Page 123 of I Accidentally Summoned A Demon
Nex eyed Melchizedek, weighing whether he trusted him. Venandi and Sicarius scooted closer and laid their heads in Nex’s lap.
“Put aside the anger you feel toward God as a demon, and think about the question I’m about to ask,” Melchizedek said. “Do you think if there was a soul meant to come tothem, but instead it got lost because of an outside force, they would never find a way to bring it back? Do you think theywouldn’t go after that soul to bring it home?”
“I supposetheywould always make sure they retrieved the souls they wanted.” Nex exhaled. Angels never got to the damn point and had to make everything poetic to a confounding degree.
“I supposethey would too. You know what’s interesting? It’s against our vows of protecting humans to allow a demon to be with a human.” He gave Nex a pointed look. “So, let me ask again, what would you do to return to Katherine? Is there anything you wouldn’t be willing to give up to be with her again?”
Nex needed no time to consider. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her.”
“Then trust me like you did before all this happened.” Melchizedek stood and offered a hand. “Come with me.”
“Where?”
“To askthemto do something for you I cannot do myself.”
“You think they’ll let me go back to her?” Hope had never worked out well for him, but Katherine changed that. Normally he’d have no expectation of a positive outcome, but she’d taught him differently. He couldn’t contain the shred of hope that formed deep in his soul from a place that seemed familiar yet distant.
“I think your soul is more precious than you realize.” Melchizedek extended his hand farther. “Trust me. Have a little faith.”
Nex hesitated but accepted Melchizedek’s hand. Although he didn’t care to have help up, he was weak from what Poena put him through. He stood on shaky legs and clutched Melchizedek’s arm. “Wait.”
Melchizedek glanced down. “What?”
“If I go,” Nex set his hands on Venandi and Sicarius’s heads as they stood next to him, “my hounds come with me.”
Chapter 45
Grow Old
PatiencewasavirtueKatherine, for the first time in her life, ran out of. Melchizedek said time moved differently in other realms, and she would have to be patient. Patience wasn’t usually difficult for her, but as days passed, her patience dwindled.
Praying, reading, she tried to do anything but dwell on the situation. Instead, her mind drifted back to Nex. Was he okay? What was happening? Was Lilith hurting him?
Tears filled her eyes and blurred the words of her eighth distraction book. She wiped her eyes and stared into the empty, soundless house. In a sense, it was like when her parents died, and she came home for the first time without her uncle, aunt, or cousin. The agonizing quiet almost drove her mad.
Silence had a way of being unbearably loud.
Once again, the hollowness of the house grated on her sanity. No Nex with his chatter and sarcastic humor. No Marcus purposely annoying Nex and instigating endless banter. No Lucian quietly sitting beside her, amused at Nex and Marcus’s incessant arguments. She was alone. Alone like she was for months before accidentally summoning a demon who filled her heart with the most love it’d held since her parents’ deaths.
Kat’s eyes widened.Of course.How did I not think of it sooner?She rushed to the kitchen and checked the calendar, dragging her finger down the paper until she found it. The next full moon. Two days. She remembered what Nex said to her the day she summoned him.
You need fire, blood, and the light of a full moon. You also have to repeat the phrase three times.
Melchizedek told her to be patient, but it’d been days.I can’t do nothing.If she didn’t try everything she could think of, she’d never forgive herself. Forgoing patience, she rushed to her bedroom and dug through her desk, searching for the script. The words were ingrained in her brain after the number of times she’d said them, but now was not the time to take chances.
Two days crawled by like two decades. Time dragged slower still when the day came, and Kat sat by the window, waiting for the sun to set. She got out the same candles she’d used before, arranged them in a circle, turned off every light, and unplugged all the electronics to mimic the power going out. Whether each event that night mattered, she didn’t know. She only hoped it gave her a better chance.
Candles lit, she scoured her mind for every detail of that day. Sitting back in the middle of the circle, she glanced to the window. Clouds blanketed the sky, but there was a break in those clouds, and moonlight shone in. She hesitated for a moment.What if I don’t summon Nex but someone else?
She didn’t care. She’d exhaust every possibility.
Scrunching her face, she lifted the paper and refused to look as she purposely gave herself a paper cut. She winced and let blood fall on the candles.
Between rehearsals and the play, she’d read the words a million times but still took care to make the pronunciation perfect. “Fasciculus hic nugarum vage et male translatus est, sed scire non debes.Fasciculus hic nugarum vage et male translatus est, sed scire non debes.” She said it louder each time, just like the night she summoned Nex. “Fasciculus hic nugarum vage et—”
The room darkened, and she strained to see the script. Kat grimaced when clouds covered the moon. Thunder shook the house, and flashes of light illuminated the dark clouds.
Kat ran to the window, and her shoulders slumped at the storm clouds. “No, no, no. Ithasto clear at some point.”
