“Eat,” I tell her, jerking my chin at the plates. We’ve already wasted too much time, and I won’t be summoning him back anyway. His offer to return for the cart was clearly a message for her.

Her stomach growls. She drops the towel on the arm of the sofa and lunges for the cart, grabbing a glass of orange juice and downing it in four huge gulps. It spills down her chin. She doesn’t bother to wipe it away before piling vegan sausage, fruit, and pancakes onto a plate and drowning it all in syrup. She folds a dripping pancake into her mouth with her hands before she makes it to the sofa.

It hurts just watching her. I haven’t eaten a real meal in days, and the constant burn in my chest isn’t helping my appetite. “You just came out of stasis two days ago. I don’t have time to wait while you make yourself sick.”

Fleur’s chewing slows. Her eyes move back and forth as if she’s calculating in her head.

“You were in stasis for eighteen hours,” I say, answering the unasked question in the crease of her brow. She frowns, shoving another bite into her mouth, her eyes closing with her greedy swallow.

I yank her plate away, dropping it onto the cart. “Now,” I tell her, shoving the potted plant toward her and sitting opposite her. “Show me.”

She glares at me over a napkin as she wipes the syrup from her chin. “I can’t show you,” she says sharply. “It’s not something you can learn that way.”

I slam my palm against the coffee table. “Then tell me!”

Her expression’s hard to read—anger, hostility, impatience maybe, but not fear. Never that.

I drag my hands through my hair, reining in my temper. The angrier she becomes, the harder she’ll fight me. “Tell me how to command the plant,” I insist with forced calmness.

She shakes her head at me, as if I’m some kind of idiot. “That’s just it. You can’t command it. Plants aren’t human. They don’t care who you are or how much power you have or what crown you think you’re wearing. You can’t boss them around like they’re members of your kitchen staff.”

I leap off the couch, jerking her up by her arm as I summon a flame and hold it close to her face. “Fire’s not human, either, but it comes when I call it.”