I turn to the next page, which describes a circle that includes using one hundred human sacrifices, and then glance down at the god as I question which part of this is in the “fine” category. When I set the book down, I slide it back, thinking that maybe the book needs to end up in a fireplace where no one can ever touch it.
I still find it strange that we haven’t come across a single person. Does no one realize the god is back? Or does he live alone in this massive palace? I really can’t imagine this man not having servants.
Torin nudges me. “I’m well past my third book and you’ve just now finished your first. Why are you slacking off?”
“I don’t fully know what I’m looking for, so I have to at least glance at the pages I’m flipping past.”
“You’ll know it when you see it,” he says.
“Which means?”
“I don’t know. I just thought it sounded cool.”
“I’m surprised you’re still speaking English.”
He shrugs. “I don’t care what I speak.”
“It’s just… so weird how you know all these English words when you speak to me, but when you speak to other people, you somehow only know shit you’d hear in a porno and then claim it’s my fault.”
“Thatisweird,” he says as he grabs another book and then sighs. “I’m craving donuts.”
“Do you have donuts here?” I ask.
“Does it look like we have donuts here?”
My stomach is craving food. I lost reception on my phone the second I walked through that doorway, but I can still use it to tell time and it tells me I definitely should have stopped by now.
“Okay. Let’s take a break,” I say.
Torin hops up and hurries out the door. I get up and follow him into the long hallway that he swiftly moves down, passing through a maze of doors and corridors until we arrive at an enormous kitchen. The appliances are a mixture of old-fashioned things as well as magical devices I have no idea how to use. He looks around and then picks up a basket.
“Let’s go.”
“I thought we were getting something to eat.”
“Yes, let’s grab something fresh,” he says, and off he goes again. I trail after him, absolutely perplexed.
“We’re not going to go out and pick some cute little animal that you’re going to try to make me bash over the head so we can eat, right?”
“Yes, that was exactly my plan. The cuter the better,” he says.
We head back out to the flower garden, and as he passes the stone beast, his fingers trail over it. I glance at it, wanting to touch it again, but feeling like it might be inappropriate. Instead of heading out toward the fountain, he turns right down a path that winds around to the side of the estate and into a large garden.
There are vegetables I recognize, like tomatoes and squash, but other things that I have no idea what they are. He plucks a few things and then off he goes again.
“You… don’t have a servant to do these things?” I ask.
“You cook for me, I cook for you,” he says, beaming back at me.
I shrug and follow him back to the kitchen where he starts dicing things up.
“Can I help?”
“I think you’re supposed to sit on the counter naked, if we’re going off your books.”
I scowl at him and decide that if he’s going to ramble about stupid shit, I’ll leave him to do it himself. Instead, I nose my way into a room which turns out to be a pantry full of dried herbs. And then I wander over to a window that overlooks a beautiful pond that seems to stretch on farther than even Kit can see. I wonder again why he would have chosen to leave such a breathtaking place.
Eventually, Torin finishes up and escorts me over to the grand dining hall.
