He sat down across from her. "To be perfectly honest, I was curious about you. What makes you so dangerous to me that multiple witches warned me of you?"
"Rowan said something about you being honest, that you never lied to him, but therein lies your treachery." Meryn noticed the slight change in his expression, before it went back to his carefully crafted mask.
"I never lie. Most of the people I work with lie to themselves; I don't have to."
Meryn had a moment of clarity. "You can't lie, can you?"
He flinched. "I'm starting to see what the witches were referring to. You see things others don't."
"But you can evade the question." She stared. "God, that has to absolutely suck."
He blinked in surprise. "You're the first to ever voice that opinion."
"I personally don't like to lie since I have this tendency to just blurt out whatever I'm thinking, so that makes remembering to edit what I say impossible, so I can kinda sympathize. Because, trust me, there were times I wish I could have lied and couldn't."
Meryn met his gaze. "How can I kill you?"
"Did you really think I was going to answer that? Besides, why kill me? I've been nothing but cordial with you."
She ground her teeth together. "Because you killed my parents, so I'm going to kill you."
He tilted his head. "I did no such thing."
Meryn jumped to her feet. "I saw the moment they died. Your warrior ferals with red tattoos were there. My mother had a premonition that she and my father died horribly at their hands and drank a poison to evade capture. But they wouldn't have had to do that if you hadn't sicced your reapers on them," she shouted. Every moment she had lived without her parents fueled her anger, which burned even fiercer now that she had had a glimpse at how wonderful they had been and how much they had truly loved her.
He stood and gently took both her hands in his. "Meryn, you have figured out my one true weakness. Look at me," he ordered.
She choked down her tears and stared up at him defiantly. "I had nothing to do with their deaths. I only asked that your father be brought in for a simple conversation. Unlike you, he had never opened a channel for me to speak to him, so it had to be done in person, as it were."
Meryn felt the fight in her evaporate. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was telling the simple truth without any trickery. "Why did you need him?" she whispered.
He steered her back to her couch and had her sit down before sitting on the coffee table in front of her. "Even for a fae, he was a man ahead of his time. His use of fae magic was extraordinary. In exchange for the information he sought, I wanted him to make me something. That is all, Meryn, I promise you."
His eyes began to blaze scarlet. "You have revealed a treachery I did not even know existed. The one I trusted to bring your father in reported to me that they came upon your parents' house as it was burning and that there were dead ferals in the yard indicative of a random attack." His eyes darkened to a deep crimson. "True, your parents didn't die at the hands of my men, but according to your mother, they would have. In my eyes, that is one and the same."
"Who was it?" she asked.
He met her eyes, and she couldn't look away. "I'll make you a deal," he started.
"No way. I've seen tons of movies, and I always think the person who makes the deal is an idiot for trusting the bad guy," Meryn shook her head.
"I swear to you there is no trick to my offer. It's an exchange, pure and simple. If you accept, you free me to do what I wish."
She pointed at him. "That right there, is the scary part, by the way."
His eyes faded back to scarlet. "Let me explain. Nearly all my actions are dictated by contracts. I cannot go forth and impale the lying bastard that killed your father, because I haven't been contracted to do so. If we make an arrangement, then I am free to do more."
Meryn hesitated, if Ryuu were here he'd have scooped her up and marched from the room by now. "What do you want in exchange?" She tried to ignore the ball of ice forming in her stomach.
He held up a finger. "A single memory. One that I can keep as my own and replay as I wish."
"Huh?"
He pointed to the room. "White marble and glass. Do you think I chose such an aesthetic?"
Meryn looked around. "You mean, I did this?"
He nodded. "I told you the last time we spoke, my environment is hot and dry." He smiled as he touched the coffee table. "It is a relief to be cool for a change." He eyed her. "Why white marble and glass?" he asked.