Page 52 of Taken to the Deadlands

I had spent the last month redoing the shop with all the savings I had managed.

Agnus had kept her promise and began spreading the word about my services. Mags came in not long after she predicted, and, thanks to the knowledge she shared, Mags too became a regular.

I should have felt bad about using the gossip Agnus fed me to reel in customers, but it had helped put food on the table and take my mind away from other things.

And Agnus seemed to be having a hell of a time. She no longer came in for my services. Instead, we just made some tea and had snacks together while gossiping.

She was my only friend in this town, and one that I treasured dearly.

But still… Nothing seemed to matter.

The memories of the Demon Realm never left me. While it had been a frightening experience, I had tried many times to recreate the steps I had taken the night the red-winged demon had visited me, but it never worked. She never showed up again.

I knew I should have moved on, but it was like I was incapable of it. It didn’t matter that she and I were from different worlds. Or that I hadn’t wanted to be there in the first place.

Every night I dreamt of Aris, and when I woke up, I swore I could still feel the brush of her skin against mine. The memory of her was ingrained in me, and I couldn’t forget the feeling of her lips against mine.

It was all a constant reminder of what I was missing. What I had lost.

I should have told her the truth earlier. I should have told her I wanted to stay. I shouldn’t have let her push me away.

I sat on my desk, drinking a bottle of the cheapest rosé I could find.

I didn’t know what I was going to do. Would the rest of my life be like this? A constant cycle of desperately missing the demon who had bought me and almost killed me while scamming the small town of their money?

When I was younger, I used to think that I would accomplish something special with the time I had here… Yet there I was, getting drunk by myself and dreaming about being whisked away into some far-off, lifeless realm. Again.

I almost didn’t believe it when a shimmering portal opened in front of me. I thought I was hallucinating or flat out drunk when the familiar leather wings poked out, followed by a glimpse of stark white hair.

But I sure as hell started to believe it was real when the portal closed behind her, and she met my gaze with a wicked grin.

I chucked the wine bottle at her head and scrambled over my desk, trying to get away. The sound of the bottle landing on the wood floor should have warned me, but I wasn’t prepared for the demon to appear right in front of me.

“Looks like Aris has beennaughty,” she said with a laugh. I jerked back. Her clawed hand gripped my shirt and forced me close to her face.

“Letting a human go isn’t against the rules,” I replied, though I had no idea if it was true or not.

Her lips twisted into a smile that caused my blood to run cold.

“No,” she admitted. “But she’s been getting on my nerves, so I have come to… rectify the issue.”

I raised a brow at her, trying to hide the fact that the mention of Aris’s name was doing things to my heart.

“I have come to make a deal with you.”

I shook my head. “You fucking kidnapped me last time. Why the hell would I make any kind of deal with you?”

She inhaled deeply. “Your fear smells so good. No wonder you grew on her.”

“Stop smelling me,” I spat out.

She let go of my shirt to stand back with her hands on her hips.

“Come back with me, and I will let Aris purchase you again,” she offered. “I kept hoping she would buy another human, but instead she’s buying all the pitifully weak demons, and it’s messing with my sales. I’m sure once she sees you again, she’ll leave us alone for good.”

Wait.

I can… go back?

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