A few seconds later, the earth spit up a naked Thorvin. He was curled in the fetal position, completely nude. I winced. Probably should have warned him about that beforehand.
Moira had her cell out, typing a message.
I strode over to Thorvin and nudged him with my toe. The Lord’s body held a fine tremor. His hands were clasped together, and silent tears rolled down his face.
Thorvin cracked open an eye and flinched. His mouth worked, opening and closing like a fish gasping for air.
“Evie?” he croaked.
I punched him right in the face, the satisfying crunch of cartilage beneath my fist enough to soothe the violent urge to kill him.
A choked scream rang from the Lord. His hands flew up to cover his face. Blood spurted through his fingers and flowed down his neck.
Moira whistled low. “Ouch.”
“Hello, Thorvin,” I said.
The Lord broke into soft gasping sounds. “I—I’m sorry, Evie. I didn’t realize. How could I? I do not have your sensitivity to the land. There was no way for me to know the damage I was doing until…” His voice trailed off. “There’s no way I can ever apologize for what I allowed to happen on my territory. I can promise you it will never happen again.”
He went to rise and stumbled, jerking in surprise when he realized his clothes were gone.
I let out a sigh and gripped him by the arm. “Come on. You need to see a medic.”
Thorvin let me pull him along, but he shook his head. “I don’t keep medics on staff. The Keep is empty.”
I shot him a disbelieving glance. “What the hell, Thorvin?”
He let out a heavy sigh. “I like privacy.”
“So do I, but you must have someone you can trust.”
His lips thinned. “You wouldn’t understand.”
I let out a crack of laughter. Even Moira chuckled.
“Out of everyone you know, Evie would understand the most,” my best friend said dryly. “We had to damn near bully her to get to know anything about her. She was the most untrusting person on the planet.”
“She’s not wrong,” I agreed. “The question is why don’t you trust anyone?”
Thorvin stayed silent. “My nose will heal overnight. Danu did not physically injure me, Evie. I will be fine.” But there was a haunted look in his eyes I didn’t like.
“How about you show me and Moira to the kitchen, and we’ll make you a sandwich?”
Thorvin’s brow furrowed. “You literally just punched me in the face and now you want to feed me?”
I shrugged. “I never said I was easy to figure out. Just hard to get to know.”
Thorvin let out an aggrieved sigh but didn’t deny us. We trudged in silence to what I assumed was his main house and let us in.
I blinked in surprise. Thorvin’s place looked like dark academia had knocked on the door, stamped the dirt off its boots on the front stoop, then moved in and decided to make a few changes. Everything was deliciously dark, but not in a depressing way, more in a dark and stormy night spent reading by the fireplace way.
Bookshelves were everywhere. The walls and ceiling were color-drenched in the most beautiful jewel tones. Deep, forested green living room walls. Purple-burgundy walls in the kitchen. Copper pots hung neatly on a rack above an island made out of?—
“Holy shit,” I said as I ran my fingers over the cool stone. “Is this a labradorite slab?”
He looked at me in surprise. “Yes. I had to source it from?—”
“Madagascar,” I murmured. The stone whispered to me, a new trick I had no idea I had. It…missed Thorvin. Was I going mad?
