Downworld

Chapter 38

Afra and Malik were yelling at each other. In a way, it was gratifying to see him stand up to her, but mostly it was fucking annoying.

She was apparently leading the let's-give-Malik-and-Jay-shit squad, because most of downworld was really unhappy with my stunt and subsequent cooperation with the human authorities. I'd yet to disclose the existence of downworld itself, but apparently even knowing that humans knew freaks existed was enough to fluster the masses.

In a way, it was kind of funny. Afra could kill a hell of a lot humans if she put her mind to it, by all rights they should be afraid of her, but under the anger she was afraid of them. I'd have to remember to be careful around her; an afraid Afra was a dangerous one.

The yelling continued. Other nobles threw in their two cents. It was going nowhere though, because even the most insulated downworlder knew what was going on above at the moment, and they all knew that the cat was out of the bag. What they really wanted was my head on a plate, but it didn't matter how much Malik might hate me on occasion, he wasn't going to let them hurt me; in fact, he seemed outwardly sure that allowing me to do what I wanted was the best course of action here, and was half way to convincing the nobles who weren't in Afra's squad of it too.

Afra would never go for it. It seemed like she was holding a grudge, which was unsurprising.

In short, this was an unstoppable force meets moveable object kind of situation. Hence the screaming at each other.

I was very pleased when the meeting broke for the day, even if it meant Afra and Co giving me dirty looks on their way out.

'I thought you had meetings,' Malik said stiffly when I entered the room.

I slumped down into a chair at the now vacated table, while Malik started pacing. 'Got out early.'

'How's the situation above?'

'Interesting. I've never had my own protest before.'

The main event of the day had been Criswell's bail hearing and the loud crowd outside the courthouse. So many had shown up that the police had been called in to mediate between the supporters and opponents. The police hadn't been able to stop Criswell's car being egged though, much to my pleasure.

He frowned at me as if he didn't know what I was talking about, which I thought was unlikely. He didn't trust me anymore -- not that I blamed him -- and had others keeping an eye on things, and on me. He obviously thought I hadn't figured that out yet.

'For or against?' he asked.

'Both,' I replied, deciding to play the ignorance game. 'We've been pushing the "just like you, but different" angle pretty hard, and it's been paying off. But not all the fear is down here. Haters gonna hate.'

'What language are you even speaking?'

'Sorry, sweetheart, I'll try to cut the lingo. But millennials are my biggest supporters and they're rubbing off on me. We probably have Twilight and Teen Wolf to thank for that.'

'What and what?'

'We have got to do a movie night again sometime soon. It'll be hilarious.'

'Movie night is not on my list of priorities.'

'Shame.'

'How about we talk about the interview you gave earlier today? Because I'm pretty sure that goes against the staying out of the spotlight agreement that we came to.'

'Aannnd, we're fighting again, are we?'

'We never stopped. Your explanation?'

I shrugged. 'They cornered me outside the courthouse and it struck me as the perfect time to play the victim card.'

'One, I don't for a second believe anyone could corner you if you didn't want them too. Two, the victim card? Really? You were practically painting us as helpless, quivering babies. Are you trying to invite an attack?'

'Okay, sweetheart, you need to calm down. Looking unthreatening is exactly the point. No one is going to attack me, because even if they wanted to, which trust me they don't, I'm never without bodyguards when I'm above, as you requested.'

'Well, it's nice to know you have at least some respect for what I think.'

I didn't answer him because there wasn't much I could say to that without escalating the argument. I was tired of fighting with him, and everyone else too. I wasn't going to admit I was wrong, but I'd decided to stop pushing him in the hopes that he would also get tired of fighting with me and we could make up.

I realized I was a little delusional in that respect.

'I think you should sleep in the apartment for a while,' he said.

He kept talking after that, about how it didn't look good to our neighbors that we still shared a bed and they thought I had some control over him or that he was in on it because he hadn't kicked be out before now. The perfectly reasonable explanations tumbled from his lips but I couldn't hear them over trying to remember the last time I'd slept without Malik.

'Fine,' I heard myself agreeing, because yes, he was right.

It looked bad that despite everything, we still curled up beside each other after having -- admittedly frustrated and angry -- sex each night. Moving to the apartment -- a bigger apartment than I used to live in -- was the logical thing to do, it might even be the best thing to do because Elspeth lived there too and then by default my bodyguards also became her bodyguards, once she returned from tour, that was. It wasn't just Elspeth either, Fiona and Stevie crashed there from time to time, which would be nice. And downworld was becoming suffocating. Plus, being above at all hours meant people who wanted to contact me could actually do so.

Malik looked at me with an expression a lot like disappointment, which didn't make sense because I was doing what he wanted.

'I'll pack my things,' I said, and left, because there wasn't much point delaying.

And if it hurt to try sort my clothes out from his and pack a bag, no one needed to know that. They definitely didn't need to know that eventually I gave up and decided just to buy new clothes if I needed any more, because I had to get out of there before I did something stupid, like tell Malik I couldn't leave.

The apartment was empty and dark when I got there, leaving my bodyguards -- members of my own household who knew when to shove off -- at the door. The apartment stayed empty and dark, so there was no one around to know that I didn't get any sleep that night because I was feeling restless and lonely. Though I couldn't hide it from Isamu when he saw me the next morning, and I couldn't say thanks when he said he'd come up and stay in one of the spare rooms.

But I didn't regret anything, there was too much to do yet.