“You know that he’ll have to put you aside if he marries the queen? Eric can certainly feed off humans if he’s married to a royal, and he can even have a pet human, but he can’t have a wife.”

“That’s what he gave me to understand.”

“Sookie . . . don’t do anything rash.”

“I already broke the bond.”

After a long pause, Bill said, “That’s a good thing, because the bond was risky for both of you.” Not exactly news.

“I sort of miss having the connection,” I confessed, “but at the same time it’s a relief.”

Bill didn’t say anything. Very carefully.

“Have you ever . . . ?” I asked.

“Once, long ago,” he said. He didn’t want to talk about it.

“Did it end well?”

“No,” he said. His voice was flat and didn’t invite me to continue that line of conversation. “Let it go, Sookie. I’m telling you this not as a former lover, but as a friend. Let Eric make up his own mind about this. Don’t ask him questions. Though we can’t stand each other, I know Eric will try his best to get out of this situation simply because he loves his freedom. Oklahoma is very beautiful, and Eric loves beauty, but he already has that in you.”

I must be feeling better if I could appreciate a compliment. I wondered what the queen’s real name was. Often the ruler was called by the name of the land she ruled; Bill hadn’t meant that the state was beautiful, but that the woman who ruled its night creatures was.

When I didn’t respond, Bill continued, “She also has a lot of power. That is, she has territory, minions, real estate, oil money.” And we both knew Eric loved power. Not complete power—he’d never wanted to be a king—but he loved being able to call the shots in his own bailiwick.

“I get what power is,” I said. “And I get that I don’t have it. You want to take the car to your house, or leave it here and go through the woods?”

He handed the keys to me and said, “I’ll go through the woods.”

There was nothing more to be said.

“Thanks,” I told him. I opened the porch door, stepped in, locked it behind me. I unlocked the back door and went in, switching on the kitchen light. There was a quiet emptiness to the house, which I found immediately soothing, and the air conditioners were doing their best to make everything cool.