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My gaze drops, and I gesture at one of the plush, gray velvet chairs near the fitting area. “My apologies for my presumptions, Lord Marius. What brings you here today? I doubt it’s just to critique my fabric choices.”
With a swish of his cloak, he takes the seat. “You’re right, of course. I came to talk about Merripen.”
Practice keeps the exasperation off my face. “Is something wrong?”
He hesitates, his eyes flickering toward the window at the store’s entrance. “No, not exactly. It’s just… complicated.”
I lean against the design table, my arms crossed. “I am well acquainted with your tangled relationships, Lord Marius. Try me.”
He sighs and runs a hand through his long hair. “I do not understand her contracting with Nickodemus to join this Bone Guard.” His lip curls around the name. “I would have provided her a position deserving of her status if she wished to go into service.”
“She didn’t take that offer the first time.” Lord Marius had tried many times to give Merri a position within the court, always with the same outcome. “Why would she take it now?”
Lord Marius stiffens. “The court is more open to half-demons taking on jobs. It would not be as it was before.”
In the past, demon children were so precious and rare that they were treated like delicate flowers for their mortality.
Merri had been stifled in the heavy court gowns forced on her, which is why Lord Marius looked the other way when she joined me on my hunts outside the citadel.
“Come now, this can’t be about her refusing to come to you for a job.” I drop my hands to the table. “What is the true purpose of your visit?”
His gaze meets mine, an unexpected vulnerability in their depths. “I want to be part of her life, but she never comes to me for help. I’m worried about her.”
Pity fills me for the man. “Merri is an immortal being, and she doesn’t need someone to take care of her, Lord Marius. She’s proven that time and again. As for sharing certain details with you… Rifts are not closed overnight. Try not to rush it, or she’ll pull away again.”
Merri only recently forgave her father for the role he played in her first death. She’s gone to dinner with him a few times but canceled more often than not. It must leave Lord Marius at a loss for how to grow closer to his estranged daughter.
It’s not a feeling I’m unsympathetic to, having only just won my way back into Merri’s heart. I have the benefit of cohabitation, while busy lives make it hard for Lord Marius and Merri to align their schedules.
He leans forward, elbows on his knees and his head hanging. “I realize I can’t push her, or I would not be here playing the fool.”
“She is well,” I relent. “Beyond the frustration of our living arrangements, she is content in this new position. I believe it gives her a sense of peace to not be on the opposite side of the law from Ga’Vine.”
Lord Marius’s head lifts. “How is Ga’Vine doing?”
“He knows his history and fears returning to the state of mind he held before his rebirth.” The disillusionment that led him to plot to destroy the human race. “He is cautious.”
“And his training?” Lord Marius presses.
“Progressing.” I dislike this interrogation about my family but sympathize with Lord Marius’s concerns. “His caution slows him from learning faster.”
“That’s good.” Lord Marius turns one of the thick silver bands on his middle finger. “Caution is good.”
“He is not dangerous to Merri.” The last thing we need is for Lord Marius to decide one of us is a risk to his daughter’s well-being. We’ve walked that path before, and it did not end well.
Lord Marius stops fidgeting to meet my eyes. “He is one of the few beings capable of destroying my daughter. You should have kept him away.”
My shoulders tense. “I separated them long enough for his memories to vanish. It was the most I could, or would, do. He will not hurt Merri.”
“Not intentionally, no.” Lord Marius stands. “Intentions and actions are not always the same.”
No, Ga’Vine would never purposefully banish Merri to a pocket of space. Should he do so by accident and lose her… He would search until he located her again or the universe ended. I trust Ga’Vine where Lord Marius does not.
At my silence, Lord Marius sighs. “I will not disrupt your business any longer.”
He turns a thick silver ring he wears, pinches his finger and thumb together, and raises his hand.
My conscience pricks at me. Lord Marius attempted to aid me during my torture in the demon court’s dungeon. I believe he would have continued petitioning for my freedom if Merri and the others had not intervened.
