25. Stellan
STELLAN
The guard’s blood hit my tongue hot and bitter.
I tore my fangs free and shoved his body towards the gate. He struck the iron hard enough to make the damaged frame shake. The red lines on his throat went dark, but they didn’t disappear. They sank into his torn flesh and followed the veins towards his chest.
“Adrian’s blood is inside them,” I said. “The red marks run from the throat to the heart. He hasn’t laid the command over their bodies. He’s put it into their blood.”
The woman caught in the vines screamed. Her claws ripped through two stems, and Harrowmere replaced them with four more. She twisted towards Bryony even while the garden dragged her backwards.
Bryony kept the sword raised. Lenora had one hand pressed to her bleeding side and the other closed around the knife she’d recovered from the wall.
Three more guards forced their way through the cut gate. The first carried a narrow black blade made for opening royal seals. The second had a sword. The third entered with empty hands and fangs already down.
They spread across the garden because Adrian made them use the training I’d given their predecessors.
“Stellan,” Lenora said. “The marks begin over the heart. Damaging the throat won’t release them while Adrian keeps feeding the command.”
“I know.” I stepped over the dead guard and tasted his blood again. Adrian’s authority saturated it. “Every guard he sends inside will carry proof of who controlled the attack.”
Adrian stood safely outside the white barrier. “Proof for whom? You’ll kill every witness before the court opens.”
I faced the approaching guards. “You put your blood inside loyal vampires and forced them to attack the heir they’re sworn to defend. Their bodies are the record. Harrowmere has already tasted what you did.”
“Harrowmere is a ruined house answering to an uncrowned human who doesn’t understand it. Come through the gate while it’s open. Leave her to the Crown, and I’ll remove the collar myself.”
Bryony gave a short laugh from the spring wall. “You really do think everyone is as stupid as you need them to be.”
Adrian’s gaze hardened. “You inherited a prison and mistook it for power. Stellan will leave you the first moment that chain allows it. He planned to use you from the start, and you know it.”
“I do know it. He told me himself.” She adjusted her grip on the sword. “You’ve run out of secrets, Adrian. All you have left are other people’s bodies.”
One of the guards flinched as if the words had struck him. Adrian lifted two fingers.
The red marks pulsed.
All three attacked.
The unarmed vampire reached me first. I caught his forearm, turned under his swing and broke his elbow across my shoulder. Bone split, but the command drove him on. His other hand closed around the cut on my chest.
He tried to tear it open.
I hit him in the throat and threw him into the spring. Water rose around his body in a white sheet. The garden caught his ankles under the surface and held him there.
The swordsman came in low. I blocked with the dead guard’s curved blade, forced his weapon aside and struck his jaw with the hilt. He staggered without falling.
The guard carrying the seal blade ran past me.
“Bryony, left.”
She moved at once. The black blade passed her ribs and struck the top of the spring wall. Lenora seized the guard’s wrist with both hands while Bryony drove her shoulder into his chest.
The wound in Lenora’s side opened farther. Blood ran down her armour, and her injured leg folded.
I kicked the swordsman back and grabbed the chain at my throat. It had already started to lift from the path.
“Get away from them,” I told the swordsman. “Give me one step that belongs to you.”
His arm shook. The blade stopped halfway through another strike.
“Now,” he forced out.
I drove my fist into his chest. Ribs broke under the blow, and he flew backwards into the roses. Vines closed around his arms before Adrian could force him upright.
The guard at the wall dragged Lenora down with him. Bryony struck the flat of her sword against his wrist. The black blade fell onto the path.
Adrian stepped closer to the barrier. “Open the heir’s throat.”
The command hit every marked vampire at once.
The woman ripped one arm free of the vines. The guard in the spring came out of the water. The man at Bryony’s feet rolled towards her with his fangs bared.
I ran.
The collar snapped tight before I reached her. Iron crushed my throat and pulled me back half a step. Bryony saw it happen. She reversed the sword and drove the hilt into the guard’s temple while Lenora caught his remaining arm.
“Stay where you are,” Bryony said. “I’ve got this one. Deal with the others before they reach us.”
She trusted me to choose the order of the fight.
I let the chain pull me back into its range and turned as the vampire from the spring lunged. Water streamed from his clothes. I caught the front of his armour and drove him headfirst into the stone path.
The garden held the woman again. The swordsman fought the roses around his arms, still trying to obey Adrian with a broken chest.
“Fight him,” I said to them. “You don’t need to win. Slow your hands. Miss when he makes you strike. Give us enough time to keep you alive.”
The wet guard planted both palms on the path and tried to rise. His right arm trembled, then folded by choice. He looked at me from inches away.
“Do it,” he said. “He won’t stop.”
I put my knee between his shoulders and gripped the back of his armour. “I’m not killing you while you’re still helping me.”
“He’ll use us again.”
“Then keep fucking helping.” I hauled him upright and threw him into the swordsman. Both went down among the roses, where Harrowmere bound them together.
Bryony’s attacker jerked free of Lenora. He reached for Bryony’s ankle. She stamped on his wrist, then kicked the black seal blade towards me.
“Can that close the gate?” she asked. “The chain won’t let you reach the outer seal.”
“The blade can cut the command feeding the marks. If Adrian keeps destroying the gate, the chain may stop holding me before the ward fails.”
Another blow struck the frame from the passage. The remaining strip of warded iron split. White light poured into the garden, flickered and went out.
The chain at my throat dropped.
Every link fell flat across the path. The pressure vanished so completely that I heard my own breath and the blood moving through Bryony’s body. The broken service seal had interrupted the sentence holding the chain to the throne.
The route outside Harrowmere stood open.
Adrian backed into the passage. He hadn’t expected the anchor to fail. Four more vampires waited behind him, although none carried red marks.
If escape were impossible, Adrian wouldn’t have posted guards there.
I picked up the black blade and crossed the ruined gate.
Cold air moved down the service passage from the upper house. Rain had entered somewhere near the upper door. I hadn’t smelt it in open air for a century. The collar stayed loose as its chain followed me over the broken white line.
Adrian’s guards raised their weapons. He lifted one hand to hold them back.
“Keep walking,” he said. “The service door is open at the top. You can be outside the boundary before Harrowmere repairs the seal. Once you’re clear, the collar loses its claim on you.”
“And Bryony?”
“The court will crown her. She’ll survive if she stops fighting what she inherited. You’ve wanted freedom since Cecily died, Stellan. Take it while she can’t change her mind and lock you down again.”
For one second, I wanted to.
The passage rose ahead of me. The collar stayed loose, and I could reach the upper door.
Then Lenora cried out behind me.
I turned.
Bryony’s attacker had driven his shoulder into her knees. She hit the path and lost the sword. The marked woman had torn free of the last vines and was crawling towards them on one ruined arm. Lenora tried to rise between the two attackers and collapsed.
Bryony reached for the knife at her waist.
I went back through the gate.
Adrian swore behind me. “Bring him out.”
The marked guards in the roses fought to stand. I passed them before they could obey and drove the black blade through the mark over the crawling woman’s heart.
Red light burst under her skin. She screamed once, then sagged against the path. Her claws shortened into bloodied fingers.
“The blade cuts Adrian’s control without killing them,” I called to Bryony. “We keep it.”
Bryony’s attacker closed his hand around her throat. She stabbed his wrist, but his grip stayed tight.
I caught him by the back of the neck and lifted him away from her. The red marks covered his chest under the torn armour. I pushed the point of the black blade into the brightest line.
“Hold still if any part of you can,” I said. “This will hurt.”
His body went rigid. I cut across the mark.
The red command snapped. He dropped to his knees and vomited Adrian’s blood onto the stones.
Bryony rolled away and dragged air into her lungs. Finger marks darkened around her throat, but her eyes stayed clear.
Her hand closed around my wrist. “You came back. I saw the passage, Stellan. I know you could’ve kept walking and been free.”
I crouched beside her and checked the bruises with two fingers. “I knew it too. Then someone put a hand around your throat, and leaving stopped being a choice I wanted.”
A groan came from the spring wall. Lenora had slumped onto her side. Blood had spread across the path under her.
Bryony released me and crawled towards her. “She’s losing too much.”
I reached Lenora first and slid one arm under her knees. Her eyes opened as I lifted her.
“Don’t drop me.”
“Still issuing orders.”
“Save the reunion. Get me away from the gate.” Her voice weakened. “Adrian can restore the marks if those guards leave the lower court. Keep them inside until Harrowmere records his blood.”
Bryony picked up her sword and the black blade. “The garden is holding them. We take Lenora to my room, then I’ll close the royal door and make sure Adrian can’t reach them.”
“Walk beside me,” I said. “If the chain anchors again, I need warning before it closes.”
She moved to my left and kept one hand near the collar without touching it. We crossed the garden together while the roses held Adrian’s guards on the ground.
He remained in the passage beyond the broken gate. “You traded your only chance at freedom for two women who still don’t trust you.”
I looked back at him. “I can earn trust. You’ll never earn another chance to put your blood in my court.”
Bryony raised the black blade. “And now we know how to cut it out.”
Adrian retreated as white light returned around the damaged frame. The gate pulled itself closed one bent inch at a time. His face disappeared first, followed by the guards waiting behind him.
The final gap sealed.
My chain snapped tight.
I planted my feet and kept Lenora level as the collar dragged against my throat. The anchor had returned at the throne, and I’d used most of its length reaching the royal rooms.
Bryony caught the chain with both hands. “Don’t fight it while you’re carrying her. We’re close.”
We moved together. The pressure eased at the bedroom door, and I laid Lenora on top of the covers. Bryony cut the damaged straps from her armour while I pulled a folded sheet from the wardrobe and tore it into bandages.
Lenora pushed our hands away long enough to press her own palm over the wound. “It missed my heart. The leg is worse than the side, and I need blood when the court stops trying to kill us.”
“Harrowmere was protecting us,” Bryony said. “Adrian forced the guards to kill.”
“Then make the court remember who caused it.” Lenora looked at the black blade on the mattress. “His blood is in the garden and inside every guard he marked. Tell Harrowmere to hold what happened here.”
“How long do the marks last?” Bryony asked.
“Until Adrian releases them, the marked vampire dies or someone cuts the command out at the heart. He’ll try to recall those guards before Harrowmere finishes reading their blood.
Don’t let them reach the service passage.
Once the court holds the memory, Adrian can’t blame the deaths on Stellan or claim the Blood King attacked you.
The surviving guards can speak in front of the court, and Harrowmere can show Adrian’s blood moving inside them.
He used his regency to attack the heir he was meant to protect. ”
I tightened the folded sheet over Lenora’s leg. “Then Adrian has destroyed the lie keeping him in power. We keep the guards alive and let Harrowmere hold the proof. He’ll have to answer for his own attack.”
Bryony reached for another bandage. “Good. We’ll do that after we stop your collar dragging you back to the throne.”
Bryony tied the new bandage around Lenora’s side. “You’re staying here until you can stand without lying about it. Close your eyes and save your strength.”
Lenora’s eyes closed. “That may take several minutes.”
The collar tightened again. I gripped the doorframe as it pulled towards the throne.
Bryony saw my hand close around the wood. Her expression lost the small trace of humour.
“Go with it,” she said. “I’ll finish this and follow you.”
“Stay with Lenora. The marked guards can’t leave the garden while the court holds them.”
“I’m not letting you walk back into that prison alone after you chose to return.” She tied off the bandage and placed Lenora’s hand over it. “We’re taking off the collar.”
I looked at the open bedroom, the wounded commander on Bryony’s bed and the damaged gate beyond the garden. The route out was closed, and the collar had me again.
Bryony picked up the black seal blade and came to my side.
“Show me the final anchor,” she said. “This time, we open it together.”