I sucked in a deep breath, wishing I had more confidence that this would go as I hoped. “Pénélope.”

For a few seconds, he didn’t react. Then a grimace crossed his face and my stomach dropped. “You have to know that could never be.”

“But–”

“I can understand why you’d want this. You two have long been close friends.” He sighed. “She’s a beautiful, talented girl, and a sweeter disposition one could not ask for. I dare say there isn’t a soul in Trollus who doesn’t wish fate had been kinder to her. But her magic is weak – she might well be the weakest full-blooded troll alive.”

“I don’t care about that.” What did it matter if her magic wasn’t strong? It wasn’t as though she needed more than she had for any practical purpose. The only reason it was important was that it had been deemed so by those who had power. It was exactly that way of thinking that Tristan and I wanted to eliminate from Trollus, but I dared not confess so. Even to my father.

“And maybe if that were her only flaw, it wouldn’t matter.” He set down his pen. “Marc, she’s afflicted.”

A vision of Pénélope’s painting drifted across my mind. “But so am I!”

My father’s face filled with sympathy. “It’s true that you’re a fright to look upon. But…” He shook his head. “Your affliction is purely cosmetic. Your health is good and your magic formidable. But Pénélope… Even if the Duke agreed for her to be bonded, for you, it would border on suicide.”

“You don’t know that,” I countered. “She’s careful.”

“Childbirth would kill her, if some small accident didn’t.”

“She doesn’t need to have children. There are ways to prevent it.” I didn’t know much about such things, but I knew it was true.

“Fallible methods,” he snapped. “And one mistake would mean the doom of both of you.” Lifting a hand to his temples, he rubbed them. “I’m fading, Marc. It will only be luck if I last another year before my light goes out. And when it happens, in all likelihood your mother will be taken too. She who is strong and healthy…” He broke off, face filled with naked grief. “Please don’t make it worse by putting your own life in danger.”

It made me feel ill to have upset him this way. Nearly everyone I knew had contentious relationships with their parents, but that wasn’t the case with me and mine. I didn’t care to think of losing them, and I didn’t want to make their final months harder than they had to be.

“It won’t be long until you’ll not need to ask my permission,” my father continued. “But in the matter of bonding, you will always need the crown’s approval. And the King will not approve a match that endangers your life.” He dropped his hand from his temples. “Your life is not your own, Marc. Your loyalty must be to your cousin above all else. He needs you, and most of all, Trollus needs you to keep him in check.” He hesitated, as though unsure whether to say what was on his mind. “Thibault was not always this way. Perhaps if I’d been as good a friend to him as you are to Tristan, he might’ve walked a different path.”