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“He’s trespassing. Kill him.”

“We would like to see him die.”

“Kill him and then kill the maiden upstairs.”

Belorme didn’t move, but his voice lifted from inside his hood, detached and ugly sounding. “I suppose I was just… hungry.” His hood tilted toward the tree.

A crawling sensation moved over Xerxes’s flesh. “Hungry?” he articulated.

“Or just curious, I suppose. I haven’t seen this tree since the day we planted the seed. How long ago was that?” Belorme asked, looking up the tree’s height.

Xerxes drew in another step closer while the sage’s back was turned. A deep, overwhelming appetite burned through his abdomen, his head clouding with a horrid desire to do something terrible. “Ten years,” he said.

“No one is allowed down here. He should die.”

“You made the rules.”

“He didn’t follow the rules.”

“He doesn’t respect you. It would be better if he was dead.”

Belorme turned, and Xerxes stopped walking.

“I came to inform you what the Intelligentsia has decided,” the sage stated in a clear voice.

“Why did you comedown here?” Xerxes asked again, carefully.

“I figured this was where you’d be hiding.” Belorme didn’t address that he broke Xerxes’s one strict rule. That he’d tossed Xerxes’s authority out the window. “I know you despise that we invoked the Heartstealer trials and disrupted the palace’s routine. So, the Intelligentsia has decided to shorten the trial period. Foryoursake.”

Xerxes glared.

For his sake.

He could have thrown Belorme across the room by his lips for uttering such a lie. This man was the reason Xerxes hated liars. He was the reason Xerxes hated waking up in the morning.

“Tomorrow night, Lady Calliope will be performing a bandari dance at the senses trial,” Belorme said. “She’s chosen the sense oftouch.”

Anger rippled over Xerxes’s body. “Don’t you dare let her touch me,” he warned.

“It’s too late, Xerxes. She’s been practicing how to keep a hand on you at all times during her routine. I’ve ensured none of the other maidens have chosentouch. I’ve even warned them not to lay a single finger on you, no matter what, or there will be consequences. It will be easy and obvious for you to know when it’s Calliope’s turn.”

“You want me to take off my blindfold?!” Xerxes growled. “You might as well tell me not to come. I have no intention of rewarding a maiden at this ridiculous trial.”

“This is your punishment!” Belorme shouted, his voice echoing through the room, and Xerxes jumped. The sound rang in his ears.

It had been years since Belorme raised his voice to scold Xerxes for doing something wrong. Belorme always had a way of putting Xerxes in his place, but the last time he’d truly shoutedlike a disappointed father was long before the death of the late King. Back when Xerxes had a father. And an uncle.

“You didn’t meet with Calliope in your chambers like I told you to,” Belorme said from his hood. “You weren’t even at your room when she got there. She waited all night!”

Xerxes released a heavy breath.

“You’re angry.”

“You will feel better if you kill him.”

“There are no witnesses down here.”

Xerxes grabbed a pear from the tree. He squeezed it so hard, the flesh crushed in his fingers. But he took a bite, furious at the shame that washed over him at having to succumb to his illness, to devour his medicine, right in front of Belorme.