38. Bryony
brYONY
Stone crashed in the throne room. The impact shook the walls and sent another cloud of dust through the open bedroom door.
Stellan was already moving. He shoved himself upright, grabbed the sword beside the bed and put himself between me and the corridor.
I snatched my skirt from the floor and pulled it on. My black top had lost most of its hem to Stellan’s bandage, so I took his torn shirt from the chair and shoved my arms through it.
“If Adrian sees me dressed like this, I’m killing him twice.”
Stellan glanced back at me without lowering his sword. Blood marked the cloth around his side, although he stood straight and the bond carried his restored strength. “Get behind the inner door and control the room from there.”
“We agreed to interfere with each other’s terrible plans.” I picked up the short sword. “You aren’t fighting alone.”
Another crash came from the throne room, followed by Lenora swearing.
We ran into the corridor together.
The side door opened before us. Dust covered the throne room, turning the silver ward light into pale streaks. The main doors had split down the middle. One hung from its upper hinge while the other lay across the floor in pieces.
Adrian stood in the gap with the heartblood dagger in his hand.
The guards behind him wore black armour without the silver raven. I didn’t recognise any of them. Red light moved under their skin.
Adrian had marked another group.
The four witnesses we’d freed were nowhere in the fight. Lenora had sealed them inside the inner room before she took the service entrance.
She held that entrance alone now. Blood covered one sleeve as she blocked the narrow route with her sword. She looked at me through the dust.
“Keep them away from the throne.”
The floor cracked under Adrian’s shoes. Black metal pushed through the stone at the base of the throne, one narrow point appearing first.
The Crown had stopped pretending to stay buried.
I put my palm against the wall beside the royal suite. Harrowmere answered with a pulse that travelled through my arm and spread under the floor.
“Close the west section,” I said.
Stone rose between Adrian’s guards. The swordsman jumped forwards and landed inside the throne room. The woman struck the new wall from the other side. A second guard made it through before the gap sealed, leaving Adrian trapped in the narrow opening between the broken main doors.
Stellan reached the swordsman before he recovered his balance.
The guard slashed for his throat. Stellan knocked the blade aside and drove his shoulder into the man’s chest. Bone cracked under the impact. The guard stayed upright and attacked again under the force of Adrian’s mark.
The other vampire came for me.
I opened the floor under his front foot.
His leg dropped to the knee. He caught himself before his face hit the stone, but his sword skidded out of reach. I closed the gap around his boot and backed towards the wall.
“Stay down,” I said.
He fought the floor until blood ran from his trapped ankle. The red mark over his heart flared brighter.
“He can’t,” Lenora called. She blocked another strike at the service door. “Cut the mark or knock him out.”
Knocking out a vampire sounded difficult. I pulled the black seal blade from the sheath at Lenora’s belt as she turned past me. She released it without looking.
The trapped guard tore his foot free, leaving his boot inside the floor.
He lunged at me barefoot.
I stepped behind a pillar and pressed my hand to the stone. Harrowmere twisted it across his path. His shoulder hit hard enough to stop him. Before he could turn, I drove the seal blade through the edge of the red mark on his chest.
Light burst over my hand.
The guard screamed and threw me back. I struck the pillar, lost the blade and stayed upright through luck rather than skill.
Black lines spread from the cut in his armour. The red mark broke apart. He staggered away from me with both hands pressed over his heart.
“Service passage,” I said. “Lenora will protect you.”
His eyes cleared as the red light vanished. He looked at Adrian, then snatched up the seal blade and ran towards Lenora. She let him through before closing ranks with him at her side.
The Crown forced another point through the floor.
Adrian cut the stone holding him inside the broken doorway. The dagger opened the royal seal as if the wall were flesh. Red light spread around the blade and widened the gap.
I pushed more power through Harrowmere. “Shut him out.”
The broken doors dragged across the floor towards Adrian. He braced one boot against the frame and kept cutting.
Stellan threw the swordsman into the moving door.
The vampire hit Adrian and knocked the dagger from the seal. The broken sections slammed together, catching both men between them. Adrian shouted when the stone caught him. Stellan seized the guard by the back of his armour and pulled him inside before the stone crushed his chest.
He could have left him there.
The choice cost Stellan his opening.
Adrian thrust the dagger through the gap. “Stop.”
Red fire closed around Stellan’s wrists.
His body locked with the guard still in his grip. The vampire twisted free and drove his elbow into Stellan’s wounded side.
Blood soaked through the bandage.
Pain struck the bond hard enough to make my knees weaken. Stellan stayed on his feet while the guard hit him again.
I grabbed the wall and forced the nearest door across the floor.
It caught Adrian’s dagger arm and slammed his wrist against the broken frame. The command broke, and Stellan moved before the red cuffs faded. He headbutted the guard and drove him down.
“Bryony, left,” Stellan said.
The marked woman had found another route through the damaged main seal. She came at me with a short sword held close to her body.
I raised mine too late.
Stellan caught her arm from behind. She turned the blade towards his stomach under Adrian’s control. He trapped her wrist, but the fight dragged him away from the main doors.
Adrian saw the opening.
He cut the remaining seal and stepped into Harrowmere.
The house struck him with white light. He bent under it, then lifted the dagger and sliced through the ward pressing against his chest.
“You have no authority here,” I said.
“Neither do you until you take the Crown.”
“The house seems happy to disagree.”
I closed every door between us.
Adrian drove the dagger into the floor.
Red cracks split the stone. The doors stopped before they reached him, shuddering against the command buried in the blade.
Behind me, the throne groaned.
The floor around its base broke open. The Crown rose through the gap and struck the seat hard enough to split the carved wood. It climbed the back of the throne and settled where it had waited when I first entered Harrowmere.
One black point turned towards me.
I kept my hand against the wall. “Stay there.”
The Crown didn’t move.
Adrian smiled at the sight. “You’re already giving it orders.”
“It’s improving with supervision.”
His smile disappeared when I stared back.
The red cracks raced towards my boots. I stepped back, but the line reached the wall first. Harrowmere’s pulse vanished from under my palm.
Adrian had cut me off from the room.
The stopped doors slid back into the walls.
He came towards me with the dagger held low.
I raised the short sword. “Stellan.”
“I see him.”
Stellan threw the marked woman aside without hurting her and ran for us. The swordsman caught his injured side from the floor. Stellan stumbled, then kicked him away.
Adrian reached me first.
I slashed across his chest. He turned enough to let the blade strike his coat and caught my wrist before I could pull back.
His grip crushed the bones together. The sword fell from my numb hand.
I drove my knee towards his groin. Adrian twisted his hips away and pulled me against him. The heartblood dagger pressed under my ribs.
Stellan stopped before the black point entered my skin.
Every red restraint under his skin flared.
“Release her,” he said.
Adrian tightened his arm around my waist. “Drop the sword and kneel.”
“Don’t,” I said.
The dagger pricked my skin.
Stellan’s sword hit the floor. His knees remained straight, but the restraints pulled at him hard enough to shake his body.
Lenora shouted my name from the service passage. Adrian dragged me backwards before she could leave the fight holding her there.
The throne waited behind us.
The Crown lifted from its carved rest and hovered above the seat.
I dug my heels into the floor. Adrian drove the dagger harder against my side and forced me another step.
“You wanted a choice,” he said against my ear. “Now make it.”
He pulled me towards the throne.