Page 138 of A Summoned Husband

“Y-you can’t kill him.”

My brows dropped. “Mortals are very fragile. It would be quite easy.”

“No.” She waved her hands between us. “I didn’t mean you wouldn’t be able to. I think it’s clear you could probably kill whoever you want. I meant that you shouldn’t.”

Everything about today was confusing me. “But he did you wrong. Are you sure?”

“No,” Olivia sounded less convinced this time as her head tilted slightly. “No?”

“Are you asking me?” I still had no idea.

Her eyes settled on Sarika who just shrugged.

“Sarika! You can’t honestly be thinking Vi should be considering killing her ex-husband? Not on the steps of a church,” Alicia chastised.

“Hey… it’s not my church.” Sarika shrugged again. “Plus, D’Andre is a real piece of work. Not to mention Shanice constantly harassing Olivia about how her son is made of gold and can do no wrong knowing he was creeping around on her. I say, kill him.”

Olivia’s eyes widened as she cocked her head further. “I mean…”

“Olivia Thomas! Stop with all that mess.” Alicia shook her head. “You’re not going to get a demon to kill your ex-husband.”

“He’s the one that offered!” she defended. “But okay. Fine. Thank you for the offer, but no.” She looked at me and for the first time since I arrived in this world, she smiled at me. It wasn’t the forced tight thing it had been before. Wasn’t masking the fear that clouded her eyes. It was a genuine smile.

I beamed. “Let me know if you change your mind.”

“You know what, Asmodeus?” Sarika got to her feet and brushed her hands over the back of her pants, cleaning them from whatever dirt might have clung there. She walked over, standing before me with her hands on her hips and a light smile on her face. “I like you.”

My eyes widened.

“Yeah,” Alicia agreed. “As far as husbands go, Eden could have done a lot worse. And I have met a shit tonne of guys who have seemed more demonic than you. I like you too.”

My eyes whipped over to Eden, searching.

Happiness bloomed in my chest and I smiled wide. She was happy. I knew how important it was that the people in her life approved of me.

Olivia poked the ground with the toe of her shoe before she cleared her throat. “Yeah.”

“Yeah?” Alicia and Sarika said in unison. “Really?”

“Yeah… I mean. Eden is happy. And if she can continue to be happy after going against a witch and all the weird stuff that goes along with that then… yeah. He’s doing a great job. How many of us have ever liked someone enough to go through hell for them?” She lifted her eyes. “So, yeah. I like him.”

Rolling my fingers into a fist, I raised it. “Three out of four. Really, when you think about it, it’s actually five out of six which is even better, is it not? Did you see, Eden?”

She grinned, nodding. “Yeah, I saw. They like you. Gran likes you. Abuela likes you. You’re doing great, Asmodeus.”

“I am doing wonderfully!”

She laughed and shook her head.

“What is everyone doing out here? Don’t tell me he actually can’t go into the church.” Imani stood at the bottom of the steps with her hands wrapped in the hands of two children. The girl was adorable. She was quite small, her hair in two puffs atop her head and adorned with pretty pink bows at the front. The shade of pink matched her dress and the little sweater she wore over it. Her eyes brightened as she looked up at the steps at everyone. The boy whose hand she held was in black jeans and a light blue pullover. He dropped to the floor, almost lying down as he swirled from their bound hands. His arms were long enough to let him get completely down to the floor while he held his mother’s hand. A third boy was dressed identically to the smaller one. He crouched beside the smaller boy, grabbing his free hand as he tried to yank him up.

“I can go in,” I tried to defend myself against the one woman I hadn’t won over yet. “I just don’t like it.”

The smaller boy broke free of both hands and ran up the stairs. He ignored Alicia who reached for him and slammed into my leg. His arms wrapped around my thigh as he jumped on the top of my shoe.

“Fahmo!” Imani called.

The larger boy followed quickly up the steps behind him.