She picked up a plate and approached the third human down the table.

Aware of Aridon’s attention, she hadn’t meant to meet the man’s eyes or acknowledge him at all. But, the man didn’t seem to care if the demon knew about their past relations because he tapped her on the shoulder and she looked up, startled.

Dalius.

A little older than her brother, Dalius was one of the most handsome human men she’d ever known. And every sword dancer, eye straying wife, and available female in the Outside Circus had all agreed on that.

Brown hair, brown eyes that twinkled when he smiled, perfect teeth. He’d broken more than one heart. And Sheldon had had a fit the one time Dalius flirted with Lita before she’d run away.

Why wasn’t he still with the Circus?

The man smiled and winked at her so she forced a nervous smile back. Same old Dalius.

“Good to see you, Lita,” he whispered.

She nodded and started to back away, ready to get the next plate.

“Can we talk later?”

Talk later? Why?

Wrinkling her forehead, she hesitated and glanced at the demons on the other side of the table. Aridon was watching openly. Jersard, Harv and Planking probably noticed but didn’t care. Jersard continued to question one of the humans about fishing regulations and statistics. Diana… Diana kept glancing her way but Lita couldn’t read her.

And Dalius never looked away from her.

“Later,” she muttered and hurried away for the next plate.

Dinner was starting to wrap up. Lita was exhausted, more than ready for it all to end so she could help Diana get ready for bed and go to bed herself. Tomorrow she needed to find an excuse to go back into town and deliver the copied vellum.

On top of that, she was straining to remember as much as she could of anything that sounded important from dinner. If she could deliver more than one bit of information she’d like to.

Aridon stood up at the end of a long conversation about various tools the humans would like to Contract for. He smiled. Aridon rarely put away his fangs so everyone got a good look at them when he grinned.

“Before we end for the night I’d like to call in our entertainment.”

Entertainment?

Lita glanced at the main doorways. Did they ask Taiken for an act? Was that what the letter was for earlier? That was what they usually did. Sometimes even dragging the act back from wherever they were in their circuit to perform a single night.

She should’ve peeked at the letter.

“Bring him in.”

Aridon picked up his cup, drinking his wine with unconcern as the atmosphere in the room abruptly changed.

Lita felt her stomach clench and bile rose up her throat when two humans, known lappers and enforcers who were loyal to their demon patrons, came in. Dragging a man between them.

She recognized him. Nakos.

Already stripped to the waist they dragged him to an empty place between the ring of tables. Holding him there as Aridon casually put down his cup.

“What is this?”

Dalius. The former ring master’s voice rang through the room and Lita winced.

“As I said. Entertainment.”

Aridon rounded the table. She winced as he passed her, taking a step away. Her throat was tight, her stomach tight. With morbid, terrified fascination she watched him unhook a whip from his belt.

“This man has breached Contract.” Aridon’s smile was sinister and she heaved a little in anticipation. “He’s no longer under Palace protection.”

Nakos.

Tears stung her eyes and she turned away as Aridon began whipping the man. Nakos’ screams echoed through the room and she tightened her hands into fists. Unable to stand the screaming alone she looked up and there was Dalius.

His face had darkened, eyes narrowing into thin lines, and he met her eyes. He clenched his teeth and held her gaze for a moment before looking away.

It was like meeting a friend in the middle of trouble.

Her tears fell without her permission.

“You’ll kill him at this rate.” Dalius, again his big voice grabbing the attention of the room.

“So concerned for a fellow rat?” Aridon laughed. The demon motioned for a third lapper to take over the whipping and abruptly strode to the table, leaning over Dalius until the human man was forced to lean back. “No. I smell no concern on you. Just anger.”

Lita’s hands shook. She didn’t dare look at Aridon.

When she looked at Dalius again he didn’t notice, glaring with open hatred back at Aridon. Of course he was angry. Only a demon wouldn’t be angry.

“What exactly did he do to break Contract?”

“Spying. This one was caught spying.”

Spying. Lord of the Voids…

Nakos’ screams and sobs were becoming hoarse and weak. Lita couldn’t hold back her own sobs anymore, her shoulders shaking.

“We don’t allow spies to walk away unscathed.” Aridon paused, dramatizing the growing silence from the victim. “And we don’t allow them to live. Stop!”

The whipping stopped. She didn’t want to look but her eyes were drawn that way anyway. Blood flecked the floor around Nakos. It was all she really saw before she fell to her knees. Overcome with flashes of something she couldn’t quite remember.

She was a little girl again.

Hiding. She just wanted to hide. To get away from the screams and her own terror.

Aridon walked casually across the open space while pulling free his stone sword. It seemed like no more effort than a flick of his wrist when he ended Nakos’ suffering with a quick jab in the back.

Lita breathed in gasps, no longer seeing the horrible scene as she looked at the floor. Tears dotted the ground where her hands shakily held her up.

The silence was deafening. No one said anything, no one moved, while Aridon calmly cleaned the bloody sword with a wool handkerchief.

“Dinner is now over. Escort our guests to their rooms.”

Lita threw up.

Later, no one said a word to her about it.

***

Maybe if she couldn’t smell she would've been able to spend the rest of the night in a blissful numbness.

Numbness had been her only defense against her own emotions.

At first, even the smells didn’t penetrate.

She’d gone back to her room and the girl came to help her dress. Lita’s scent was sick and frightened. Mingled with that disgusting odor it was annoying and she snarled at the girl until the creature almost had to be prodded to move.

The creature should be reacting badly. Sick and frightened and remembering her place.

At first Diana was pleased.

Maybe Cheryl’s son’s little pet would stop making a nuisance of herself. But, as the girl pulled Diana’s nightgown out of her trunk, the human kept her head down and wiped away tears that she thought Diana couldn’t see.

Those Diana Veran could not stand.

“Get out.”

Panicked, the girl had looked up at her with big, red rimmed eyes. That just made Diana angrier.

“Get out, stupid human child!”

Lita had run. Stumbling from the room like the devil’s imps were after her.

Still, despite the short outburst, Diana Veran herself was mostly numb.

So, maybe if she’d stayed in her room. Kept the curtain closed and blocked it all out.

But, no, no. Aridon had acted unwisely and only she and the other Brethren were brave enough to face him. She needed to see him. Now. While she was still numb and could pretend calmness.

Stepping out into the corridor it was as though someone dumped cold water over her head. Drenching her in strong scents. Scents of terror, panic, grief, anger.

Eventually that stench would have come into her room. It leaked from curtained doorways, seeped from the floor where the creators of the emotions had walked, lingered in the air.

Demons didn’t cry aloud.

They’d learned, long ago, that making sounds didn’t help.

So every doorway was silent. Every doorway that had demons beyond, that is. Many of them, by the scents, had gathered together to share the burden. Leaving many of the rooms empty.

It wasn’t Aridon but she paused anyway when she smelted a single calm scent. It was hard to detect, so small amid the greater emotions that soured her nose.

Pushing aside one of the curtains she half stepped inside.

This room. Her eyes darted hungrily around the pastel colors before settling on the pair sitting on a bench. The demoness, red hair obscuring a face that would have been middle aged had she been human, was sitting like a child on the demon’s lap while he rocked her.

Elisha had thrown up. More than once. That smell was nothing compared to her mindless panic. She was also sniffing Harv’s neck desperately. Trying to gain some sense of calm and peace from his smell.

Diana understood her need.

Harv had his lips pinched together as he met Diana’s searching eyes.

Almost imperceptibly he shrugged.

Without a word or a sound, she spun around and let the curtain fall behind her.

Now? Now she was angry. No, she was more than angry. She half transformed in her fury as she snarled her way down the hall. Void him! Voids on that damnable Aridon!

She turned down his corridor and was halfway to the end when she realized that his scent was too faint. He hadn’t been there recently. Fine. She’d look elsewhere.

Up and down the main wing she went but found no recent scents of her quarry.

It didn’t help that the entire building stank with fear. Covering any softer scents and making it extra difficult to sort through.

She was on the main level, in the entrance hall when she found it. It seemed to head outside with Planking and Jersard in tow. Finally. And with reinforcements.

As she crossed the hall, aiming for the front door, she caught the scent of blood. And the mingled scent of the human enforcers who’d been part of the spectacle earlier that evening.

She knew darn well that two of the humans didn’t care much. But the third…

She hesitated, glancing at the front door and then backward at the entrance to the training hall. With a growl of frustration, and a few deep breaths to calm herself, she went to the training hall.

Jersard and Planking could handle him. For now.

She still fully intended to confront him herself but, if she didn’t want some sort of revolt with her enforcers, she should do some damage control. Right now. While she was thinking about it.

Voids!

The training hall connected to the enforcer’s quarters. The emotions were a little more complex here. Not just fear but resignation and defensiveness.

In the days ahead this was where human ire was going to fall.

The main room, a sort of common room for the enforcers and their families to mingle, was empty and silent. As it should be as the night grew later. But not so much the quarters themselves.

More than one curtained doorway in the circular quarters had a soft light. Some lit with single candles, some the non-flickering light of lighter lit lamps. A few whispers.

Diana Veran didn’t pause to listen to the whispers.

Climbing several sets of stairs, she ended up on the third level and followed the circular platform around until she was outside one of the lit rooms.

She knocked, two knuckled, on the doorframe.

She’d only heard breathing inside before and noted when it paused before the man walked across the room and pulled open the curtain.

He blinked blankly at her.

Then he quickly stepped through the curtain and dropped into a brief bow. Then kept his eyes on the ground.

“Mistress Diana Veran. Is there something wrong?”

Ah. There was a lot wrong. She leaned forward and took a couple of audible sniffs, checking him over. He held still under that inspection. It was of a kind he’d endured before and knew not to react.

She could smell his distress. But, likely he’d taken great pains to hide it because she could also smell the fading scents of his children. Who were undisturbed from normal emotions.

“Would you like something for nightmares, Captain?”