Page 8 of Demon's Dark Love

“Why are you so soft on her?” Griselda hisses at Enoch, her tone filled with contempt. I freeze, straining to catch every word. “She’s nothing but a human servant, not worth your time.”

“Maybe she’s tougher than you think,” Enoch replies, his voice low but firm. The way he defends me sends warmth blooming in my chest. “You’re pushing her too hard.”

I can hardly believe my ears. Enoch, who has always seemed like a cruel specter looming over my work, is standing up for me!

“She doesn’t need your pity,” Griselda snaps back, disbelief dripping from her words. “Letting her off easy only makes her weak.”

“No,” Enoch insists. “She has proven her strength. You are foolishly running her to a quick death rather than letting her sustain a lighter workload for us for longer. It's a smart use of a resource.”

I bite my lip, a mix of emotions swirling within me—gratitude, confusion, and something that feels dangerously close to hope.

As Griselda mutters under her breath and stomps away, I gather my courage. This moment could be my chance, a fleeting opportunity to bridge the chasm between us.

“Lord Enoch?” My voice wavers as I step out of the shadows where I’ve been scrubbing away dirt.

He turns, surprise flickering across his face before it morphs into that familiar smirk. “You are addressing me, slave?”

“Pardon me, lord, but I wanted to thank you.” My heart races as I approach him cautiously. “For defending me.”

He raises an eyebrow, amusement glimmering in his crimson eyes. “Is that what I was doing?”

“Griselda makes this place unbearable.”

Enoch nods as if he understands far more than he lets on.

“I heard about the rose garden,” I venture cautiously, remembering the tales whispered among servants about its beauty hidden behind high stone walls. "And that some humans are allowed to work there."

His expression shifts slightly, curiosity dances across his features.

“Beautiful blooms and thorns alike,” he muses softly, almost lost in thought.

“You like it?” The question slips from my lips before I can rein it in. "Forgive me, but roses don't seem very demonic."

“We can grow the most beautiful things,” he replies quietly. The honesty catches me off guard. "It's all in how we use them."

“I wish I could see it,” I confess before realizing how open I'm being.

He smirks again but this time with less malice, a glimmer of something softer shining through those deep crimson eyes.

“Maybe one day.”

4

ENOCH

Dreams of her flood my nights, an unbidden warmth spreading through the cold chambers of my mind. I imagine us, walking in the rose garden, her auburn hair catching the sunlight, her laugh breaking the silence like a melody I can't escape.

In the waking world, I'm torn. The expectations of my kind pull me one way, while something deeper tugs me toward her. My mother’s voice echoes in my head, sharp and unyielding. "Humans are beneath us."

But then there’s Lily. I find myself seeking her out in the castle’s dark corners, under the pretense of inspection. She glances up from scrubbing the floor, sweat glistening on her brow but goes back to her work.

She knows better to speak to me first when others are around. As demons and human slaves alike filter by I notice her eyes shift up toward me.

Softly, so much that I almost miss it, I hear a whisper.

"Come to gloat?"

She doesn't look away from her work.

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