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marriage hadn’t been a sham from the start, at least not on his part, but her spells eventually wore off. She wasn’t all powerful. Yet.
    “I am glad for that.” He squeezed her hand once, then pulled his away.
    “Besides that, I’m sure Lily wasn’t ‘taken’ from you.” She looked away from him, finding it too difficult to look sad when she felt so thrilled. Inside, she was as giddy as a school girl. Everything she had ever wanted was about to come true, thanks to that dreadful child.
    “What do you mean?” Lord Gabriel looked up at her hopefully, but she had her back to him, walking slowly around the room. She could pass off worried pacing more easily than she could worried conversation.
    “I’ve said it before. ‘Taken’ sounds so dramatic, but you’ve always had a flair for the dramatics.” Scelestus waved her hands, trying to downplay his fears. “Lily is of an age now where she wants to explore the world for herself. She can’t live in this palace forever.” Every time she said the word palace , she had to swallow the bitter taste it left in her mouth. As if this place could even laughingly be referred to as a palace anymore.
    “Why not?” He turned, his eyes following Scelestus. “I never moved out of here.”
    “Of course not, my Lord, but you’re a man.” She smiled at him, the way one might smile at a small, feeble-minded child. “This is your land that you were going to rule over. You had no need to leave.”
    “She’s going to rule here,” he pointed out. “I have no other heirs. This is her kingdom.” Scelestus coughed to cover up her automatic scoff at the word kingdom . A few acres of uninhabited land did not count as a kingdom.
    “No, her husband will rule,” Scelestus clarified. “For a woman to have any power, she must have a husband.” The painful truth of that stung too close to home, and for once, her face held legitimate sadness. “Lily hasn’t had any suitors yet.”
    “She’s never shown any interest!” Gabriel blustered, defending his daughter’s innocence.
    “Not to you. Not to her father.” Scelestus smiled at him. “And I may not be her mother, but I see things. She confides in me. She knows what society requires of a Lady, and she also knows what her heart yearns for.”
    “You think she left to find a boy?” He raised an eyebrow, looking shocked, worried, and hurt all at once.
    “I’m merely saying that she hasn’t found a boy here.” She gestured to the palace around them. “Perhaps she thought it best if she explores her options elsewhere.”
    “I would’ve brought suitors here, if I had known she was looking for one.” His shoulders slacked, and he looked away, feeling as if he’d failed his daughter.
    “I know, darling.” Scelestus walked over and rubbed his back, hoping he found the gesture comforting. “You’re a good father. But she’s young, impetuous. She needs to make her own way in the world.”
    “I hope you’re right,” he said sullenly.
    “When will you learn, Gabriel?” Scelestus asked. “I always am.”
    He acquiesced easier than anticipated. She had a few potions brewing in her room to calm him if this failed, and to be honest, Scelestus was surprised how quickly he’d been willing to think his daughter ran away. Scelestus had been trying to banish that little brat to boarding school for years, but Lily would never do anything wrong. She’d never so much as lied to her father, but when she disappears, he believes she’d been scheming to escape.
    Well, the Lord had never been a bright man. That is how Scelestus had managed to dupe him all these years.
    A small knock came at his chamber doors, and Lord Gabriel summoned the visitor before he had a chance to request admittance. He assumed that every knock, every call, every sound would be about his daughter, and so it would be for the rest of his life. Fortunately, by Scelestus’s counting, that should only be a matter of days.
    “Excuse me, my Lord,” Jinn