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 wasdefective.”
“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 withhim.
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 atKizros? 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’syouwith 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 fromKizros. Stealme. 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.
