The screams underground had gone from horror to the occasional shout, to a deep, soul shaking cry. I almost felt bad for the guy. My friend wasn’t vindictive, but if you pushed her past the point of anger into straight outrage, she would find a way to pay your ass back in spades.
When Thorvin came out of this, he would not be the same man. Whether it was for better or worse…only time would tell.
I paced around the clearing, careful to keep clear of the mound Evie had buried herself under and ate a handful of nuts. I’d rather it was cake, but cake was hard to transport. I’d brought the necessities—nuts, dried fruits, cookies, and water. If this went much longer than tomorrow, I’d have to risk breaking intoThorvin’s house to raid his fridge, but the Lord should be out tomorrow, anyway.
He might not be in a sharing mood once Danu was done with him, but I could be very persuasive when necessary.
A branch cracked behind me. I spun, nuts spilling from my fingers.
No one was there. I knew the sound of an animal moving versus the sound of a human. This was no animal.
“I know you’re there. Reveal yourself,” I said, putting as much menace in my tone as I could.
“Or what?” A cultured male voice touched with amusement responded. “Will you throw nuts at me until I beg for mercy?”
I looked at the handful of almonds in my palm and frowned. The voice was familiar and yet…not. Not Caelan or Rowan, definitely not Soren. Thorvin was in the ground, and Ben…no, it wasn’t him either. He had no sense of humor.
“Ethan?”
The Lord appeared from nowhere, making me jerk in surprise. He should not have been able to do that.
I narrowed my eyes. “Why are you on Thorvin’s land?”
Ethan was one of the Lords I couldn’t get a read on. To everyone else, he was rigid, unfeeling, and too formal. If I hadn’t broken into his Keep and spied on him, I might have thought the same. Standing before me was a carefully crafted persona.
He was handsome as all the Lords were, but Ethan held himself tightly leashed. Violence lurked just underneath the surface. I would know. I saw myself in him.
He was older than the others, though not old. Shifters were blessed with immortality. Silver edged Ethan’s temples, either as a result of age or a deep trauma his DNA had not healed, something that had permanently altered him. I suspected the latter. No fine lines or wrinkles marred his handsome features, though the edges of his eyes held the faintest of shadows, asif he used to smile frequently and his skin hadn’t forgotten the memory of his happiness.
Against my better judgment, I wondered what life had done to Ethan to erase his joy.
He was shorter than Caelan and Rowan, but he still hit right at six feet, maybe a touch taller, forcing me to tilt my face up when I looked at him. Compared to the other Lords, Ethan was smaller, leaner, built for speed rather than brute violence. His eyes were dark, though I knew they were not brown, more of a midnight blue, reminiscent of a starless night sky.
I found him breathlessly beautiful, and if Evie knew, she would laugh her ass off and beg me not to pursue this madness. Not that I could pursue anything. Ethan stared at me with barely concealed distaste.
To be fair, he looked at most things the way he was looking at me, but I couldn’t fathom how I, a woman who hated just about everything and everyone, could find someone so profoundly stunning only for that person I secretly admired to stare at me like I was moldy leftovers forgotten in the back of the fridge.
He was not the kind of man you slept with and walked away from.
He was the kind who’d burn an image in your mind, one that you saw every time you closed your eyes, whether you wanted to or not.
I’d cursed myself over and over for trespassing on his property and getting a glimpse at his private life. Doing so had made me want things, unattainable things I knew I’d never have. I wasn’t Evie. I was no secret goddess, and my powers weren’t the blessing of life Evie had.
My powers were haunting and varied, and almost always ended in death. And now, thanks to the exposure to fae magic on Caelan’s property, they were even more fucked up than usual.
“A better question,” Ethan drawled after a drawn-out and uncomfortably long silence, “is why you’re here.”
His eyes flicked to the mound I stood by. Realization made him flinch. “Where is Thorvin?”
I crossed my arms and said nothing.
“Moira.”
The way he said my name made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
“This does not have to come to violence.” His voice was cajoling, but his dark eyes were flat.
“You suck at charm,” I drawled. “And I am immune. Try another tactic. Let’s see what you got.”
