Downworld

Chapter 3

I hesitated outside the door and the doorman gave me a quizzical look. I told myself to stop being a fucking coward.

When I stepped forward, he tried to tell me they don't have any vacancies, which is the line they give to humans. I was stunned for a moment, then decided to take it as a compliment on how good I'm at passing for human. Though I shouldn't have been surprised, since I lived with a human, and hadn't used my powers since last year, when I'd rescued Malik, so there shouldn't have been any trace of magic on me. I would have felt and tasted human.

That was the good thing, and bad thing, about being a parasitic freak like an incubus; never use your powers, don't take energy from others, and you were essentially human. But take energy from someone powerful and rank more or less disappeared. You were only as powerful as your prey.

I gave the doorman a kiss on the cheek and a jolt of my drain, just a prick. I jumped away as he took a swing at me. 'Don't ever do that again,' he hissed. I smirked, but gave him a wide berth as I went on. The jolt had the added bonus of leaving the lingering tang of magic on my skin, giving away to all that I'm not human, so that none of the other freaks I passed looked at me like a walking lunch, though the trace of it was so faint some of them looked twice.

So what could compel me to return to the downworld after ten years? Tinder, of course. Kean had called me this morning to tell me she'd had the baby. And he asked me to come see her, because, as he put it, she didn't need to be exhausted looking after a baby and worrying about me. That was an excuse really, I actually went because I missed her, she hadn't left her Raven's territory since she found out she was pregnant. She didn't want to risk getting in a scuffle and hurting the baby.

I took the stairs down, went through the door with the 'restricted access' sign, and found myself before the gateway. It's just a tunnel leading down, really, with a splash of magic for lighting. For all our magic and mystery, us freaks really just lived in a big hole in the ground.

After much walking, the tunnel opened in what I'd call, if I were above, a meadow. It's not, though, and that was a roof, not sky like it pretended to be.

Tricks and lies all.

This was Glen, the Red King's territory, bewitched long ago to seem to be eternal day. Things grew here, even, though not the kinds of things that grew above. Things like dryad trees and sentient vines. Off to my right was a settlement of thatched huts, which I was certain had been there since the middle ages, and beyond that was a gothic castle type thing. That was where the Red King lived with his household.

I turned in the opposite direction and followed the dirt road that lead to the Labyrinth, where the Silent Lady ruled. I stuffed my hands in my pockets and hurried. This was still technically a safe zone, but I was a stranger and would be questioned if spotted by the King's people. Fortunately, the Labyrinth's border wasn't far away. I didn't have trouble skulking my way to it.

There were freaks guarding the border on both sides, assisted by long stretches of unbroken wall that connected floor to roof. No fake sky for Labyrinth, just black rock in twisting corridors that never let you forget you're deep underground. The Red King's guards watched me go, but the others questioned me. I explained my purpose. They asked me whom I owed allegiance to, and frowned when I said no one. I didn't punch them, or worse, when one of them snickered at me and asked if I'm not a little old to be unsworn. I gave them my parent's allegiance, which technically applied in default, though saying his name made me sick. They shut up, because the lord my parents served was an ally to both Raven and the Red King. I was allowed to pass.

The problem was I had no idea where Tinder lived. I had directions, but the Labyrinth was literally a labyrinth. The streets were a few meters wide, and a few meters tall and they all looked the same, gray and confusing. Intentionally so, because your enemies would have a hard time invading if they were wandering around lost. I knocked on three doors, and got directions at each, before I found the right one.