20. Bryony
brYONY
The bedroom door closed behind me. The sudden silence stopped me with my hand on the latch.
I’d wanted room to think without feeling his hunger or knowing when my anger hurt him. Harrowmere had given it to me completely, and every detail followed me into the quiet.
“Bloody house,” I muttered.
The lamp beside the bed brightened, which I took as a lack of remorse.
I sat on the edge of the mattress and pressed my palms to my thighs. Stellan had planned to seduce me, use my blood and leave me with a man who might kill me during the succession rite. He’d known exactly what I was risking while I worked it out in pieces.
Then I’d refused the Crown when it offered me control of him, and his plan had changed. He’d stayed when the first manacle opened. He’d protected me from the Crown. He’d stopped feeding when he could have taken more and given me pleasure without using magic to shape it.
Both versions of him were real. Adrian being worse didn’t make Stellan innocent, and his later choices didn’t excuse the earlier ones.
My body wasn’t interested in helping. The bite on my throat still felt sensitive under my fingertips. I remembered his mouth on my skin and the weight of him under me, followed by his face when I asked whether he loved me.
He’d answered honestly after waiting far too long.
I pulled my hand away from the bite. “Still furious.”
The bed gave a small creak under me.
“Keep your opinions to yourself.”
A hard metallic knock travelled along the wall.
I stood. The sound came again, followed by three slower knocks. It wasn’t Stellan. He was behind two internal doors, and the noise had come from the far end of the lower court.
The silver line outside the suite lit without turning white. Stellan had said white meant another vampire had entered. Whoever was knocking remained outside the wards.
I took a short sword from the nearest guard room. The weapon was lighter than it looked, and the leather grip fitted my hand. I didn’t know how to use it, but carrying steel was more sensible than answering a mysterious knock with a bedside lamp.
The lower court stayed empty as I followed the sound. Every door remained closed except the one behind me. I passed Cecily’s sitting room and heard the quiet scrape of Stellan’s chain inside. He didn’t call my name or come out. He was keeping his promise to give me distance.
That didn’t make the confession hurt less. It kept me walking instead of turning towards him.
The next knock came from a black gate at the end of the hall. Silver ravens covered its middle, their wings locked together across the join. A narrow line of white light cut between them.
I stopped several metres away. “Who is it?”
“Lenora Cade.” Her voice came through the gate, low and urgent. “Don’t open it. Adrian can’t cross while it stays sealed.”
I kept the sword down at my side and moved close enough to see through the line. “Give me a reason to believe it’s you.”
A silver raven filled the gap. I recognised the badge Lenora had worn on her black armour when Adrian brought her into the throne room.
“You cut your hand on Edith’s key before you came under the house,” she said. “You carried the document case under your left arm when the court threw us out. I told you to stay away from the Crown, and Adrian tried to drag me through the gate for saying it.”
“All right. Why are you here?”
“Because the Claiming weakened his order enough for me to speak inside Harrowmere. I don’t know how long the gap will remain open.”
Lenora’s face moved into the thin strip of light. Her dark hair had come loose from its tie, and blood marked the collar of her armour. I couldn’t see where it came from.
“Are you hurt?” I asked.
“Nothing that matters yet. Listen to me. Adrian killed Edith.”
The words reached me clearly. I still needed a second to understand them.
“Edith’s doctor said her heart failed.”
“Adrian made certain it would. He put poison in her heart medicine during her last visit to Harrowmere. I smelt it when he opened the bottle. Edith did too.”
Lenora pressed closer to the gap. “It was a court poison made to vanish from human blood within hours. The doctor would find a failed heart and no reason to suspect anyone helped it stop. Adrian wanted her death treated as natural so the will would proceed and nobody from your world would interfere with the estate.”
An ordinary investigation would never reach him, and Lenora’s oath had kept the only witness silent.
My fingers closed around the sword grip. “She knew?”
“Yes. He offered her the clean bottle if she told him where you lived and gave him a sample of your blood. She refused. She said he could kill her, but he wouldn’t get close to you while she could still stop him.”
A dull pressure built behind my ribs. I saw Edith in her small sitting room, complaining about weak tea while I fetched the biscuits.
She’d been tired during her last month. I had blamed age and grief after Grandad’s death.
She’d known a vampire had poisoned her and spent the time she had left making certain I reached Harrowmere with a warning.
“He fucking murdered her.”
Lenora didn’t look away. “Yes.”
I put one hand against the gate. The metal stayed cold. “And you stood there while he did it.”
“I did.” Her answer came without an excuse.
“The captain’s seal binds me to the lawful ruler of Harrowmere.
When Edith chained Stellan and named Adrian regent, her order made his commands lawful.
He ordered me to remain still while he poisoned her.
Then he ordered me never to tell you or anyone carrying her blood.
My blood had kept Edith alive for more than a century.
Adrian made certain his poison was stronger than anything I could give her.
The oath doesn’t make me agree with him,” she continued.
“It takes control of my body when I refuse. It can stop my voice or force me to stand aside. Adrian has used it for a century because the court still recognises him as regent while Stellan remains chained.”
Anger cut through the shock. “You’re the commander of the guard. How many people has that excuse allowed him to hurt?”
Lenora’s jaw tightened. “Too many. I fought the order until it stopped my heart. Adrian released it when I collapsed, then made me stand again. I couldn’t touch the bottle or warn Edith’s doctor. You don’t have to forgive me. You need to know what he’ll do when the Crown is within reach.”
“When Harrowmere threw us out of the throne room, the Claiming placed your protection above his command,” Lenora said.
“That’s why I could warn you about the Crown.
It was the first order I’d broken since Edith named him regent.
The court punished me for entering with him, then stopped treating me as a threat when I chose the heir over the man trying to control her. ”
She didn’t ask me to comfort her. An oath explained why she hadn’t moved while Edith died. It didn’t change the result.
“You don’t get credit for one warning after a century at his side,” I said. “You do get the chance to tell me everything that keeps him from doing it again. Don’t shorten the truth because you think I can’t handle it.”
“I won’t. Adrian needs you alive until you wear the Crown and give the first command.
After that, your survival matters only if Harrowmere demands it.
He told Stellan you could return to your human life because he wanted the king to believe cooperation might protect you.
Adrian has never planned to let you leave with authority over this court. ”
The answer was brutal and useful.
“Why kill Edith when her death woke the next heir?” I asked.
“Because she knew every rule he was breaking. She could refuse the Crown for the rest of her life, and Harrowmere respected that choice. He wanted a younger heir who didn’t know the court existed. He couldn’t find you, so he killed Edith and trusted the succession to bring you to the house.”
Lenora lowered her voice. “Edith used the time he left her to write the instructions you carried below. She knew the court would hold you once your blood opened it, so she gave you the only protection she could. The documents would help you recognise Adrian’s lies.
Stellan could keep the Crown from reaching you if you gave him enough blood to move.
She trusted neither man. She trusted you to use both facts. ”
Adrian hadn’t needed my address. He’d used my grandmother’s death and the will to make Harrowmere fetch me.
Edith hadn’t sent me to rescue Stellan or replace her on a throne. She’d left information and trusted me to decide. Both vampires had tried to narrow that choice in different ways.
I knew attacking the gate would achieve nothing. I still wanted to break it open and put the sword through him.
“Does Stellan know?”
“He knows Adrian was responsible. He doesn’t know how. The order stopped me telling him too.”
Stellan had been right about Adrian causing Edith’s death. It didn’t repair what he’d done to me.
“I’ll tell him,” I said. “He needs to know exactly what Adrian did and that the guard entrance can open. I’m not withholding danger because I’m angry with him.”
Lenora gave a small nod. “Good. Stellan’s first plan doesn’t make Adrian safe, and Adrian’s crimes don’t make Stellan’s betrayal harmless. Keep those truths separate. Both men will benefit if you let one cancel the other.”
“I’m capable of being furious with more than one vampire at a time.”
“You’ll need that skill here.”
Her attention moved to the corridor behind her, and urgency returned to her face.
Lenora shifted closer to the opening. “The Crown is awake upstairs. Adrian has been feeding it his blood since the gate expelled us. He can’t enter the lower court, but he’s looking for another route.”
“Is that why you came to this gate?”
“This is a guard entrance. My seal can open a speaking gap because I served Stellan before Edith bound me to Adrian. It won’t admit my body while the Claiming protects you.
” Lenora pushed the silver raven deeper into the narrow space.
“Take it. The court will recognise that I surrendered my authority to the heir. Adrian won’t be able to use my office against you. ”
“Once you have it, press the raven against the silver line outside the royal suite,” she added. “That will place the guard rooms under your protection. Adrian won’t be able to turn their weapons or doors against you while you remain inside that line.”
The badge was attached to a short black chain. Lenora worked it through the gap one link at a time while I set the sword against the wall. I kept my other hand away from the gate. The court had warned me often enough about giving blood to old metal.
“What happens to you when he realises it’s gone? Tell me plainly.”
“He’ll know I broke his order, and he’ll hurt me for it. Keeping the seal gives him more power than punishing me will. I came anyway.”
Lenora held my gaze, and I reached for the silver raven.
A man’s hand closed around her wrist.
Lenora jerked against the gate. The badge struck the metal and the white gap widened enough for me to see Adrian standing behind her.
His dark suit was torn at one shoulder where Harrowmere had thrown him out. Red light moved under the skin of his hand and wrapped around Lenora’s arm.
“Captain,” he said. “Step away from the gate.”
Her body locked. The chain went taut between us, leaving the silver raven caught halfway through the opening.
I grabbed it. “Let her go, you fucking bastard.”
Adrian looked past Lenora and met my eyes through the gap. “Stellan’s influence has already damaged your judgement. Give me the seal and come to the Crown. I’ll release Lenora from every order attached to it.”
“You poisoned my grandmother.”
His expression didn’t change. “Edith chose a painful death when she refused the succession. You don’t have to repeat her mistake.”
Lenora fought hard enough to make her armour shake. “Bryony, let go of the seal.”
I tightened my grip. If Adrian wanted it, handing it back was a terrible idea.
Lenora’s eyes fixed on mine. “He needs my blood and the seal together. Let it go and get behind the royal ward.”
Adrian drew a narrow black blade from his sleeve. “Fuck.” I released the raven and snatched up the sword. The badge fell towards Lenora. Adrian caught her hand, cut her palm and slammed it over the silver bird before it could drop.
Red light burst across the gate. Lenora cried out as her blood filled the carved wings. Adrian pressed his hand over hers. The red under his skin poured into the seal and forced a thin line through the opening.
“Run!” Lenora shouted. The white gap snapped shut, cutting off her voice. The ravens locked together again, but Adrian’s red line had already reached my side.
It raced under my boots and spread along the lower court.
Doors slammed in order, starting at the gate and moving towards the royal suite.
The floor twisted hard enough to throw me against the wall.
I shoved myself upright and ran. The sword struck my leg with every step.
Behind me, black spikes broke through the stone where I’d fallen.
“Stellan!” The door to Cecily’s room vanished into a solid wall. So did the entrance to the royal suite. The lower court narrowed around me, forcing me towards the only arch left open.
I crossed it and stumbled into the throne room. The arch sealed behind me. Every lamp turned red, and the chains fixed to the dais lifted from the floor.
Harrowmere had stopped protecting me. The first chain came straight for my throat.