Page 56 of Empire of Dark

My shoulders lifted. “But they are still her rivals. At least in her eyes. They were taking attention away from her.”

“But that’s all I’ve done for the last five years—give her attention.”

I nodded. “And they were a threat to that. Did they just show up and you introduced her to them without warning?”

His mouth pulled to a tight line, his jaw ticking. “Maybe.”

If there was one thing I was good at from all my years at the Academy, it was playing psychologist.

I leaned toward him, my fingertips pushing forward on the table until they almost touched his resting hand. “You said Venetia was tortured the entire first part of her life, so of course she doesn’t have control over her emotions like an adult. Or like a sixteen-year-old. She’s been playing catch-up ever since you found her. Right now, she’s no different than a young child, wanting attention from her parent. She never had a parent, but she does now—you—and she wants your attention. The last thing she wants is to share you.”

His gaze shifted away from me for a long moment, staring at the fire roaring in the oversized fireplace that anchored the wall behind me. His hand ran weary over his face. “I’m just so damn tired—so tired of failing her. Of not being able to fix her. I don’t know what to do with her.”

“So try something new—let me work with her.”

His jaw tightened. “No, I cannot allow it. Not with your safety at sake.”

I reached out, grabbing the top of his hand. “She won’t hurt me. I pose no threat to her. I’m just a friend who is willing to help her learn a few things, reading being top of that list. And has she ever even held a sword?”

He bristled. “She doesn’t need to be more deadly than she already is.”

I exhaled a sigh. “But she does need to know how to protect herself. If she has a regular sized bomb handy, she doesn’t need to go nuclear.”

His brow wrinkled. “Her tearing the ground apart with lava being the nuclear option?”

“Exactly. Fear probably drives her more than anything. Fear always does.”

His gaze sank into me. “It sounds like you know all about that.”

My lips pursed.

I wasn’t going there with him. Not now. I kept us on the subject of his daughter. “And if Venetia doesn’t want my help, I won’t push it. But she does want my help. I’ve seen it. She doesn’t want to be lonely. She’s not going to hurt me.”

He looked down at my hand covering his. “You don’t know that. You’re a fool if you think she won’t try.”

My hand pulled away. “No, I know she won’t hurt me. She can’t.”

He shook his head, a grumble at his lips. Then he leaned toward me, reaching under the table and pulling free the dagger I always kept strapped to my calf. “Can’t she?” He flipped my dagger in his hand, catching it on the blade end and he held the handle out to me. “Prove it again.”

I understood. A steak knife was one thing. Augentrum steel was a whole other matter, the only thing that could truly kill panthenites and malefics.

Setting my left forearm on the table, I grabbed the handle of my blade and lifted it high, aiming the point of the tip downward.

I slammed the point of the dagger down onto my arm. The skin barely flexed under the weight of the force.

Damen watched it closely, his eyes pinpricks on my skin. “Remarkable. Your skin—at impact it looks to change.”

“I guess. It obviously turns into an armor of some sorts. It’s just always been like that for me, and I’m not sure exactly how it works. But nothing has ever made it through.”

“Never an augentrum blade?”

I shook my head. “Nope.”

Showtime over, I turned in my chair and bent to tuck my dagger back into its sheath on my calf. As I lifted myself up, Damen’s fingers went to my bare skin below the titanium clamp that encircled my upper arm just below my right bicep. His fingers trailed upward onto the metal.

“Why do you always wear this? It isn’t just to cover the brand, is it?”

I stared at him, instinctively not willing to answer.