“She said all demons would be attracted to me.”
“But no other demon attack in the country was caused by you. They happen on their own all the time.”
“But—”
Cormal realized Kinan wasn’t going to be able to simply let this go.
“If you’re really concerned, then I suggest apologizing. It helps more than I thought it would.”
Nudging him with an elbow, Kinan said, “Told you.”
Cormal smiled at him, glad to see some of his equilibrium restored.
They lapsed into comfortable silence again, staring out at the water together. Cormal would have given all of this up for Kinan, but he was so much happier to get to keep it.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Trill
No part of this had gone the way Trill thought it would. Of course, he hadn’t actually expected Yannoma would come at all. He couldn’t believe she’d been healed; he was still having trouble wrapping his brain around what that meant. And he’d really hoped she would have a solution for the Prince.
One that didn’t involve taking over any recently dead bodies, of course.
Cormal might have made a lot of mistakes, but it said a lot about him that he’d unhesitatingly volunteered to die. That the Prince had equally unhesitatingly refused said a great deal, as well.
Really, there had been so many revelations that it wasn’t particularly surprising that they were all reeling and didn’t seem to quite know what to do with themselves.
Perian fell back on being a host and offered to show Yannoma to a room. Brannal went with him, and Trill wasn’t sure if that was simply habit or a desire to ensure that Perian and Yannoma weren’t alone together.
With Cormal already gone after the Prince, this left Molun, Arvus, and Trill alone in the room.
“Um,” Molun said, “I’m not totally sure what just happened.”
Trill laughed weakly. “Not anything that I imagined, that’s for sure. I’m sorry.”
He really hadn’t been angling for it, but he had to admit, the alacrity with which he was surrounding in the best hug was rather reassuring. They both kissed the top of his head.
“None of this is your fault,” Arvus assured him.
“Well…” Trill felt compelled to argue, becausethatwas patently untrue.
Their arms tightened around him.
“Nope,” Molun said firmly. “You’ve done nothing but try to help. You aren’t responsible for Yannoma.”
Trill sighed and admitted quietly, “Everyone got so upset.”
It made his insides squirm.
“Because it’s an upsetting situation,” Arvus told him firmly. “Not because of you.”
“Upsetting or not, we have more information, including confirmation of the danger to the Prince. Imagine if we’d continued in ignorance about that,” Molun pointed out.
Trill nodded reluctantly.
As unpalatable as it was, Yannoma had presented a possible solution that Trill was quite sure he would never have thought of.
“Cormal’s not going to be able to convince the Prince, right?” Trill asked anxiously.
