Page 19 of A Summoned Husband

“Hey! I said I heard you. What are you doing?”

“I rebuke you, vile demon!”

“Why are you brandishing me with this trinket?”

“The power of Christ compels you!” Imani yelled, hitting him again.

He planted his hands firmly on the table beside my head, lifting himself slightly off me as he glared at Imani. “The power of who?”

Imani whacked him again and his growling intensified.

“I will allow one more and then I will take that trinket and impale you on it,” he threatened.

My heart dropped. If I didn’t somehow put a stop to the chaos happening in my kitchen, there was no telling what would happen to my girls. My thighs tightened around him as I wrapped my hands around his horns and pulled his face toward mine. My eyes bore into his as I tried to garner all his attention — a hard task with Olivia’s scream still slicing through the room, Alicia trying to pull him away, Sarika still hitting him with pieces of chair and Imani swinging a crucifix around.

“Don’t hurt them and we can… talk.” I doubted that would be enough to put an end to this. Nothing thus far told me he wanted to talk to me, but I had to try.

“Be gone, demon!” Imani yelled again.

The demon rolled his eyes. The gesture made me frown, it seemed entirely too human. “Asmodeus.”

“What?” Imani paused, confused.

“My name is Asmodeus.”

Sarika paused her assault, her face stern. “I thought demons weren’t supposed to let us find out their names.”

Imani lifted her shoulders as Alicia groaned behind Asmodeus. “It’s like trying to lift a boulder…”

His eyes bore down into mine. I swallowed hard hoping the conversation I offered would be enough to stop everything.

He tore his eyes away, looking once more at my chest and the key I hadn’t bothered to look for when I woke up. His eyes were glued there until he released a sigh and pushed off the table, standing. Alicia was still wrapped around his waist, her feet hovering over the floor as he towered above us.

Asmodeus shook her loose, ignoring the grunt she released when she fell to the floor. His hands smoothed over his shoulders and down his chest before he extended his hand to me, waiting.

Imani huffed out a frustrated breath. “Demon Asmodeus, we banish you from—”

“You’ll banish me nowhere.”

Her brows dropped and her face transformed to the one I had seen so many times when she squared off against her children. “Excuse me?”

He stiffened at her tone.

Imani crossed her arms, hip cocked. “You will return to the bowels of hell,” she demanded.

“No… I will not.”

Her brows rose as she took a threatening step forward. “You will return to whence you came.”

He looked down at me, his face a sinister sight. “Is she broken?”

That was a hard question to answer. If I were honest with myself, it was entirely possible seeing a real-life demon had broken Imani. She had taken up a crucifix and was quoting what I could only hope were scary movies as she tried to banish him.

“I think you have to be a priest,” Alicia murmured as she got up from the floor and rubbed her hands over her butt.

Imani looked down at the crucifix in hand. “He called the cross a trinket.”

Alicia’s lips pursed. “Well… I mean…”