“It wasn’t you,” Brannal said.
“No,” she agreed. “She perished in the fire. Along with several civilians. Isn’t that right?”
She directed the question to Perian, who nodded, that awful expression still on his face. Brannal had twisted to face him.
“Perian?”
He bit his lip, looking everywhere but at Brannal before he finally whispered, “It’s where my father died. They said… they said the fire was an accident.”
Fire and water and all the elements.
Was it possible for this to get any worse? And she’d been here for, what, five whole minutes?
“Dear heart,” Brannal breathed. “Oh, Perian, I’msosorry.”
Perian let out a sob. Brannal pulled him into his arms and Perian wept on his chest. At least he didn’t seem to be about to repudiate Brannal. Cormal turned back to the carnalion.
“That was cruel.”
A brow arched, though there was almost no hair there, just a mottled ridge of skin. “You would speak to me of cruelty?”
“Perian hasn’t done anything to hurt you,” Cormal snapped.
“Does he not deserve to know the truth about who he is with?”
“But you weren’t trying to tell the truth. You were wielding a weapon.”
Her lips curved up into a mean smile. “A good deal more precisely than your bludgeoning with the elements.”
“It didn’t go smoothly,” Cormal agreed. “We received erroneous information that the house of pleasure was deserted except for the carnalion. Patrons and workers were all supposed to have been escorted out.” Cormal winced. “She tried to unleash the nightmares on us. It turned out that several rooms had been missed, and someone overturned a lamp in their panicked retreat. She barricaded herself in her room. The, uh, other bodies were only discovered after the fire was finally put out.”
Two men, one woman, and the carnalion, who had been burned almost beyond recognition. It had taken them too long to break down the door.
“Then it was called anaccident,” she hissed.
Well, it certainly hadn’t gone according to plan.
“It was agreed that it would cause unnecessary panic if the people of Royal City knew that a carnalion and nightmares were in their very town. The”—he faltered briefly—“threat had been eliminated, and so yes, we claimed it was an accidental fire—that much was true, but we obscured the other details. We were trying to protect people.”
“And are we not simply trying to feed ourselves?” she challenged.
“Not if people die,” Cormal protested.
“And I suppose you checked to see if that was the case?”
Her gaze pierced him.
He shook his head and admitted, “No. Until recently, I didn’t realize I needed to. I treated all demons the same.”
She gestured at herself. “I am aware.”
He winced. “Was it me, then?”
“Your father, little Summus.”
Cormal swallowed. “If you were doing no harm, then I apologize.”
“Cormal,” Kinan hissed.
