Page 59 of A Summoned Husband

Now, I had a demon telling me it was. That our marriage was somehow written in the stars. Fated. Meant to be.

Well, fuck.

21

ASMODEUS

To stand on the other side of her door while her emotions created an untamable storm in the cage of my chest felt like a banishment all its own. Yet another way she effortlessly cast me out and left me feeling so removed from the demon I was before I arrived in this wretched place. With my hand pressed against the wood, I knew better than to open the door and invade her space as she battled with knowing I may not undo our marriage.

I would not.

The witch cursed me with a spell that later became my blessing. The realization came to me as I sat alone, separated from Eden, outside the lines of her banishment. Stories of such a coupling were something I never bothered myself with, but I knew them. They were cautionary tales meant to scare most lust demons who thrived in sensuality and chasing pleasures. A marriage was the last thing most of us wanted.

And yet, here I was.

This was more than my freed heart. This was finally setting it in its casing. It was putting it in its place after eons of thinking it would do nothing but collect dust.

There was nothing I wanted more than Eden.

It was an inconvenience. That alone should be the sole reason why I worked toward the same ambition as her. Why I should make it my task to track down the witch and drain her of every drop of blood she used to set about her spell, freeing us both.

I didn’t want to be freed. Not from Eden.

As selfish a being as I was, that was my first clue. The other was the thoughts that flashed with images of her. It was a craving carved into me that made me ravenous. A hunger nothing could sate.

She was meant to be mine.

If she wasn’t, I would have done away with the mortal females who stood between us. Would have ended their meagre lives without a second thought on my pursuit for answers. With her emotions thrumming in my chest and flooding my veins, I wondered at first if it was that alone that paused my hand. That dampened my instincts to do what was best for me and me alone. It hadn’t been long before I realized it was so much more than that, even if I hadn’t been able to admit it to myself.

She enraptured me.

Even if the shackles I felt I wore were loosened, I wouldn’t leave her side.

Eden was mine.

Frustration was thick in the air as it always was with her. It was like smoke, assaulting my nostrils and filling my chest with each breath. Eden always seemed to be frustrated. It made me wonder what sorts of things I would feel when she no longer had the stress of a new marriage and a witch in her life. What emotions would fill my chest then?

She paced still. I could hear the gentle prod of her feet against the wood as she moved through the room. Back and forth, back and forth. My back hit the door as I leaned gently against it, letting it support my lighter mortal weight as I slid down to sit on the floor. Feet planted, I folded my arms over my knees and linked my fingers, imagining Eden in her distress.

Eden was adorable in a way that usually wouldn’t entice me.

Her long hair always found its way onto her face, irking her until she shoved the thick waves back behind her ears putting the gold trinkets that decorated her lobes on display for however brief time they allowed the hair to rest behind them. That little crease found a home between her brows and one of her cheeks was slightly indented, eyes darkened in thought. Her teeth were vicious things. They grabbed at her bottom lip, working to tear the sensitive flesh.

How joyous they’d feel on my skin when she finally gave in.

When I won whatever mortal version of a key she harboured.

Eden’s teeth likely gripped her lip now as she moved through the room trying to make sense of everything. Mortal minds were as fragile as their bodies. So often they cracked. Rotted. Rewired. Now, she was struggling not to crack. To let the information flow without flooding in one place until the foundations of her mind crumbled under the building pressure.

Hushed mumbling moved through the room as she tried to reason her way through what most mortals would consider an impossible situation. All the while trying to fight through what I forced her to feel — all without the powers of my sin.

She would surrender to it in time. I did. There was no choice.

This tying of fate’s bonds between us was beyond our choices.

My flesh tingled.

Everything in me tensed as the sound of Eden’s pacing and the ties between us tightened and loosened with every step she took toward or away from me.