Eban Read Online Free Page B

do your bidding here, then as a reward, she’ll strip every bit of Beryl away and claim the body as her own.”
    â€œSuch is her prerogative, Heckmaster. My minions do not go unrewarded when they serve me well. I won’t return the human’s life to her. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
    He hesitated long enough that Seere’s grin widened. “ The Lesser Key of Solomon . Wherever Tell hid it, I want all of it back in one piece.”
    Seere laughed, a sound that filled the room, but it was humorless and bordered on sadistic. “You’d summon another to give you what I refuse? My liege lord is the mighty Ea, usurped by Astaroth. There are none in the Gray Lands more powerful than me by Ea’s commandment. You can’t revoke my will, Ebaneezer.”
    Anger unlike any he’d felt before coursed his veins. “Then bring me the Ars Notoria .”
    Seere’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. For once he seemed out of his element.
    â€œI want the Ars Notoria . The entire book, no pages missing.” With more force behind his words, he felt better about the decision. Maybe Seere would take him seriously now.
    All the mirth vanished from the prince’s face. “You don’t know what you risk if you read from that book.”
    â€œTell already tried to turn me off the notion of reading from any of the grimoires. Remember, if you fetch it for me, I’ll owe you a personal debt. Whenever you’re ready to collect, my liege.” Eban didn’t break eye contact with the demon. He couldn’t, not if he intended to seal the bargain.
    â€œVery well.” The rippling air curtain opened again and Seere stepped through it. He disappeared without a sound.
    Eban paced around the sigil, picking his cuticles as he waited for Seere to return. It wouldn’t take long. The prince had the skill of finding any treasure in moments.
    Said to be given to King Solomon by the archangel Michael, the Ars Notoria was full of orations to ask God for wisdom and eloquence. It also had the power to summon angels—who might know how to banish a minion from a human body.
    The air shimmered as Seere reappeared. He held out a burlap-wrapped object. Despite the power he claimed to possess, he couldn’t touch the book without injuring himself because of its divine properties. Tell had wrapped it to prevent that happening to any demon that might stumble across it, wherever it had been hidden.
    â€œI have marked your debt.” Seere didn’t sound as confident as he had before fetching the book. “Mind yourself with that, Heckmaster.”
    He didn’t linger. One moment he was in Eban’s room—the next the seal on the floor was wiped away in a swirl of cinnamon that left Eban sneezing. It was a harsh reminder that Seere could be summoned, but he couldn’t be trapped without a proper summoning circle as part of his agreement to keep out of Hell’s affairs.
    Seere and Tell wouldn’t allow Eban to conjure a demon that could order Rosemar out of Beryl. They wouldn’t give him the tools to banish her himself, but Seere had provided the key to summoning an angel that might. More likely the prince thought Eban would end up destroying himself instead of actually calling an angel.
    Unfortunately, summoning an angel was a great deal more difficult than drawing a seal in a pile of herbs. Fasting was required, specific words, prayer. Things Eban had little patience for with Beryl’s life on the line and his desire to leave.
    He unwrapped the twine and pulled the burlap off the book’s cover. It was an old text, the pages stained from years of passing from hand to hand. It was a translation from the original book, but no less powerful for that. The seal of Solomon was inked onto the thick cover and the title was written in Greek with the English translation beneath.
    He hoped he’d learn something from it, because whatever favor