The Edifice

38. Inexplicable Tongue Fetish (and Dinner!)

We don't even get through entrees.

All day, Otis had entertained us with lighter tales of his childhood celebrity. The photoshoots, the backstage appearances and the 12 million followers he has on social media accounts that haven't been updated in years.

He'd even let us search memes of him and laugh over a particularly awkward video of an interview he had done with his brother. The duration of which they'd spent almost perched on opposing ends of the sofa, despite the ridiculous matching outfits his parents had forced them to wear.

It was only at dinner, however, that we finally saw the dark side he had complained of.

It started with two girls at dinner, blushing ruby red as they tiptoed to our table to ask for his autograph. Otis had smiled tightly and obliged, prompting a dozen more diners to wander over.

It was almost funny at first, Lee and I struggling to gesticulate our orders over the volley of questions targeted at Otis. Eventually, thanks to some particularly choice words of Lee's usual tact, they return to their seats.

"Are you alright?" Lee now asks, shifting his chair across to Otis's side. He shakes off his jacket and wraps it over Otis's shoulders, the black denim practically swallowing the godling whole. "I'm sorry. I should have realised. There's a reason I never get to see Katy outside."

"I'm fine." Otis grimaces, nestling down beneath the jacket until little more than a few rays of light are visible above its collar. "I forgot what its like, to be honest. I avoid most strangers these days. With an aura like mine, a glamour won't even work for long."

I move to sit on Otis's other side so he's fully walled off from the view of others, adding my sweater to the pile smothering him. The two girls from earlier finally give up their attempts to film us and he flashes me a grateful smile in return. It's just like back at his parents' mansion, with the eyes of every Fae following our movements through its halls.

Minutes later, the arrival of entrees is accompanied by a sudden frenzy of flashing lights. Lee and I whip round in fright, only to see a figure pressed up against the tall front windows of the tiny siren-cuisine restaurant Lee took us to. An absurdly large camera in their hands aims past the other diners straight over at us.

"OK, time to go," Lee mutters, getting to his feet with a deep sigh of resignation.

"Surely we can-" I break off as one of the waitresses is forced to close the door on another group of photographers trying to push their way in, cameras barely disguised under their clothes.

"No, no, time to go," Lee insists. He reclaims his jacket from Otis and wraps me up in it instead, pushing the godling and I together. "Otis? Think you guys can teleport out? I'll get the food takeaway and Uber back."

"Yeah. Yeah..." Otis says distractedly. "I'll need to get us outside though, this place is warded. Olivia, cover you face, OK? I don't want this getting out."

I hide my face beneath my hair as Otis wraps his arms around me and pulls us both forward into the throng. I trust in his strength to protect me as I feel the figures of others push forward to meet us at the threshold, the same shouting voices that called to Katy competing to be heard once more.

"Otysses, who are you with tonight?"

Bright flashes of lights engulf us, accompanied by the quick-fire bursts of camera shutters.

"News was leaked this morning of an early Potentate retirement, Otysses. Can you address these rumours? Have you been confirmed as the successor?"