Page 53 of A Summoned Husband

It was the witch’s turn to scream, but she wouldn’t gift me with the blissful sound. She bared her teeth as she stared with haunting orange eyes.

She stared at me as though she knew me. As though one of my sins had dug into her heart and cut it open, leaving her to forever bleed from the wound. But she was a stranger.

“Witch,” I hissed.

“Asmodeus. Took you long enough. It annoys me that I have to wait. That I have to bait the trap and hope it lures you.” Her eyes flicked quickly to Eden before they returned to me. “Still, the time alone is just as good. It’s time with her that I’ll need in the end.”

My hold on Eden tightened as her head fell back against my chest, her eyes closed. “What did you do to her?”

“Nothing… yet.”

“You’ll do nothing,” I warned, the possessive parts of me awakening.

Her brow cocked as a smirk curled the corner of her mouth. “Won’t I?” The air buzzed and the book appeared in her hand. “I’ve only just begun.”

The scene was ripped away and I was left standing in Eden’s hallway with her in my arms. I flexed my jaw, working hard to contain an anger I would let loose were I anywhere else. Carefully, I adjusted my hold. I clutched her to my chest as I carried her back to her bedroom.

I had lived a very long life but had no memories of the witch I just faced. The scent of her magic was potent and unique. Surely if I had come in contact with her before, I would remember. Even now the smell lingered. It was like smoke in the air long after the fire had gone out. It clung to everything.

And her eyes.

Rifling through my thoughts brought up nothing, so I let my other thoughts seep in.

She so effortlessly took Eden.

Her magic leached into the cockles of Eden’s mind and wrapped her in a different reality. Yet her magic smelt different from a somnus witch, the creatures that lurked in dreams. It was more volatile. More… sinful.

Fear was a bitter taste in my mouth as I looked at the marks on Eden’s face. I climbed into her bed, holding her against me before I touched a hand to her cheek and let my magic erase signs of the witch’s torment.

That the witch had gotten to Eden while she was asleep in my arms troubled me — and filled me with rage. My anger heated my skin as I wrapped my magic completely around her. I wouldn’t be so foolish as to let the witch get close to Eden again.

The author of the book that bound me to this mortal woman had shown me her face, the real trouble now was that it told me nothing.

* * *

A scream woke me.

My eyes snapped open as I jumped from the bed, baring my teeth and prepared to once again wrench Eden out of the arms of the witch. The cold that filled the air before was absent as the sun shone through the large window that was the far wall of her bedroom. My breath was quick, my chest rising and falling as I turned to see Eden cowering in the corner.

“What troubles you now?” Her fear flooded my chest making it uncomfortably tight. “Has the witch returned?”

Eden covered her face with her hands. “Get your shit together, Ede.”

“Your fear is…” I rubbed my chest as a flutter moved through it. “Exhausting.”

My horns scraped against her ceiling and her hands dropped. She was on her feet, her eyes narrowed as she pointed a finger at me. “Will you stop destroying my house!”

“Your… house.” It seemed such a frivolous thing for her to worry about when she had a witch who was determined to use her to toy with me. “Why did you scream?”

She pointed her finger more aggressively at me. “Because I woke up next to a demon… with horns and a tail and hooves!”

The panic fled me. “Is that all? You’re screaming because of me?” Silly creature.

“Yes.”

“Haven’t you already done that?” I tilted my head, ignoring the sound of my horn carving into the wood.

“Boy!” she dragged the word out. She kicked her foot up and caught her slipper in her hand. She waved it at me much like warriors would a sword. “If you break one more thing in my damn house that shadow thingy will be the least of your problems.”