The Seal of Solomon (Alfred Kropp #2)(74)

Will thou not let us stay and serve thee, lord?

I looked into its eyes. It didn’t matter now, because the shoe was on the other foot, so to speak. I looked into its eyes and whispered, “No. No.” Forcing out the words like I was squeezing them through a razor-thin fissure. “No.”

When I thought about it, the stare into the demon’s eyes had been unbroken since that night in the Sahara—I had never looked away.

But no, it was longer than that. I had been looking into the demon’s eyes for years.

And on that day, the day I commanded them to return to their Holy Vessel, for the first time since the day my mother died, I looked away from the demon’s eyes.