Love & Exorcisms | 18+ | COMPLETE |

- Chapter 61 -

I could tell Damian was not pleased with his grandmother's decision to use her Sight upon me without him present. When I told him of the demon's taunts as they attempted to keep me there in the dark, his mood grew grimmer still.

"It's too dangerous to attempt such things without me here," he said, his tone hovering dangerously close to scolding. Amma seemed to pay him little mind. Since our adventure into the darker bits of my brain, she had been in Damian's library pouring over a collection of books she had brought with her from overseas - the drawing she'd made of my scars at her right hand.

"What if something had happened to Samara? To both of you?" Damian went on, holding me possessively close, as if he feared I might slip from his grasp. "I wouldn't have been here for hours! You both could have been hurt, you could have-"

"Young man," Amma looked up sharply from her reading, but a ragged cough gave her pause. When she caught her breath, she went on, "You need to settle yourself down. I was already an experienced exorcist when you were in diapers. If anything, I should be scolding you for all the risky, dangerous business you've attempted in my absence."

Damian huffed irritably, but his capacity to argue with Belthazha had been spent. "What have we learned then?" he said, with a heavy sigh, absentmindedly stroking my arm. His hold around me felt blessedly warm and safe - I hadn't quite been able to shake my feeling of discomfort since experiencing Amma's Sight for myself, and it was a relief to have him home.

That dark, bruised handprint was still stark on Amma's chest: I could see it, peeking from between her neckline and her scarf. A fourth Seal, a fourth demon. That pale, sickly face...I shuddered.

"Those four Seals have locked four very specific and powerful demons inside her," Amma said, setting aside her reading for a brief moment to explain. "Their names are written on the Seals, but that language is old and I don't know it. I can translate it...but it will take time. Time that we don't necessarily have. Those four demons are the most powerful, the leaders of the Legion. Problematically..." She hesitated a moment. "I fear that an attempted exorcism of those four cannot be successful."

"But surely Krahia was one of the four though, yes?" I said. "And Damian exorcised him..."

Amma was shaking her head. Confused, I looked between her and Damian, and watched as Damian's face fell. "He didn't leave," he said grimly. "Krahia didn't leave, did he?"

"No," she said. "He did not. I sensed him there - a force of anger, brutality, violence. He sleeps - he's been weakened severely. But his Seal is still on her, therefore, he cannot leave. Even if he wished to."

"I don't understand," I said. Of course Krahia was gone...I'd defeated him...Damian had cast him out...I didn't feel his anger or hear his violent words! "He has to be gone. He was exorcised. Isn't that...isn't that what that means? That he has to leave?"

"Unfortunately not in this case, my dear," Amma said sadly, seeing my distress. "Those four Seals bind the demons they are attributed to within you. An exorcism will weaken them, and under normal circumstances, would indeed cast them out. But the Seals override an exorcism's power. Those four - the most powerful - can't leave."

"Imagine if a chain was locked about your neck," Damian said. "Wherever that chain was attached is where you would be forced to stay. Someone can come along and beat and berate you, but you still can't leave. Not unless that chain is broken."

"So the Seals have to be broken!" I had pulled away from Damian, beginning to pace the room. The hopes I'd had were faltering...if we could not even exorcise these demons, what then? What was I to do? My course of action had been shaken, and I felt cast adrift again. "How do we do that? How can we break the Seals?"