“You lot threw me out, so you can’t blame me if I’ve gone to the bad,” I told him.
“Neither correct regard for your own conclusions nor cheekiness is inherently bad,” Athelas said, surprising me. “In my experience, however, it tends to be painful more often than I would like.”
I couldn’t picture Athelas being cheeky, even when he was young. Bitterly sarcastic, yes. Devastatingly, incisively honest, yes. Cheeky, no. Come to that, I couldn’t picture Athelas being young.
“You were talking to the detective, anyway,” I complained. “Why should I have to listen?”
“I’ve not noticed that the recipient of any given conversation determines your interest in it.”
I grinned. “Yeah, that’s fair. Oi. Zero know you’re here?”
“He does. He was the one who sent me.”
“Yeah?” I looked at him suspiciously. I didn’t know why, but I had the distinct feeling that he wasn’t telling the truth. No—that he was telling the truth, but very carefully telling the truth to mislead us as much as possible. The question was, what was it he was very carefully saying—or not saying, as the case may be?
“What exactly are you trying to advise me about?” asked Detective Tuatu, his impatience simmering over. “We’ve been sitting here for the last twenty minutes, and all you’ve said is that you have a message for North. What is it?”
“The message is regarding the recording you gave her.”
“What about it? North said she’s giving it to the parents.”
“When a person has something that another party desires to have, it is generally considered necessary to negotiate.”
Tuatu frowned a bit. “She’s a nice lady. She just wants to give it to the parents and she doesn’t need anything from them.”
“While that is no doubt very laudable,” said Athelas, “Behind, there is the expectation of contract even between friends.”
“You lot really gotta work on your definition of friends,” I said. “If North doesn’t want to throw a contract at someone to make an exchange for something she doesn’t need, why can’t she just give it to them?”
“Because gifts are dangerous Behind,” said Athelas. “Sometimes for the receiver, sometimes for the giver. Even a nominal exchange put to contract is safer than willy-nilly generosity!”
“You mean Behindkind wanna pin each other down just in case something goes sideways,” I translated.
“Something of the kind,” he said. “I would encourage you to inform your friend, detective, that it is best to solidify her gifts on paper.”
“She’s not my friend,” said Detective Tuatu. “She’s a force of nature, and I’m pretty sure if I try to tell her anything, it’ll be the last thing I do.”
“Perhaps Pet will do so, then,” Athelas said lazily.
“Yeah, p’raps,” I said. North wasn’t likely to try to hurt me on purpose, but she was potentially even more powerful than the psychos, and it’s always easier to cry about the squashed bug after you squash it than it is to mind your feet.
“I see that I can do no good here,” said Athelas, rising in a leisurely way. “I’ll tell my lord that my attempts to convince you of the necessity of contractual certainty were useless. Do make sure you remind your friend that since her young protégé’s parents were not the ones who called an end to the contract, it’s their right to dictate the terms of any following contract that might be formed. Pet. Detective.”
I blinked a bit. Athelas had given me a very good idea, and that was a bit concerning. Any idea I got from him was probably an idea he meant to give me, and if that was the case, there was a fifty-fifty chance that the idea was actually a Very Bad Idea.
Well, I mean: good for Athelas, but likely bad for me.
I stared at his back as he disappeared down the hall, trying to figure it out. Was he trying to tell me something, or had I actually figured it out by myself?
“Don’t ask me,” said Tuatu gloomily, somehow managing to correctly interpret the way I was gazing after Athelas. “I don’t know what’s going on anymore.”
“Good heavens,” said Athelas’ voice from the doorway, while we were commiserating with each other.
Still, he didn’t seem really shocked, so I wasn’t surprised when Zero and JinYeong came down the hall, with Daniel close behind.
“If you’re here to offer more advice—” began Detective Tuatu.
“I’m here to speak with the Pet,” said Zero.
Chapter Thirteen
I was pretty sure Detective Tuatu had had enough for the day, so I chivvied everyone outside and made them talk on the front steps instead.
There were probably a few dozen things I’d imagined Zero would say if he came looking for me. At least a dozen I wanted him to say. He didn’t say any of them. Instead, he said, “Come back to the house. We’ll make a bargain: that USB for ownership of your house and our protection.”
“Yeah? What about the house?” I demanded. I was trying not to read too much into the fact that nobody had mentioned chattel ownership, or even going back to being a pet. Yet. “It keeps trying to come across to me. That upsets the balance a bit, and I’m pretty sure that means I should be getting more in the exchange.”
“We can discuss it when you’re home.”
“You’re not taking her home until she’s happy to go,” Daniel said.
“We do not need to go back,” said JinYeong at the same time. “We have coffee elsewhere.”
He didn’t look as fully dressed as usual: he was missing a tie and one of his buttons wasn’t done up. Had he left the house in a hurry?
“It’s no longer safe for the pet to be out alone,” Zero said, pinning them both with an icy blue look. “And I have need of the information she possesses.”
“I can look after her,” said JinYeong, shrugging. “She will look after me. We do not need you.”
“I fail to see how the pet can possibly protect you,” Athelas said. “JinYeong, do you think you could refrain from needling my lord long enough to begin negotiations?”
Ignoring JinYeong completely, Zero said to me, “Come back, Pet. I apologise. We can—we can talk about conditions at home.”
“I’m not going back with you,” I said. “Not without talking about it, anyway. If you don’t wanna talk, me and JinYeong and Daniel will go home now and you can have a conversation between you and Athelas. At least that way no one’s gunna be disagreeing with you.”
“What do you want to talk about?”
“I want to make some ground rules,” I said. “Because right now I don’t trust you.”
“You—” Zero stopped, his shoulders very stiff, and said at last, “I have always kept you safe.”
“You kept me safe because we had a contract,” I said. It was easier than saying the whole truth to his face, and I didn’t yet know if I wanted Zero to know how much access I still had to the house. “And you lied to me to keep me safe, because we had a contract. So don’t pretend you were keeping me safe for anything else. I want to be able to trust you to tell the truth before I trust you about anything else.”
Zero’s feet shifted just slightly. “Pet—”
“I mean, JinYeong kept me safe, too, and he didn’t lie to me about it. Even Athelas told the truth. You’re the only one who lied to me.”
Zero, as if frustrated beyond what he could endure, said, “I’m not the only one who lied!”
JinYeong’s mouth dropped open, and he said in utter shock, “Hyeong!”
“If you’re talking about Athelas, it’s not like he actually lies, he tells the truth in a sneaky way, so—”
“JinYeong—” began Zero, still rather hastily, and JinYeong, his gaze dark and bloody, said something sharp that I didn’t understand. Zero held those eyes coolly, and said to me, “JinYeong was with you on my orders the entire time. I told him to follow you, to keep you safe. I didn’t do that because we still had a contract, I did it—”
JinYeong gave an incredulous littl
e laugh, and said softly, “Ah, I should really kill you this time! Hyeong, you’re cheating!”
I stared at him, and there was a pointy, warm ball of rage somewhere above my heart. “You flamin’ liar!”
“Ya!” said JinYeong.
“Don’t you ya me! You trotted along behind me like you were watching out for me off your own bat! You didn’t tell me Zero sent you!”
“Yopae casseo!”
“It doesn’t matter whether you were behind me or beside me!”
“To JinYeong, I believe it does,” said Athelas. “But I don’t see why we should allow that to affect us in any way, after all.”
JinYeong snarled at him, silent and warning, and one of Athelas’ brows went up.
“You pretended to be my friend,” I said, scowling at JinYeong.
JinYeong muttered something about not being friends, his shoulder turned to me as if he was the one with the right to be sulking instead of me.
“Would you have allowed him to stay around the place if you thought I’d sent him?” Zero asked briefly.
“No,” I said, turning the glare reflexively on Zero. I’d guessed at the first that JinYeong had been reporting the odd thing or two back to Zero, but after the fight, things had changed—JinYeong had changed. Maybe I’d changed. And for just a little while, I had trusted him completely.
“Very well.”
“No, it’s not very well. That’s my choice.”
“This is what she was talking about when she said she couldn’t trust you,” said Daniel in disbelief. “Seriously, do you three even listen?”
JinYeong snarled at him, but Athelas only sighed. He looked like he was ready to give up on the whole thing. Zero said tightly, “This has nothing to do with you, wolf. You’re fortunate that your trial has been indefinitely postponed.”
“Don’t threaten my friends,” I said indignantly.
Zero’s voice sounded as helpless as I’d ever heard it. “I didn’t—I didn’t threaten…”
“Yeah you did,” I said.
“Perhaps we could offer an apology to the wolf, my lord?” gently suggested Athelas.
“Very well.” Zero drew in a deep breath through his nose. “I apologise. Pet, at the moment we need you, and you need us. We should at least talk about making a new contract.”
“Are you sorry?” I asked him, because that was important.
I saw that same flicker in one eye—the same thing I’d seen as he hesitated just a fraction of a second too long to gut me—and even though he said, “No,” sharply, I was content. As much as JinYeong had been deceptive about his friendship, Zero was deceptive about withholding it.
For now. I was content for now.
I said, “Okay. I’ll make a deal. I’ll come home tonight and we’ll talk about it properly tomorrow.”
Because even if I was content for now, I was going to make my bargain count this time.
“Are you sure, Pet?” asked Daniel uneasily.
“Yeah,” I said. It was too dangerous for Morgana if I stayed much longer at her house. Besides that, I’d done what I could while I was on my own, but I couldn’t deny that things were easier to do and find out when I was with my psychos. And there was no way I would be able to access all that was on the USB without Zero’s password.
Then there was the matter of my house, and my parents’ murders.
There was too much to find out. Too much to solve. Too many humans who, like the Palmers, were terrorised by Behindkind with no way out. Too many turning to Behindkind for their cut of the power.
If I went back, I could do something about all of those things. If I went back, maybe things would be different this time. Because Zero hadn’t gutted me, and Athelas had come to me when he didn’t need to. Because Athelas and even sometimes Zero, had begun to call me she instead of it.
And because this time, I would have some leverage for making my bargain.
“I’ve gotta get my stuff,” I said to Zero. “Meet you back at the house.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No,” I said. “I’ll meet you at home.”
He hesitated, and looked as though he were about to say something, but bit his lips over it. “Very well. Don’t be long.”
Daniel and I turned back up Elizabeth street, and a familiar flutter of cologne began to follow us as if by sheer force of habit.
“I don’t want you!” I said. “Go away!”
“Nado shilleoh!” snapped JinYeong, turning on his heel, and then Daniel and I were alone.
Morgana’s face dropped as soon as she saw me. “You’re going, aren’t you?” she said, before I had even shut the door behind me.
“Yeah,” I said, because there didn’t seem to be much use in drawing it out. “Me and the other blokes back at my house are trying to reach an agreement.”
“Is it safe? Daniel doesn’t like them much.”
“I’m still not sure I like them much,” I said honestly. “But there’s still work for me to do there. And I think…I think maybe they can change. It’s just gunna take a lot longer than I thought it would.”
“I suppose that means everything went well tonight.”
“Yeah. Daniel wants to tell you about it and I have to grab my stuff tonight anyway.”
“Are you going to—will you be back?”
It must seem weird to her—rude even. Me picking up and leaving as quickly as I could. But it had never been safe for her to have me here, and I didn’t want to think what would happen if my house got much closer to overlaying her house. She had every right to be angry, though I wasn’t sure if she was angry or just sad.
“I’ll come past and say hi to Daniel every now and then,” I said. “You won’t know I’m here. You don’t have to talk to me—don’t have to look at me if you don’t want to.”
“No!” said Morgana, her face brightening. “I want to talk! You have no idea how lonely it is here when you’re out!”
“There’s a whole bunch of people downstairs,” I said.
“Yeah,” she said. “All blokes, did you notice? I love them all, but sometimes I just want to talk to another female, you know?”
I thought about that doubtfully. “Dunno,” I said, at last. “I’m not really used to talking to anyone, so I s’pose I’ll get there.”
I still remembered how hard it had been to stop myself from listening obsessively to everything that went on in the house when I was still hiding from my psychos—that warm, lingering, aching desire to hear other people speak and see the movement of life around the place. Maybe there was a version of that which came after a person was used to the basic companionship of people again, one that focused on a particular kind of companionship.
“I’ll feed the kids before I go,” I said. It wasn’t what I wanted to say, but it was all I could say. I had to get my stuff and go before the houses tried to merge any more: I’d already seen the blurring of the stairs around me as I walked up to see Morgana.
“I’ll see you next time?” she asked, briefly perky.
“Yeah,” I said, even though I knew it wasn’t likely that I’d be back any time soon. “Thanks. For everything.”
It didn’t leave me feeling wonderful, so I was already in a pretty foul mood by the time I got back to my old house. The familiarity of knowing that all three of my psychos were in the house, and exactly where they were, twitched at my lips and tried to make me smile, and the tension that had been building in my shoulders seemed to melt away. That is, until I saw what was in the JinYeong-tinted patch of the living room as I walked up the hall.
It was JinYeong, of course. But it was JinYeong in jeans and a yellow jumper, padding across the carpet barefoot from the direction of the kitchen.
“Don’t wear that!” I said to him, aware of my own unreasonable annoyance but unable to stop myself. He hadn’t done worse than Zero, but for a while, I had trusted him even more than I’d trusted Zero, and now I was angry.
JinYeong only shrugged elegantly at me and sa
t down on our couch. “I wish to drink coffee,” he said pointedly.
“Yeah? Well, so do I, and I’m not your pet, so get it yourself.”
He shrugged again and went back into the kitchen. Athelas, who was sitting in his own chair with a cup of tea, looked amused.
“Let me guess,” I said, my voice sour to my own ears, “Zero told him to get in by any means, and they planned that fight together.”
The thought made me angrier. I couldn’t believe I’d felt sorry for the perfumed little git. I couldn’t believe I’d given him so much of my blood. Couldn’t believe I’d bought clothes for him instead of making him walk home in a bloody mess.
“There was such an order,” said Athelas, “but my lord made no such plan. JinYeong is…unpredictable. We certainly didn’t expect him to disobey orders to the extent he did.”
The extent didn’t really matter: outwardly or not, JinYeong had been following orders the whole time he was with me in Morgana’s house. Lying to me. Pretending that somehow we could be friends.
“By the way, I trust that you’re suitably grateful, Pet,” said Athelas, so smoothly and naturally that I knew there had to be more to it than was readily apparent.
“What for?” I demanded bluntly. “If you want me to say thank-you, you’d better tell me why.”
“Do you really think we leave that window open willy-nilly?”
“Heck!” I said, catching my breath at last. “Which one of you did it, though?”
“Ask each of us,” he said, and his smile was now more than a faint one. “We’ll each tell you it wasn’t us.”
“Thanks a lot,” I said sourly. In other words, one of them had left it like that for me, knowing that it was likely I would at least come back for my money, but none of them would admit to it because that would be human and soft. “I ought to kick all of you in the shins!” I yelled at the ceiling, even though Zero was the only one not downstairs.
Either my yelling spurred him into action, or he’d been waiting for me to get home. A few minutes after I yelled, Zero came down the stairs with a piece of paper that had enough Between to it to have hidden a whole sheaf of papers, and put it down in front of me on the coffee table.
Between Homes (The City Between Book 5) Page 22
