“I’ll be civilized again tomorrow.”
“I can’t understand you when you speak into the blankets,” they said, and Rosalind was too tired to be embarrassed when they tugged her boot off for her.
It’s possible they said something more, but before her second boot was off, she was fast asleep.
2
DISASTER DEMON
Lazerath
“Happy retirement!”
The door was promptly shut in Lazerath’s face.
“Aww, come on!” he shouted, listening to his twin brother stomp away from the front door. But there had been no click of the lock, and when Laz tested the handle, it opened. He chased after Severath, who really wasn’t trying all that hard to escape if he thought the kitchen was the best place to hide. “How do you lock out a demon carrying cookies?Frostedcookies, even!”
He knew the answer, of course. This demon had told that demon who had then spoken a little too loudly at the bakery, once again confusing Lazerath for Severath and the miraculous healing of his horn.
Considering Laz only risked losing a horn nowadays when he stood too quickly in the bakery’s kitchen andsmashed his head against the hearth, he’d learned something was up.
Which led him to the infirmary, followed by discovering there werehumansin Heck, brought back by his own brother, and when they wouldn’t let him in despite his obvious familial connections to demons within the infirmary—and he’d failed to imitate his twin—his cousin, Balran, had come outside to tell him Severath would be recovering at home.
She’d failed to mention the broken horn. Or the gnarly cloth covering his eye. Or the devastation on Sev’s face.
Laz’s hand fell back to his side when he saw his twin flinch. “At least they grow?—”
Severath shook his head. “Sorcery destroyed the bud.”
Fuck. If it wouldn’t grow back…
Laz grinned with the idea, then thrust the bag of cookies at his twin. “You can have mine!”
He proceeded to yank at his horn in an attempt to break it off. Which of course devolved into chaos, as Lazerath was prone to do, but it managed to wipe the pouty look off Sev’s face.
But then he was being rushed out the door with no recollection of how he’d gone from offering up his horn to being ejected from his brother’s cozy cottage. Something about a criminal or a depraved caramel. Warrior shit that Laz usually had no stomach for. But there was a tiny, hooded figure being escorted up the path by Drolmoth and Garion, and Lazwasjustwary enough about his brother’s warning to keep walking.
Definitely not to avoid Drolmoth.
He was halfway back into Heck proper when he stopped short, realizing that he’d been fooled into leaving when his whole goal had been to stay for the rest of the afternoon.
“Oh, that tricky fucker,” he mumbled, then grinned and continued down the street. He’d just visit another day, and if Sev locked him out, he’d simply use the spare key his brother didn’t know about.
By the time he made it to the bakery, he’d compiled a list of supplies for the kitchen—which he’d already forgotten—a new recipe to try—for some reason he was thinking of caramel—and a full dance routine he would try the next time he and Dav went out for the night.
He smiled at the freshly painted sign welcoming demons to Lovable Loaf. Everything about his life was perfect. Except for the ingredients that were going bad faster than they could make and sell desserts. And the way deliveries always seemed more expensive, even when they arrived days later than expected. And the loneliness he felt every time he opened the door to his apartment and remembered he lived alone.
Laz pushed through the door and froze.
Empty.
He frowned and turned to check the posted hours on the window, then noticed whatthe issue was.
“Dav, you forgot to switch the card to open,” he called with a chuckle, then cursed.
Hewas supposed to switch it before he went to see Sev.
“What was that?” came Dav’s voice from the back.
