Page 27 of How Not to Charm Your Human Colleague (Falling for Demons #2)

DEMONS PAY WELL

Aofe

“ D arn demon,” Aofe huffed, slumping into the chair behind her.

Attie whimpered at the door, glancing over her way, but Aofe waved off the creature.

“I’ll stay sitting; you can demon watch.” Just as she was doing, watching Kizros disappear down the next street.

She sat up again, fiddling with the charm on her necklace.

Always warmer than an average metal, but she’d attributed that to the magic he’d imbued into the gold.

It was the little flares of heat, the ones that Kizros had just admitted were his connection to the piece, that made her squeeze it tighter in her palm, wondering if he could feel that back.

With Attie fixated on the passersby, Aofe turned her attention to the desk.

There wasn’t much she could do here, but cleaning up some old papers and notes seemed like a good start.

She’d only made it through three scraps when she tugged out a receipt from under a stack of books.

She scanned the details, noting the date as earlier that morning.

“I bet,” she mumbled to herself as she reached for the ledger, “Kiz got distracted and forgot to enter you.”

Sure enough, the line was empty, so she grabbed the quill and added the marks underneath his handwriting. Knowing he probably hadn’t had the chance to adjust the inventory either, Aofe intended to flip the page, but her gaze caught on the parchment he’d hastily shoved inside earlier.

Particularly, her name on a bank note.

She frowned, sliding it closer in confusion. And then Aofe recoiled. Printed neatly on top were all the details of the transaction, along with a sum of money large enough to make her mouth pop open in shock.

That was money . In her name. In an amount she’d maybe known before but had never seen written out. This… surely this wasn’t a salary, or even a stipend for being stuck in Heck?

But she hadn’t read those initial papers, had she?

“Attie, I’ll be right back,” Aofe called, grabbing her crutches as she headed toward the workroom.

She’d left the sponsorship documents on the table, hoping that by seeing them there, she’d get the motivation to read them rather than have them mock her all the time. And though she swore in this moment that she’d read them fully— eventually—there was something in particular she was looking for.

It didn’t take her long to find the section, or the number.

An initial starting amount for her introduction to Heck that still made her blink in shock, but then a consistent weekly stipend.

Generous, considering there was a note that also clarified this was in addition to their salary determined by their sponsor, but still nowhere near what that bank note claimed was hers.

Aofe leaned back in the chair, pressing the heel of her palm into her temple. All of this was too much. Not the amount of money at her disposal—which was, incidentally, too much—but the implications of that sum.

Despite what Kizros had said, Perennial Bloom was not thriving. They weren’t exactly suffering, but while they maintained a level of comfort, eventually, costs would increase. Maintaining would no longer be enough for survival.

Yet, the sum in her account could have changed that.

It could go toward upgrades to the shelving, replacement of glass in the greenhouse, new supplies and tools for the workroom.

That step outside the front door could get fixed, and he’d have leftover funds to splurge on some nice things for himself.

It was proof he was still capable of sponsoring her.

So why had Kizros put the money under her name? And where in the blazes had it come from?

She grunted, annoyed with herself for not only ignoring these sponsorship documents for so long, but for not asking questions sooner. What was Kizros doing to get this kind of money?

Her mind first conjured illegal trading or black-market plants, but then she realized Kizros would never be able to pull something like that off with his twitching eye and tail.

But there could have been other things, like selling his magic talent to the park service or an underground plantfighting ring.

Actually, now that she considered it, Tim would be excellent in something like that. Maybe she should look into that scene.

Aofe shook her head of the distraction. No, the Kizros she knew and loved would never be involved with anything less than proper business. Which still didn’t answer her question or quell the desire to dig into his ledger and personal finances.

Of course, she’d never do that. There would be a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why he’d been shifty since…

Since that morning he’d gone on errands.

Yes, she had noticed his inability to give her a straight answer, and the avoidance of his tasks. Did it have to do with the surprise, or was his antsy behavior a result of putting a massive deposit into her account? Could the two be related?

Aofe was just about to grab a new sheet of paper to start organizing her thoughts and questions when Attie’s muffled yip echoed into the back room.

“Attie?” she called.

No skittering claws came to greet her .

Aofe frowned, then stuck her arms through her crutches again before leaving the workroom. There was only the click of her crutches on the floor as she walked the hallway back to the shop.

“Attie?” There was no giant silver fox by the door, and a nervousness formed in her belly.

Aofe moved closer, trying to see to the end of the window where Attie might be so focused she was ignoring Aofe.

Sometimes those mail drayks flying by caught her attention, or some demon’s pet who looked small enough for a snack.

More often, a little bug found its way in through the gap in the back door and Attie would chase it into the dark backs of the aisles.

But there was no Attie in either spot, and that’s when Aofe turned and noticed the missing bell on the door.

“I didn’t think he’d be so foolish.”

Aofe jerked toward the voice as Tholvich stepped out of the aisle, blocking her from the exit. He examined the bell in his hand, the metal that had kept it aloft bent in his grip.

“What I did expect, though,” he continued, tossing the bell up and catching it, “was for his human to not think twice about locking the door behind him.”

Fuck .

Aofe weighed her options. The door to the garden was her closest escape, but it’s not like she could get far, if she even made it to the door.

Tholvich was massive, and she was slow at best on her crutches.

Not to mention the aisles she would have to weave, only for her to rush into a glass building with even more precious plants than in here.

As Tholvich took a step closer, she took one back. “Where’s Attie?”

The blue demon shrugged. “Out back.”

Cold gripped her veins, but Tholvich rolled his eyes. “I didn’t kill the atteapir. Just leashed it outside so that weaponized tail wouldn’t get in my way.”

Aofe’s eyes tracked the demon’s barbed tail as it swished lazily behind him, no relief coming even at the sound of Attie’s claws scratching at the back door. “And what exactly do you want?”

He cocked his head. “I thought I made that clear? You.”

Horror threatened to clog her throat, but she stepped back again, keeping her distance.

She continued to use her periphery to search for some way to fight off Tholvich.

Tim, despite being a guard plant, was tied to Kizros’s mind, and with the green demon away at city hall, there was no way the plant would be useful.

Maybe smashing the right vials would result in a deterrent smoke or explosion?

But then she’d have to make sure it didn’t hurt her either.

“You want me?” Aofe forced a laugh. “I thought I was defective .”

“A taint, yes,” Tholvich snarled. “I will admit, I wondered what it was about you that had Kizros so worked up when I was last here. Then again, it’s no surprise he likes to take in broken things, hoping to fix them.”

A rhetoric she’d long since stopped believing about herself, but the words still hurt.

He stepped closer, tossing the broken bell behind him. “ I’ve seen so many take advantage of that generosity, and humans are so self-centered. You’ll forgive me for doing a little investigation at the festival, albeit from afar.”

Aofe’s lip curled. “You paid the teen to flip my bench.”

It was a bet, that’s all .

A sentence she’d just assumed meant the yellow demon’s group of friends, but it was Tholvich’s encouragement. All for…

The clause he was so focused on.

Unsafe environment .

If Kiz had broken the yellow demon’s horn in his anger, or Severath hadn’t intervened, Tholvich would have had proof that Kizros was the unsafe entity.

Even if Tholvich had orchestrated it, there was nothing in the clause that said the perpetrator of harm disqualified them from sponsoring a human.

And being placed in a position of similar nature? That was with him .

The giant blue demon held his hands up—like that made him seem apologetic. “Just looking out for you. Especially from a demon who bottles up so much anger he threatens another demon’s horns… and then the human he’s meant to be protecting.”

He took another step forward, and Aofe realized she was once again being herded.

This time toward a corner with no escape.

“Kizros made it clear you aren’t welcome here, Tholvich,” Aofe said, trying to hide the terror in her voice. “ Please leave.”

The demon sighed, shaking his head like this was more traumatizing for him than her. “It never had to come to this if you hadn’t stopped him at the festival. Why did you have to calm him down?”

He punctuated the question with a swipe of his hand over the nearest shelf, sending vials shattering on the floor.

He took another step closer, and Aofe had to react quickly.

She managed to turn, a little too early as her shoulder clipped the edge of a bookcase and sent more vials crashing to the ground, but at least she wasn’t cornered.

It did, however, show her biggest weakness.

Tholvich’s gaze darted down, where her left ankle had failed to bear her weight on the turn. A slow, satisfied smile lifted his lips.

“So clumsy.” Tholvich made the turn easily, each step slow and predatory as she struggled to retreat while also scrambling for some means to protect herself. “For a human who can’t walk on her own, being surrounded by broken glass and toppling bookshelves would be considered an unsafe environment.”

Aofe turned another aisle, this time managing to add distance. Her eyes scanned the books and vials quickly, none of them large or potent enough to serve as some sort of defense. But Tholvich didn’t step out of the shelves to follow her, and new dread coiled in her belly.

“Why me?” she called out, head darting between the two entrances of the aisle she’d found herself in. “To get back at Kizros? For…” Aofe blinked, then said, “You need the subsidy.”

There was a soft growl, too quiet for her to discern whether it was behind her or to the left, but she realized that was the key.

She’d seen glimpses of his temper, in the curl of his lip and his need to feel bigger by not withdrawing his barbs. His constant needling of Kizros, trying to get a fight out of him, while taking every opportunity to brag.

And as foolish as it was, Aofe could work with this. Get his temper to flare. Make him make a stupid mistake and take advantage of it. Right now, she was sure the path to the back door was clear. Attie would help her, fire or no.

So she pushed again. “You were hoping Kizros would fail, but it’s you with the failing shop.

You pressed in on a weakness you knew he had, all while you were the one suffering more.

” She spun in place, still waiting for Tholvich to make an appearance.

“You saw the subsidy we were being paid, and you wanted to steal it. But not only that, steal it from Kizros . Steal me . You are so pathetic, seeing someone else happy, that you wanted to?—”

Her sentence was cut off when the shelf behind her groaned.

Then tipped.

It was a gut reaction to go for the exit closest to her but farthest from Attie, especially with her crutches slowing her down. At least if she made it to the front, she could call for help. She wouldn’t be of any use if she didn’t get out first.

The shelf collapsed behind her, the cacophony of shattering glass and splintering wood ringing in her ears as she hurried toward the door.

Steps from the exit, a weight slammed into her back and sent her sprawling. One crutch twisted away from her as she landed on the other, her body knocking into the shelf closest to the door. It shook, but while it didn’t tip, items rained down on her and the demon pinning her.

Then, to her horror, Tim crashed to the floor less than a foot from her face.

Aofe ducked to avoid the shards of his pot, the pieces ricocheting off her forearms as soil scattered across the floor. She peeked, devastated to find that Tim was limp, roots clinging to a chunk of soil but vines unmoving without his owner nearby and the rune keeping them connected.

“No!” she screamed, but her body wouldn’t move. She couldn’t get closer no matter how loudly she cried out or tried to crawl to him.

Hot breath warmed her ear, and Aofe remembered the more pressing struggle. “You’re only making this harder on yourself,” Tholvich growled. “This destruction is all I need to prove he’s not fit to sponsor you.”

She tried to reach for a shard of Tim’s pot, but there was no way she could swing it back with Tholvich’s body on hers. The fear that had been fueling her fight before faded into a numb acceptance, even as her heart was desperate for her to do more than this.

To her left, the tall windows of the shop remained dark, and her mind slipped back to that alley. To the slavers on either side of her, pinning her limbs. To the humans hurrying past, pretending she didn’t exist and that she wasn’t being kidnapped in favor of themselves.

No demons would come to save her. Attie was locked outside, and Tim was dying on the floor in front of her. Kizros was too far away, and with luck never on her side, he wouldn’t step through the door when she needed him most.

No, it was only her and her human hands, unable to function without sunlight. Too incompetent to make even the simplest of runes.

But Aofe was not numb. Not after years of being belittled and forced to make herself smaller. Not after finding a place where she wanted to stay.

With a demon she loved.

Her hand reached out, palm spreading in the soil before her fingers curled.

This was her home, and she was not going to lose it.