33. Stellan
STELLAN
The crack in the main gate ran through the floor under my bare feet.
Bryony kept pace beside me across the lower hall. I had a sword and no armour. Adrian had never cared whether his opponents were prepared.
Another strike hit the gate. White light flashed across the walls, then broke into thin lines that crawled towards the throne room.
“Stay behind me.”
“I can’t work the house from behind you if you keep moving.”
Even frightened, she could make an order sound stupid when it was.
“Then stay behind the silver line.” I pointed to the narrow strip set across the floor ahead. “If anyone gets over it, you run.”
“If anyone gets over it, I close a door on them.”
There wasn’t time to argue. Harrowmere answered her, not me.
Lenora waited at the arch to the lower court with a long blade in her hand. Her dark hair had come loose over one shoulder. A dead vampire lay near the wall, his neck opened to the spine.
Bryony stopped hard. “He got inside?”
“Only him,” Lenora said. “The service passage is still sealed. The main gate won’t hold another strike.”
The broken gate hadn’t made the clean wound in his neck.
“Was that Adrian’s dagger?” I asked.
“Yes.”
A point of black metal punched through the split in the gate. The white ward around it hissed and shrank away.
I looked at Lenora. “Take the service passage. Don’t leave it unless you hear Bryony call.”
Lenora glanced at Bryony, received a nod and ran.
The dagger withdrew. A hand replaced it, pale fingers curling around one side of the crack. The vampire outside pulled. Iron screamed against stone as the gap widened.
I crossed the silver line.
“Stellan.” Bryony’s voice stopped me for half a second. “Tell me what you need.”
I looked back at her. Fear had taken the colour from her face, but she held her ground.
“Keep the throne-room doors open until I’m back over this line. If my restraints turn bright red, shut them between me and Adrian.”
Her eyes dropped to my wrists. “Even if you’re still outside?”
“Especially then.”
She hated the answer. I watched her accept it anyway.
“Come back fast,” she said.
“That was already my plan.”
The gate split wide enough for a body. A vampire came through sideways with a short axe raised. I met him before both feet reached the stones.
He swung for my throat. I caught his wrist, drove my shoulder into his chest and put him into the wall. The axe dropped. He went for my eyes with his free hand.
I slammed the sword through his ribs.
He laughed in my face. “Still chained.”
“Still stronger than you.”
I ripped the blade sideways. His body folded, but he caught my arm as he fell and sank his teeth into my forearm. Pain tore up to my elbow. I punched the hilt into his temple until bone gave way. When his jaw loosened, I pulled free and cut his head from his body.
The second vampire was already inside.
He ignored me and ran for Bryony.
“Left door,” she shouted.
Stone ground behind him. A narrow door swung out from the wall and struck his shoulder. He turned with a snarl, giving me the second I needed to reach him.
I hooked an arm around his neck. He threw himself backwards and crushed me into the closing door. My sword struck the floor. He drove an elbow into my injured arm, then twisted towards Bryony again.
Black thorns burst through the joints between the flagstones. They caught his boots and climbed his legs.
Bryony stood with one palm flat against the wall. “You’re not fucking touching him or me.”
The vampire clawed at the vines. They tightened until blood ran over his boots.
I picked up my sword and drove it through the back of his neck.
He dropped. The thorns dragged his body away from Bryony and released it near the open gate.
A slow clap came from the other side.
Adrian stood beyond the broken iron with four vampires behind him. He wore a dark coat over court clothes, as if he’d come from dinner instead of an attack. The heartblood dagger rested against his palm.
“There he is,” Adrian said. “I wondered how much of the Blood King was left.”
I stepped over the first body. “Come closer and find out.”
His smile held no humour. “Kneel.”
The restraints around my wrists flared.
Red shot up my arms. My knees hit the stones before I could lock them. The sword fell from my hand, and the order pushed deeper, forcing my head down.
Adrian walked towards the gap.
Every part of me fought to stand. My muscles locked harder. The skin around the restraints split, and blood ran into my palms.
“Stellan, move!” Bryony shouted.
“Can’t.” The word came out between my teeth. “Close it.”
Adrian reached the threshold. “She won’t shut you out.”
The throne-room doors slammed between us.
One caught the edge of Adrian’s coat. He cut the cloth free with the dagger before the stone could crush his arm. The instant the doors met, the pressure on my body broke.
I grabbed my sword and got to my feet.
Bryony stood on the other side of the silver line, both hands pressed to the wall. Her breathing was rough, and sweat shone along her hairline.
“You shut me out,” I said.
“You told me to.”
She lifted her chin, daring me to regret the order.
“I know.” Pride hit me so hard it almost covered the fear. “Thank you.”
A blade scraped against the closed doors. White sparks spat from the join.
I dragged the two bodies clear while Bryony kept her palms on the stone. The cut in my arm had already begun to close. The blood from my wrists hadn’t.
“Can he force them open?” she asked.
“With that dagger, yes.”
The sparks spread another few inches along the join.
“How long?”
I watched the sparks spread. “A few minutes if Harrowmere keeps fighting him. Less if it doesn’t.”
“Then we don’t waste them.” She looked towards Lenora’s passage. “We hold the throne room or the royal rooms?”
The royal rooms had thicker walls but only one exit. I couldn’t leave her trapped if Adrian got past me.
“You go back to your room. I’ll hold this line. Adrian sent that vampire straight at you.”
“No. The house stopped him because I was here. If I hide, you lose the only defence he can’t predict.”
She didn’t pretend she could fight or reach for the fallen axe. She’d found the job only she could do, and I still wanted her locked somewhere safe.
“If those restraints flare again, I may not be able to warn you,” I said. “You close the nearest door. You don’t come after me, and you don’t touch me while Adrian has control.”
Pain crossed her face. “Because you could hurt me.”
“Yes.”
She took one breath and nodded. “I’ll use the house. You use the sword.”
“Stay on my side of the silver line unless a door forces you over it. Then come straight back.”
Another scrape came from the stone doors, followed by a thin crack.
“I can do that,” she said.
Lenora appeared at the end of the hall. Blood marked the front of her shirt, but she moved without a limp.
“The service passage is secure,” she said. “Two tried it. They won’t try again.”
Her gaze found the bodies near my feet. “I see you’ve been busy.”
“Adrian’s outside the throne-room doors,” Bryony said. “He can control Stellan when there isn’t a closed ward between them.”
Lenora looked at my bleeding wrists. “That’s useful to know.”
“It’s more useful if we keep a door between us,” I said. “Can you hold the passage alone?”
“For now.”
I pointed towards the narrow arch on the right. “If they break the gate completely, fall back here. Bryony can close the lower hall in sections. We make them come through one door at a time.”
Bryony glanced around the hall. “Harrowmere gave me the side door and the thorns. I don’t know how many times it’ll listen.”
“Don’t ask for the whole house,” Lenora said. “Choose one thing and mean it.”
A section of white light went dark across the throne-room doors.
“I mean for those to stay closed,” Bryony said.
The remaining light brightened.
The dagger struck from the other side. A black point broke through the join, and a web of cracks spread over the stone.
I moved in front of Bryony. Lenora took position near the service arch.
Bryony’s fingers caught the back of my waistband for one quick pull. I glanced over my shoulder.
“Come back fast,” she said again.
“You’ll have to keep me alive. I’m not dressed for haunting.”
Her laugh was brief and shaky. “You’d be unbearable as a ghost.”
“Exactly.”
The pressure in the room changed.
It didn’t come from the damaged gate. The throne behind us gave a deep metallic knock.
Bryony turned. “I didn’t touch that.”
The red restraints at my wrists pulsed once.
Both throne-room doors swung open towards Adrian.
Bryony slapped her palm against the wall. “Close.”
Nothing happened.
She tried again, pushing until her arm shook. “Close the bloody doors.”
Harrowmere didn’t answer.
Adrian stood in the open gateway with the dagger in his hand and four vampires at his back.
He smiled at Bryony.
“Now,” he said, “we can talk.”