Page 177

“I’d like to apologise on behalf of myself and Vince”—he almost spat the name out—“for causing tension.”

“Kiss ass,” Vince muttered, which made Corey shoot him a stern look.

Crossbody ignored him and continued. “I’d also like to apologise for rising to his snide remarks and constant jabs when I, of course, know better. I took the high road for as long as I could, but even the strongest of us have our breaking point when being maliciously targeted at work.”

“That is utter fucking bullshit,” Vince cried, an angry flush spreading over his face. “You fucking started it! You treat us all like we’re dog shit on the sole of your shoe, Crossbody. You’re such a condescending asshole.”

Crossbody’s jaw clenched. “I do no such thing.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Vince yelled. Corey was already frowning heavily. “You never took the high road. I was the one who ended up rising to your snide remarks, because you just keep fucking picking, and picking, like your sole purpose in life is to try and make us all feel worthless in comparison.”

Crossbody finally showed some true emotion, his cheeks darkening with a flush as he glared at Vince. “That’s a complete lie. I don’t do that. You just take every single thing I say the wrong way.”

“Are you fucking serious?” Vince shouted, so loud his voice grew hoarse.

“Order!” Corey bellowed. He’d produced a gavel covered in pink rhinestones from somewhere and slammed it on the armrest of his throne, which made Cora fart again as she startled awake. “I will have order in my courtroom! That’s enough!”

They were both breathing hard as they fell silent, Vince now trembling with anger and his hands clenched into tight fists.

“This is unacceptable,” Corey boomed, making everyone tense up. “You can’t have a single conversation without it immediately devolving into a screaming match. What is the root of the issue here? Where is this anger coming from between you two?”

They both remained silent, Vince’s chest heaving with fast breaths as he glared furiously at Crossbody, who lifted his chin and kept his gaze fixed resolutely ahead. But he was breathing faster too, and his arms looked tense as he kept his hands clasped tight behind his back. I thought I could see his knuckles bleaching.

“I’m waiting for an answer,” Corey uttered.

“I just don’t like him,” Vince eventually gritted out in a seething voice. “He’s a pompous, arrogant jackass who thinks he’s better than the rest of us.”

“Enough with the name-calling!” Corey said in exasperation. Vince flushed and looked down.

“I assure you, the feeling is mutual,” Crossbody said stiffly. “Vince is, in fact, the arrogant one. Loud and brash and always swaggering around like he owns the place. He doesn’t take his job seriously enough. I don’t tolerate slackers.”

Vince stiffened in anger and yelled, “I take my fucking job seriously, you piece of—”

“Do not make me remove you from my court, Mr. Burke,” Corey boomed. “If you can’t use respectable language during the proceedings, I’ll be forced to dismiss this entire matter until you’ve learned how to conduct yourself.”

Everyone cringed again as Vince quickly lowered his head. He muttered, “Sorry, Judge.”

“And you, High Lord.” Corey turned his attention on Crossbody, which made the fae quickly wipe the smirk he’d been aiming at Vince off his face. “Don’t think that just because you’re able to control your temper marginally better, I will assume you’re blameless in all of this.”

“Of course not,” Crossbody said smoothly. “I take full responsibility for my part in this unpleasantness. Frankly, Judge, I’m embarrassed by my conduct. As I said, I reached my limit when it came to Vince’s—”

“Don’t also think that I’m unaware of the way your tone often comes across to the others,” Corey interrupted sternly, “and how it might get under their skin. You do tend to speak in a way that makes it seem like you think you’re above the rest of them.” He swept out a hand to indicate the other wrestlers, clearly not including himself in that.

Crossbody swallowed but kept his face blank. “Well, I assure you it’s not my intention to seem that way.”

“Bullshit,” Vince blurted, which made Corey’s eyes snap back to him.

“Once more, Mr. Burke, and you will be forced to leave my courtroom,” he said with a threatening calmness that made everyone squirm.

I realised I was leaning forward in my seat, barely even blinking. Taylor had been right. This was fucking riveting.

Our next Humandatory campaign should definitely be set in a courtroom.

“In fact,” Corey declared, sitting back in his throne and opening his binder, “I can already see that we will get nowhere at this moment in time. You are both simply too…” He waved a hand elegantly as he mused over how to word it, no doubt wanting it to be as poetic as possible. “Embroiled in this contempt you feel for one another. Even now, I can feel it darkening the very air around us. Like…” He paused again. “Larkin, make sure you get all of this. Like bitter droplets of rain falling into this looming black cloud that hangs over us, making it swell and swell until one day, we will all drown under the weight of the poisoned water that pours down on us.”

“That’s not how clouds work,” Taylor whispered from beside me.

“What was the thing about a broiler?” Larkin whispered frantically on my other side. “I missed it. Fuck.”