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Eight spies from B’rei Mira had been captured so far—one more in the palace, seven out in the streets. According to Commander Electus, there was still one more to be found that he knew of.

Xerxes planned to interrogate the spies now that they were rounded up. He’d been on his way to the dungeons when he found himself standing outside the Abandoned Temple instead, watching a maiden pray.

He downed the last of his tea, and he turned to leave her alone. He would make things right with Ryn when she was ready, but she wasn’t ready yet. He had work to do anyway.

Xerxes had foregone his coat of nobility and crown the last few days. Only his signet ring indicated he was the ruler of Per-Siana. But it was difficult to get dressed in his royal robes in the mornings when he didn’t feel like much of a king.

After the assassination attempt, Xerxes had issued a decree that the Heatstealer trials be put on hold until every spy was captured. The council had agreed—thank the Celestial Divinities. Though the senses trial had destroyed many things, it had also opened people’s eyes. Citizens were starting to wonder about B’rei Mira now. Wondering if something terrible was coming to Per-Siana.

Despite all that had happened, Xerxes expected it to be a fairly normal, non-eventful day.

But that was not what occurred.

The evening came with a headache.

“Hungry.”

Xerxes knocked his knuckles off his head as he sank into the hot baths. He tried to relax against the stone, but the voices wouldn’t shut up.

“You must kill the maiden.”

His eyes opened slowly.

“She must die today.”

“She is the enemy.”

“Quiet,” Xerxes muttered. He smacked the water, sending a wave of sprinkles into the next pool over. He adjusted his head along the pool’s edge to take a nap—

“YOU MUST KILL HER.”

“KILL FOR US.”

“KILL!”

“YOU WILL ONLY FEEL BETTER IF YOU KILL!”

Xerxes leapt from the stone bench, splashing water out of the pool. He gripped the rock, his heart beating faster, his skin growing tight. His vision blurred.

“KILL THE ENEMY!”many voices said.

The headache turned to searing pain, and Xerxes held his temples. “Ah!” he growled. “Why are youso obsessedwith death?!” he shouted at the voices. “Leave me alone!”

Every voice in his head flooded in at once. Xerxes gasped as the noise became unbearable; he couldn’t understand what they were saying anymore. Half his vision turned black. His lungs tightened as he pulled himself out of the pool and stumbled for the bathrobes. He barely got one around himself before he tipped out of the pool room and collided with the opposite wall, blinking against blurry shapes and dragging himself forward in clumsy steps, following a path by memory.

The door to the spiral staircase banged open. Xerxes nearly fell down the stairs on his way down. The further into thebasement he got, the louder his voices shouted, and he released a screech as he raced the last steps to his tree.

The golden pears were the only thing crisp in his vision. He took one. He ate it in seconds.

It wasn’t enough.

He took another.

Xerxes ate eleven pears before he realized they weren’t helping.

“No!” he shouted at the voices. “I will not do what you want! I will not kill for you again!”

“The only way to be free of pain is to give us what we want.”