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"No, it’s not like that" I sed hard "He doesn’t forbidout for et if I’m not careful"

She huffed and poured another, then sat in a chair across the roo the knife on her lap We watched each other across the space

"I reels I believed the Dukes planned to kill ht the summit was about me, too," I admitted I wondered if every Neph feared they were the cause of that summit, only to feel relieved when Gerlinda was called forward

"You should not have spoken out that night," she said

So I’d been told I breathed a sh

"May I ask a personal questionabout your sin and how it manifests itself?" I asked "I eneral?"

She raised an eyebrow, and I squirmed a little on my cushion

"I detest men" Her eyes widened as she spoke freely of her sin She rolled the knife in her pal"Men are vain, selfish fools Every one I enjoy when they fight and hurt each other I wish they would kill one another completely and be done with it" Zania wiped her mouth and watched for my reaction I sed hard and cleared my throat

"Do you know of my father, Belial?"

"I have not met him But I know his sin" She held up her drink and sipped it "How do you so easily deny the drink I offer?"

"It’s not easy" No, in fact, before Kope’s whistle I’d been trying to talkmyself it would be inhospitable not to have one The key word there was one And"It’s harder foris, my father doesn’t force me to work for real, so I mostly pretend That ht the addiction"

Her arm froze midair as she read my face with incredulous disbelief

"My life is very different fro our lifeti"