The silence is thunderous. When it lingers too long, I push into the doors of Varia’s room and close them behind me.

…

Varia stands from the couch instantly when we walk in, her silver silk dress pooling around her like a waterfall. “You’re late.”

“Or perhaps you’re just five years too early.” I smile at her, the command twisting my limbs into a rigor. “Take back the command on me about Fione.”

Her brow raises. “Excuse me?”

“You can’t command the Bone Tree location out of me.” I raise my voice. “So take back. The command on me. About Fione.”

Her eyes snap to Yorl and, if I didn’t know better, I’d think she looks betrayed. Yorl merely keeps his usual cool expression behind his glasses, and just as my feet begin to march away to a secluded place, I bark at her.

“Now!”

The crown princess doesn’t startle, but she instantly snaps her wooden fingers, the tips of them growing black and dark. Like a dog straining to be let off a chain, the command runs away, dissipating into nothing more than air as the hunger fades out from behind it, my limbs growing soft again as my body becomes my own. It’s a hollow victory, but when I’ve eaten defeat for so long, it tastes the same as the real thing.

“There,” she says. “Now, enough wasting time. It’s done, Yorl? Truly?”

He nods. “Without a doubt. I saw Evlorasin give her the blood promise myself.”

Varia strides over to me, her heels clacking ferociously on the marble. She comes to a stop inches from my face, her own expression direly serious. Everything about her expression rings so true of Lucien that I’m almost winded.

I’ve chosen her. Over him. I’ve chosen my heart over everything.

Does that make me a monster?

“Where is the Bone Tree?” she asks, soft and yet decisive. I’ve got no reason to hold back on her, not if I want my heart. Her words bring a deluge of thoughts running through my mind unbidden; I can see the Tree again, instant and whole, its surroundings glowing brightly green all around it.

“A jungle,” I say. “Hot and humid and dense. There’s a long river, the longest I’ve ever seen. In the biggest bend of that river, ten spans east. It’s sitting on a rock, waiting for noon.”

For some reason, Yorl laughs a little hearing me say it again—incredulous, maybe. Varia just stares at me, like she’s delving into my eyes for the truth, and when she finds what she’s looking for, she swears.

“Gods almighty.”