the horns and all that but he is still a demon,” Imani hissed. “That can’t be good, right?”
“What the hell do we know?” Sarika’s calm voice placated the tension in the room in a way only she could. “As far as everything goes, what we’ve known about demons has been wrong. There’s no use getting up in arms about something before we have all the facts. All you’ll do is tire yourself out.”
“Tire myself out?” Imani’s voice was slightly shrill.
“Mhmm… you know, like with your kids. All amped up for no reason before they pass the fuck out. Sit down and be quiet for a little while. And stop it with the fucking bat, for christ sake!” The chastisement held no bite. Sarika’s words were as calm as they had been before.
“What if he kills us all?” Vi whispered.
“Then that’s what you get for messing around with all this,” Imani snapped.
“Will you two shut up?” Alicia’s words hushed the room. “We all know Ede. She isn’t stupid.”
“No. But maybe there is like… a spell on her or something.” Vi’s words were laced with anxiety.
This was going to spend every last bit of my energy. The languid blanket that had coated every inch of me before they arrived was completely gone as I looked over my shoulder at Asmodeus a step above me and towering. “Is there a way you can get all of us to my Gran’s?”
I only wanted to have this conversation once.
“If that is what you need of me.”
My lip pursed. “It will be easier to talk to everyone together.”
Our eyes locked and his head bobbed in a slow nod, his finger curled under my chin. The gesture made my stomach tighten. Everything inside me pulled up a bit too high.
Not now. Get your shit together, Eden.
Right. I had to talk to them. I couldn’t just disappear in a sex craze, never to be seen again.
Right?
No. I couldn’t.
Our fingers laced together as I forced the steamy thoughts out of my mind and walked into the living room.
Sarika had collected all the books and set them in small piles in front of the bare bookshelves, the little holes showing where the shelves should be. Alicia had swept up the glass and used the dustpan to get it all into the bin I usually kept in the corner. The couch had been pushed back into its place and aside from everything that was broken, my living room looked almost normal.
I lifted my hands as soon as everyone turned to look at me. “I know you all have questions, but I really only want to say this once.”
As though my words were all he needed, the room blurred around us like humidity lifting off hot concrete before it shifted. A mirage of my Gran’s living room wavered in and out of existence.
A grunt puffed air out of me as my feet came off the floor.
“Eden!”
