All Celia wanted was to make tasty sandwiches for a friend's baby shower. When her cooking endeavors summon a demon in her kitchen, Celia thinks sending him back to his home will be the end of their story and that she'll be able to return to her mun...
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"Hey, David! Some of the packages you were waiting for came!" I called, carrying in a stack of boxes.
"Careful with those!" David sighed at me. "You're going to break something in those heels. I swear, you're trying to make me go gray."
"Hmmm? This little human works here?" A man in unfamiliar attire shifted to look at me. He looked unimpressed at first, but soon his foxlike ears flicked forward, and his chartreuse eyes glinted with mischief. "She's too cute to be a mere servant. Sell her to me."
"Celia is an employee," David stated, narrowing his eyes at the man. "You've been in the Underrealm for too long. Slavery is illegal these days."
"Slavery?" The foxy man laughed. "You misunderstand me. I want her to become one of my wives. She would make a wonderful addition to my collection."
A thinner fox-man leaned toward the first and whispered something, earning a heavy sigh.
"Celia," David gave me a pointed look, "go get something to eat. It's past your break time."
"Uh...okay." I edged away from the odd trio before fleeing to the cafe.
The fox-people looked human aside from the ears, tails, claws, and fangs. Well, there was their hair and eye colors too. How was that kind of behavior acceptable, and what was I supposed to do about it?
I sighed, staring at my toes. More and more inhuman clients had been coming by the shop for the past two weeks, yet I hadn't seen Tsukiyo since the evening we had watched a movie with Emily and Richard. Maybe I really had screwed up.
After shaking off the negative thoughts, I hurried with my lunch and then returned to the main floor of the store. David was still in deep discussion with the fox—kitsune perhaps—so I was able to sneak past unnoticed. There was an utter mess of books strewn about, and I intended to fix it.
Maybe a mess was an understatement. The entire section on folklore and mythology looked like a hurricane had come through. I wasn't too surprised—ever since inhumans became visible to everyone, we'd had a constant flow of customers coming in looking for books on the newly re-encountered races. Most of the city was still in a panic, but it had gradually lessened as time passed.
Instead, new problems had begun to surface. A lot of people were taking issue with my family enslaving the inhuman races, while others saw it as protecting humankind. Thus, a new political rift had formed—on a worldwide scale. No country had laws to support fair treatment of inhuman citizens or visitors, and most didn't care to create them. Most saw a workforce to enslave, much as my family did.
Others wanted inhumans to have the same rights as the rest of us.
Then, there was a handful of countries that treated the inhumans with reverence.
"Celia, dear, you're still working in this squalor?" The woman's voice made my blood run cold. I whirled around to find my grandmother, father, and three skydwellers standing behind me.
