She glanced at me and a grim shadow passed over her face, which flickered with myriad emotions like sunlight through wind-tickled leaves. But there was a fragility in her expression. Maybe even . . . fear? So different from her demeanor at the Nightwell fountain.

What did she have to fear from me?

“Well done, Coralythe.” Mattias gave a nod of approval, but she tangled her hands in the layers of her dress the same way she had when in the tent asking Oma for a wish. Unsure. Nervous.

Oh. Oh. Coralythe hadn’t told the king about my curse—that my wishes were limited. To one last use. He must not know that was Coralythe’s fault.

It wouldn’t take much for him to piece it together.

“I’ll carve her eyes out before you have a chance to touch her,” Sven growled. “Then you’ll never have a wish. My people first.”

I no longer knew Sven well enough to know if he’d follow through on the threat. But I’d crack his skull open with my own if he dared press that spoon any harder. I was going to die as soon as I had the chance anyway. But would the loss of both eyes rid me completely of my Talent? When Bastiaan lost his finger, had he lost his Talent?

“I don’t need to touch her.” Mattias looked at me. “Make me a wish.”

Sven pressed the spoon into my eye. “My people first!”

But it was too late. Mattias had spoken to my Bane, and despite the spoon cupping my eye, my body willed itself to obey. I sought my Talent, pulled up old memories, tried to find the last wish hiding inside my emotions, but . . .

It wasn’t there anymore.

My Talent might as well have been invisible inside me. A writhing bewilderment swirled inside my spirit—the desire to obey my king and the inability to do so.

Where was my last wish? Had the Bane taken it from me?

I’d used the Bane once. Now I was done with it. But if I was truly done with it, Mattias’s command wouldn’t have affected me.

Bastiaan had been right: Banes and Talents couldn’t coexist inside a person. One needed to rule. The other needed to fade. And I’d given authority to the Bane.

How did I take it back?

“I . . . I can’t.”

A flicker of annoyance crossed Mattias’s face. “Come here.”

This command was altogether different. I felt the yank of loyalty. Servitude. A desire to obey. But also a confusing resistance in the back of my mind. Was this how Hedy felt as I made her prance to my side and touch me? Helpless? Furious? Determined to resist and remain her own person?

I took a step forward, but Sven yanked me back, digging the spoon into my eye socket. I cried out. He really would carve out my eye!