Magic of the Wood House (The Elemental Phases Book 6) by Cassandra Gannon

looks like a regular cow, but she’s got the twisted
soul of a demon from hell.”
    Job
resisted the urge to bang his head against the table.  “I just want to figure
out what happened in the Cold Kingdom.”  He tried for the sixth time.  “Half
the realm would like to see you tarred and feathered, and you’re just making it
worse.  Right now, I’m all that’s keeping the Fire House from being Banished,
so I’d really like some straight answers.”
    “And
I’m telling you the truth!”  Satour protested indignantly.  “Go talk to the
cow, if you don’t believe me.”
    Satour
was the most pessimistic and paranoid member of his family.  In his world,
things could only get worse.  In fact, they were already worse and
getting ever more worse by the second.
    …And
everyone else was to blame for it.
    Job
sighed.  As the leader of the Elementals, he was the one in charge of
questioning the Fire Phases and it wasn’t going well.  They’d been separated
into various rooms around the Council Hall, each of them giving statements more
incriminating and incendiary than the last.
    The
hell of it was, he actually believed they were innocent… They just sucked at it.
    “Satour,
why do you keep talking about a cow?”  He asked tiredly.
    “Because
she’s goddamn evil!”
    “If
you’re trying to establish an insanity plea, you’re off to a good start.”
    “You
idiot.”  Satour lowered his voice as if he suspected the room was bugged. 
“That’s what she wants you to think.”
    ***
    Christmas
Eve Night: Three Hours into the Investigation
    “I
think you should take this a little more seriously.  Your family is being
blamed for an unprovoked attack against the Cold Phases.”
    “Oh,
they’re always provoking us.”  Pele retorted in her typical sardonic tone.  “If
we had attacked, it would’ve been totally justified.”  She absently
burned her name into the desktop with her powers, slouching like a petulant
teen hauled into detention.
    “Do
you want to be found guilty?  Is that it?”  Job demanded.  “Pele, people are
very, very upset with you, right now.  It’s a zoo out there and no one but me
is on your side.”  He waved a hand towards the door.  “The Wood House is
threatening war if you don’t return Sullivan Pryce.  The Cold House is
threatening war for this attack.  The Air Phases are threatening war because
you killed Yasil and…”
    “Oh,
they’d already Banished Yas.  Bunch of crybabies.”
    “The
point is, you need to start giving me something I can work with here.”
    Pele
leveled a put upon look in his direction.  “This whole thing is horse shit.” 
She said in way of an answer.  “You know that, Job.  If I’d really been
in on that attack, I’d have killed way more people than that bitch on
TV.  I don’t even think she was trying.”  Pele arched a brow.  “For real, what
was the body count in the Cold Kingdom?  Like two? ”
    “The
Council’s still investigating that.”
    “That
think-tank is i nvestigating , huh?”  She snorted.  “Boy, I’ll sleep safer
tonight.”
    “Can
we focus on the facts?  They want to have a Banishment trial for you tomorrow .”
    “We
have trials on Saturdays now?  Is that even legal?”
    Eian,
of the Cold House slammed into the room.  The Cold King was usually a studious,
emotionless man, but now he was in an uncharacteristic rage.  His blond hair
was a mess, his white suit rumpled, and his face fixed in furious lines. 
“Where is my sister?!”  He bellowed.
    Job
sighed.  “Eian, we’ll find Freya.  Just give me a second to…”
    Eian
cut him off.  “We don’t have time for you to mollycoddle these murders, Job.” 
He jabbed a finger at Pele.  “The Fire House is going to be Banished from the
realm for what you’ve done!”
    “You’ve
been trying to get rid of us for years.”  Pele retorted with a bored sigh. 
“Ever since your cousin, Teja, chose to live with us and Djinn beat the