He didn’t want to laugh, but the small huff escaped anyway, solidifying her smile in turn.
“Growing up, my peers told me it was ridiculous. That I couldn’t do something as basic as breathing. They used to put things out of order on purpose, or switch my papers so I thought I had gotten a poor grade, or corner me when I was reading to see who could have the fastest record of making me panic.”
A low growl filled the space, and Dav hadn’t realized it was his own until she brushed a thumb over his cheek to settle his anger.
“But I found a use for it. The memorizing, the numbers, the intense focus—I put it toward helping others. Sometimes I can’t shut it off.” Her hand slid down to his chest. “All that to say, I learned a lot in the early days about demons and demon culture so I could help the humans stuck here. I don’t need to know how, but know I don’t give a fuck whether you have magic or not. I will not stand for anyone—human or demon—treating others with disrespect.”
Davarox swallowed, doing his best to let her words and kindness seep between the cracks in his defenses.
Maybe one day, those words would bloom. Would overflow from the gaps and blanket him in warmth.
Maybe one day.
He pressed his free hand against hers on his chest. “My protector.”
Rosalind’s shoulders softened. “You aren’t mad?”
“Only that he used Laz’s distractedness to scam our business. It’s a good thing we’re closed, because Lazerath is going to have a very animated, one-sided self-deprecating speech about how guilty he feels.”
“Can I help?”
“Usually I tie a mop to his tail so we get some chores done when he paces and eventually talks himself out,” Dav muttered, smirking when a laugh burst out of her.
“I know it’s private business, but I could make a projection plan with the new supply numbers. And if you want me to review the ledger, I’m very good at organizing budgets. It’s actually a lot of fun.” Her eyes widened. “But you don’t have to! I’m… sorry, getting ahead.”
Fear nestled in Dav’s gut, but he was powerless against the excited spark in Rosalind’s eyes. He thought he’d been saved earlier not having to explain that the city worker who updated their heating rune had treated him even worse than Salgoron. But there was no way this human wouldn’t notice his manipulations.
Yet…
“I’d appreciate a second set of eyes,” he said, nodding to the book that had been left on the counter.
And as she flipped open the book, Dav made a promise to himself.
No matter how strongly he felt about her, no matter how much he wanted her in his life, the human could not be the reason all his work went to waste in keeping Laz protected.
9
CANCEL EVERYTHING!
Rosalind
Rosalind might not have had a desk, but the rarely used table in the meeting room more than sufficed when she had work spread across half the surface.
That corner was for the sponsorship contracts with her handwriting sprawled in the margins. The other corner was her list of questions she was absolutely going to get around to asking the other women, when she found time to see them… some day. She was going to have to get fitted for a fundraiser outfit soon. Maybe she could visit after getting measured by Kat.
She added the task to her mental list then refocused on the work in front of her. Mozke had been a tremendous help with reviewing her proposal notes for the art district, even fetching old ledgers and historical documents from Scholar’sHall, in spite of the clear stamps that said they were not to be removed from the building.
“I know a demon,” was all Mozke said about that.
So Rosalind took great care to minimize her sweaty fingerprints on the edges of the parchment, comparing business transactions and city repair requests and all manner of lack of funding responses that she could not verify.
“I don’t understand,” she muttered to herself, once again going through the line items. “Where is this money going?”
Every time she reached the end, the trail ran cold, and her migraine was only getting worse.
The answer, she knew, was going to see the Horn of Finance. Tarzul would have more up-to-date records to help her sort out this mess. But she’d already been there this morning, delivering the business license and fees for Salgoron of Salgoron’s Goods, which had indeed been delivered before she’d arrived at work that morning. And Tarzul had not been too thrilled when he was interrupted during an unscheduled meeting—Elliran told her to go right in!—with a grumpy-looking red demon elder as she delivered the payment.
Despite her current frustration, Rose chuckled. Dav would get a kick out of that story—hearing how frustrated the Horn of Finance was that ahumanwas more skilled at threatening Heck’s citizens into paying their dues. Laz would laugh, too, then wrap his arms around her and swear she shouldn’t actually look at their budget because he feared she’d uncover some money-laundering plot that heunknowingly participated in because percentages were confusing.
