Kiran huffed an almost-laugh. Ransom returned what might have passed for a smile, were it not for the bleak expression that ruled the rest of his face. His friend’s eyes returned to Casimir, and Kiran had a feeling Ransom was thinking about Jinx. Kiran was having difficulty not thinking about what might be happening to her in that palace.

She could be in this exact same situation, only it would be her tied to a chair rather than the smarmy, hateful cretin who sat before them.

“What has he told you?” Kiran asked.

“Nothing,” Zephyr answered. “Yet.”

At that moment, Zephyr’s pet wildcat ducked beneath Casimir’s chair, slinking between his legs as if waiting for its owner’s command to pounce.

Kiran crossed to the center of the room and bent so that he was at eye level with the Stormling. “Do you know what we plan to do with you, Casimir? We’re handing you over to the Stormlord. So anything you tell us now, every moment you prove yourself useful by giving us valuable information about your family, the military, their plans—that’s that much longer you stay here with us, instead of out there with that madman. Do you understand?”

Zephyr must have released her hold on Casimir long enough to let him speak because he let out a croaked laugh, his voice dry and ragged. “You don’t scare me. Neither does he. This,” he said, using his chin to gesture at the ropes that bound him, “captivity was a game when I was a child. So was torture. My father liked to see which one of his boys would break first. You want to send me to the Stormlord? Go ahead. I look forward to meeting him.”

“Even after what he did to your home?” Kiran asked. “He must really hate your family. To have reduced an entire city to rubble, to kill thousands, and to follow you here when he realized he did not get the job done.”

He waited for Casimir to deny it, to claim the rumors were lies, but he only smiled and shrugged. “We found a new home, didn’t we?”

“Yes, how convenient for you that the Pavan princess disappeared and then the queen fell ill.”

He wheezed out a laugh. “What can I say? We got lucky. And we could not leave Pavan defenseless. That would be cruel.”

The look in his eyes at that last word turned Kiran’s stomach.

“Cruel is what you are doing to those remnants outside the gates.”

“We cannot save everyone.”

“From the danger you brought here? As far as I can tell, you and your family are the primary problem.”

Casimir sneered. “You are all small-minded fools. Without us, you would not last a week of the Rage season, stormlord or no Stormlord.”