30. Bryony
brYONY
The dagger looked longer in Adrian’s hand than it had in the vault memory.
Its silver point rested against the clear section of wall. Red light moved along the blade and spread across the damaged barrier.
Stellan shifted to cover me. I stepped beside him instead. Adrian had already spent too long treating me as a piece he could move around the court.
“You broke a wall to find us,” I said. “Congratulations.”
Adrian’s smile lost its warmth. “I made certain you could hear me. You’ve made yourself difficult to reach.”
“Murdering the people around me had that effect.”
The clear stone carried our voices without opening the barrier. Behind Adrian, his guards filled the passage in dark armour. None looked eager to test the thorns crossing the gate.
Stellan kept his body angled towards the dagger. His fangs had lowered, and the red restraints showed under the skin at his wrists.
“Say what you want and leave,” he said.
Adrian looked at him with open disgust. “You’ve had enough chances to die quietly.”
“You’ve had enough chances to kill me. We’re both disappointed.”
I touched Stellan’s arm. His muscles remained tight, but he let the exchange end there.
Adrian turned his attention back to me. “The barrier is failing, Bryony. Harrowmere recognises your blood, but you haven’t taken the Crown. The house can’t decide whether you’re its heir or another frightened human hiding in its rooms.”
“It decided clearly enough when it accepted the charge against you.”
A red mark appeared inside the clear stone. The witness seal was recording every word.
Adrian saw it and lifted one shoulder. “Keep the record. I’m offering the heir a way out.”
He raised the dagger until the blade caught the white light from Harrowmere’s wards.
“Wear the Crown willingly,” he said. “Command Stellan to hold still while I take his heartblood. Once the authority passes to me, the Crown will release you. You can walk out of Harrowmere alive and return to the life Edith stole from you.”
We’d expected the offer. Hearing it still made my skin crawl.
“What happens to Stellan after you take it?” I asked.
Adrian’s gaze slid towards him. “His sentence ends.”
“Because I’ll be dead,” Stellan said. “Heartblood doesn’t grow back.”
Adrian pressed the point harder against the barrier. “His life ended when Cecily fell. The court should’ve finished the execution Edith started.”
Stellan’s hand closed around mine. The contact kept me steady while his anger moved into my chest. I didn’t need Harrowmere to explain whose emotion it was.
“You want me to help you murder him,” I said. “Then I’m supposed to trust you to let me leave.”
“I don’t need your trust. I need you to cooperate.”
“You’re doing a poor job of getting it.”
Adrian’s control slipped for a moment. His fangs showed, and the guards behind him lowered their hands towards their weapons.
“Your grandmother filled your head with fear and left you ignorant,” he said. “She kept you human because a human heir was easy to hide. Now you’re trapped under a house with the vampire who slaughtered his queen, and you’re still defending her choices.”
Stellan went completely still beside me.
I looked at him instead of Adrian. “Is there more about Cecily that I need to know?”
His eyes met mine. “Yes. The account I gave you was true, but it wasn’t complete. There are details I owe you. None of them makes Adrian honest, and none changes what he intends to do with that dagger.”
That answer hurt more than a lie would have, but it was an answer. He hadn’t denied the truth or asked me to ignore it.
“Tell me when we’re alone,” I said.
“I’ll tell you.”
Adrian gave a quiet laugh. “You believe him because he’s learned to admit part of the truth. Ask him how many vampires died when Cecily wore the Crown. Ask him why Edith needed every chain in this court to hold him.”
“I’ll ask him myself. You don’t get to stand there with a murder weapon and pretend you’re protecting me.”
A door opened across the garden.
Lenora entered from the witness room with the surviving guards behind her. They stopped inside the inner boundary, close enough to hear without crowding us.
Adrian’s expression tightened as he looked at her. “You were ordered to hold the outer passage.”
Lenora placed a hand on the sword at her hip. “You lost the right to order me when you forced your blood into my body.”
“That seal on your shoulder belongs to my court.”
“Then take it back when you can reach me.”
One of Adrian’s guards moved towards the damaged gate. Black thorns drove through the gap and stopped him. He pulled away with blood running over his glove.
Harrowmere carried Lenora’s answer into the clear wall. Her words appeared beside Adrian’s offer in sharp red lines.
“The vampires at the main gate can see this,” Lenora said. “The witness room is showing them everything you say.”
Adrian looked towards the passage behind him. His guards shifted, and unease moved through them.
“Good,” he said. “They can see that I offered the heir mercy while the Blood King hid behind her.”
Stellan stepped forward until only the barrier separated him from Adrian. “I’m standing where she asked me to stand. You wouldn’t recognise the difference.”
The dagger struck the clear stone.
A red fracture spread from its point. Harrowmere answered with white light and forced the blade back, but the entire wall shook.
Stellan pulled me away from the crack. His arm locked around my waist while stone dust fell over the dais.
“That weapon was made to cut royal bloodwork,” he said. “Don’t touch the wall while it’s against the seal.”
Adrian drove the point into the fracture again. The opening widened enough for cold air to enter, carrying the sound of vampires gathering in the upper court.
Lenora drew her sword. The witnesses spread across the garden entrance and kept their hands away from the weapons Harrowmere had taken from them.
“He can’t force the whole gate yet,” Stellan said. “The house is still holding.”
“How long?” I asked.
“Long enough for you to answer him where everyone can hear.”
Adrian had made the bargain public because he expected fear to push me towards the Crown. I would refuse him just as publicly.
Harrowmere opened a narrow path across the dais. I moved onto it with Stellan beside me. He didn’t lead or follow. We reached the edge of the barrier together.
Adrian pulled the dagger free and waited.
The court’s white light gathered around my feet. It didn’t offer me the Crown or ask for blood. It carried my voice into the witness room and the halls outside.
“I won’t wear the Crown for you or command Stellan to surrender his heartblood,” I said. “Edith kept this court from you, and I’m doing the same.”
The red fracture stopped growing.
Adrian’s face emptied of every trace of charm. “You’re choosing a condemned vampire over your own freedom.”
“I’m choosing the vampire who returned when he could’ve left. You murdered the woman who raised me. This was never a fucking hard decision.”
Stellan’s fingers closed around mine. He kept his attention on Adrian, but warmth pressed into my palm.
The witness seal burned brighter. Every word Adrian had said remained visible in the wall behind him.
A murmur rose in the upper passage. The vampires gathered there had heard my answer.
Adrian turned on the nearest guard. “Seal the main hall. Anyone trying to reach the witness room is detained.”
The guard hesitated and glanced towards the main hall. “The outer houses answered a lawful call.”
“And I’m still regent.” Adrian caught the guard by the throat and threw him against the wall. “Obey me.”
The other guards moved at once. Boots struck stone as they spread through the passage, and the murmur beyond them rose into angry voices.
Lenora came to stand on my other side. “He’s losing them.”
“He still has the dagger,” Stellan said. “Fear will keep enough of them with him.”
Adrian heard him through the clear stone. “Fear has kept this court alive longer than either of you understands.”
“You mean it kept you in charge,” I said.
He wiped the blade across his sleeve. The blood on it belonged to the guard who’d reached for the gate.
“Enjoy the rooms while you can,” Adrian said. “The barrier is weaker every time Harrowmere protects you. Eventually, the house will have nothing left to give.”
White light covered the clear section, cutting his voice for a moment. He pushed the dagger back into the fracture and forced the connection open again.
Stellan bared his fangs. “Come through now and test that theory.”
Adrian’s gaze moved between us. “You want another fight because violence is the only decision you’ve ever made without a queen giving the order.”
I felt Stellan’s anger rise and squeezed his hand. He stayed beside me.
Adrian wanted him to lunge and prove every story about the Blood King. Stellan stayed beside me.
“You offered your bargain,” I said. “You have my answer. Get away from the gate.”
The command in my voice made the throne seal flash, although I wasn’t wearing the Crown.
Adrian’s hand jerked away from the wall. Shock crossed his face, followed by fury.
Harrowmere hadn’t made him obey. The house had used my recognised blood to push him out of its damaged seal.
The clear stone began to darken. Adrian stepped back and pointed the dagger at Stellan.
“When that gate opens again, I’ll bring enough vampires to take this court from both of you.”