“Would you like a drink?” Soren asked.
“Not before magic but thank you.”
Soren dipped his head. “Come, sit for a few minutes. I made a small charcuterie board.”
I blinked in surprise. Rowan had accidentally taken the bag of snacks, and I was starving. Thorvin hadn’t even come out to say goodbye, much less offered me a bite.
“Alright then.”
Soren laughed as he led me up the porch steps. “Let me guess. Thorvin was the prior visit?”
I sat in the chair next to the one he was sitting in when I arrived. To my great delight, thesmallcharcuterie board was enormous. I suppose to a shifter, this would be considered small.
“Help yourself.” Soren poured himself a glass of wine and me a glass of water.
I gave up all pretense of being cool and piled my plate high with cheese, meat, olives, and nuts. “Thank you.”
Soren was buttering me up for something, but only a fool passed on free food.
“My Keep hosts many mages. Our grocery bill gets astronomical when they’re training.” Soren added a few thingsto his plate and watched me while I ate. Not in a creepy way. More in a curious way.
“I know you want something,” I said through a mouthful of salami. “Spit it out.”
Soren snorted. “Through everything, you’ve been kind to us.”
At my startled look, he pressed on. “We did not deserve your kindness, Evie. Not even a little bit. And at the end, neither did Caelan.”
I swallowed and watched him warily. Where was he going with this?
“None of us are surprised you ended up with Rowan. He is the only one of us who has managed to stay in power and build a vibrant community at the same time. Plus, the bastard is like you. Far too empathetic to be a Lord.”
“Careful how you speak of Rowan,” I said softly.
Soren held his hands up and laughed. “Peace, Evie. That is not an insult. The opposite, in fact. Caelan is a caged beast on his lands, though rumor is you’ve brought down his prison walls.” He cocked an eyebrow.
I nodded. “True.”
“Thorvin’s cage is his mind. Ben shuns all of us. Rowan would kill us all if he could manage it without you finding out.”
I went still at his words. Could they be true?
“And Ethan rarely ventures from his lands. The most we ever saw was when you kept kicking the hornet’s nest.”
He didn’t know Ethan was coming around Rowan’s Keep. Interesting. “And you?” I asked.
Soren spread his hands out. “I’m the Lord of a territory where people don’t give a shit about me. These people don’t need a Lord, Evie. If they spotted me wandering their lands, they’d shoot first and ask questions later.”
“Then you shouldn’t have chosen Louisiana,” I said with a laugh. “Though Texas might have you beat on that front.”
He shook his head. “Caelan’s people love him. I’m not quite sure how he managed it, since he treated you so poorly, but…” His voice trailed off. “Well, I suppose,lovedis the right word, since most of his people abandoned him.”
Soren clicked his tongue. “Crossing you leads to dire consequences, sometimes.”
I shoved a piece of cheese in my mouth and glared at him.
“Regardless, I’m more curious than anything. Why have you dealt with us so fairly when you deserved to raze us to the ground?”
I studied him for a moment. “I’m not sure I understand the reason why you’re asking me. Is kindness so foreign to you that you can’t figure out the motivations behind it?”
