Without warning, hunger coursed through my veins. I might not know what the tree of demon fruit looked like. But my blood recognized this place. The Nameless stepped backward, and one broke from the trio to place her hand against the bone white tree and rest her forehead to its bark.
“Planted of a sister’s heart, unwillingly given,” said the first.
“Fixed to the ground of a beloved’s bone, unwillingly given,” said the second.
“Watered by tears, unwillingly given,” said the third.
Their words chilled me.
“And what of the demon fruit?” I asked.
The first, who had not removed her hand from the bark, stroked the tree. “The fruit lies in the heart of the tree. But it can only be taken by a man who has given away his heart. None else can take the fruit. And yet no man may eat of it.”
“Why would you ever honor your sister’s memory in a place like this?”
The Nameless smiled. “It is her heart that the Queen took. This is our sister’s legacy. Our vengeance. This is the last Tournament. When we win, our sister will be honored forever.”
***
I got away from them as fast as I could. I muttered something vaguely polite right before running to Vikram. I didn’t care that it wasn’t even nightfall yet. The words of the Nameless rang through my thoughts. My tongue felt thick and my mouth turned dry. I hadeatenthat fruit. I had eaten something grown from bones, heart and tears. Worse… I craved it. That bite of power. Of invincibility. Maybe the demon fruit brought a curse with it, but to me it felt like safety.
Vikram hadn’t moved from the spot where I’d left him. Only now, his face was pale. And his hair was tousled, as if he had tugged at the strands one time too many.
“I figured out the riddle,” he said. “The answer is blood.”
It made sense. You could not see your own blood. If you lost too much, you died. Some people swore by their lineage. And blood was life, although having more of it wouldn’t change the time of your death.
“I think he wants us to place some of our blood in the pool before he will let us enter.”
My fingers trembled from my meeting with the Nameless. I clasped them together. I didn’t want to die here. I didn’t want to become like them, wandering through this palace and playing a game over and over, hoping for a different outcome. But I needed strength if I was going to win.
“I’ll meet you by the pool at first light,” I said.
“Where are you going?”
“To steal sleep and hope I don’t remember the nightmares.”
“On the night before possible death with all the food and festivities and dancing all around us, you want to go to sleep?”
“Celebrating as if it’s your last night on earth generally makes for reckless mistakes the next day,” I said, folding my arms.
“I solved the riddle. I demand a reward.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What do you want?”
Vikram nodded to the revels taking place beneath the banyan tree. The music already made me feel heady with the frenzied drums and the musicians’ lilting song of yearning and claiming. He stepped closer, to the point where I had to look up to meet his eyes. A vulpine grin crept onto his face. In that moment, he looked like mischief and midnight, like a temptation that always slipped away too fast and left you at once relieved and disappointed.
“I want one dance with you.”
25
A TALISMAN OF TOUCH
VIKRAM
The bones had stood out too sharply. A little too knowingly. As if they had been waiting for him to find them. Maybe those bones belonged to someone like him. Someone who believed that magic meant they were destined for more. Maybe they believed it right until the moment they died.
Vikram wasn’t so blinded by the idea of magic that he thought it was a toothless and beautiful thing. He knew it bit. But he hadn’t imagined it could bite… them.
