It was going to be okay. Everything was going to be fine once demons started arriving.
“Why are you not dressed?”
Fear surged again as Rosalind squeaked, covering her body quickly before realizing this wasn’t another nightmare where she stood naked in the middle of the gala while demons laughed at her. There was fabric under her hands, though it took her longer than she’d admit to remember that this wasn’t her fundraiser attire.
“I’ve got time,” she told Mozke, which was a complete lie.
The blue demon, clad in a shimmering gold one-piece suit, shook their head. “Go put on your dress. I can handle things from here.”
“Are you sure?” There were still so many things that needed to be done. Napkins to be arranged. Signs to be posted. Wine glasses to be filled. Not that Argeth was going to do any of that since he’d yet to show up.
Mozke looked at her like they’d been insulted.
“Okay, okay,” she said, holding her hands up defensively. “Sorry.”
Rosalind hurried off, only giving a few more orders as she went in the hopes that Mozke wasn’t looking and wouldn’t hold it against her later. She found her bag draped over a counter in the back of the kitchen, a verystrategic place because some part of her desperately needed to see her demons, even for just a moment, if she had any hope of surviving the night.
She’d just started fighting with the laces when there was a sharp inhale behind her.
“It must be my lucky day.”
Rosalind spun in relief. “Oh, thank the gods. Please help.”
Lazerath chuckled, setting a stack of boxes down to assist. He was in an all-white uniform, just like many of the demons from Culture’s offices who were assisting them tonight. But where those demons looked out of place, Laz looked like the uniform was meant for him and him alone.
“You keep staring, beautiful, I’m going to make you very late,” he teased.
“Sorry, sorry,” she muttered, lifting her hair so he could tie off the bow.
“Hey, no apologizing.” He guided her hair down and then placed his hands on her shoulders. “We’re good here. Food is ready, and the decor is all set up. Everything looks amazing. You look amazing.” He glanced down at her skirt with an appreciative hum. “More than amazing.”
Rosalind twisted her hips and let the dark teal fabric and silver stars catch in the light. “I don’t know how Kat had the time.”
“Oh, she works with Brioni at the post. And her sister is the one in the guard.”
That brought a smile to Rose’s face, seeing Laz take an interest in the others because itmattered to her.
“Kalypso should be here tonight. I am going to be attaching myself to her until maybe some of her confidence rubs off when I ask rich snobs for money.”
“You’ve got this. Your project is important, and everyone is going to see how passionate you are about it. Any demon who doesn’t want to donate to it, I’ll… send Sev to threaten them or something.”
“Please don’t.”
“I will!” He folded his arms, like that might make him more menacing. “You should have seen him and Dav team up back in the day.”
“You say that like you’re older than thirty-three.”
“Some days a very old thirty-three,” he sighed.
“Hey, Laz?” came the deep voice behind him. Dav walked in wearing the same outfit as Laz, and fuck, how could two massive demons look so damn good in shapeless white uniforms?
Davarox ran his tongue over his lower lip, gaze lingering at her chest and corset. “Okay, I’d probably get distracted too.”
Laz snapped his fingers. “Shit, I was supposed to go find that lost cart of bronzeberry scones.” He turned back and kissed Rose long and hard enough to make her dizzy before pulling away. “If you need a break from those stuffy demons, come find me. We’ll see if you can keep quiet in a storage closet.”
Rosalind wasn’t fast enough to smack him before he skipped away, dodging Dav’s whipping tail in a much-too-smooth evasion for the red demon who always tripped over his own thick tail.
Leaving Rosalind and Davarox alone.
