39. Stellan
STELLAN
The dagger remained pressed under her ribs. He kept her body between us, leaving no clear place for me to attack. The red restraints pulled at my knees while Bryony dug her heels into the stone.
“Take your hands off her,” I said.
Adrian pushed the blade hard enough to open her skin. Her blood touched the black edge.
Every muscle in my body strained against the order to kneel.
“You know what this dagger does,” he said. “Give me your heartblood and I’ll let her walk out of Harrowmere.”
The dagger could take my power only if I surrendered or the crowned heir commanded my blood to obey. Adrian needed Bryony alive long enough to force that command, then he could discard every promise.
“You murdered the last woman who refused you. Your promises have lost their value.”
Bryony’s fear struck the bond, followed by anger. She hadn’t surrendered, and I wouldn’t make a sacrifice she hadn’t asked for.
The swordsman moved behind me.
His broken ribs slowed him, although Adrian’s mark kept the blade steady in his hand.
Lenora fought at the service passage with the freed guard beside her.
The marked woman had risen near the main doors.
She pressed one hand to the shoulder I’d injured and reached for her fallen sword with the other.
Adrian still had bodies to use.
“Stay back,” I told them. “I won’t kill you for his choices.”
The swordsman attacked before I could move.
I caught his wrist and turned the blade past my stomach. Red fire tightened around my arms. My grip failed before I could disarm him.
He drove his shoulder into my chest. I hit the floor on one knee.
The restraints seized the position and dragged my other leg down.
Adrian laughed as my other knee struck the floor. “There’s your king.”
Bryony stamped on his foot.
He swore and jerked the dagger away from her side. She twisted in his grip, shoved her elbow into his throat and nearly escaped before his arm closed around her again.
The distraction loosened the command.
I rose and drove the heel of my hand under the swordsman’s jaw. His head snapped back. I caught him before he struck the floor and lowered him hard enough to keep him down without breaking his neck.
The red mark kept burning while he lay unconscious. Adrian knew I wouldn’t slaughter his guards to reach him, and killing this man would support every claim he’d made about the Blood King.
The marked woman reached me as I straightened.
Her sword cut across my chest. The wound stayed shallow, but red light entered it and fed the cuffs. My arms locked at my sides.
She raised the blade again.
“Captain,” Lenora shouted.
The woman hesitated with the sword above her shoulder. Her eyes shifted towards the service passage while her body fought to complete Adrian’s order.
Lenora threw the black seal blade.
It skidded across the floor and stopped near my hand.
I couldn’t bend to reach it. The marked woman’s sword descended towards my neck.
Bryony slapped her palm against the throne.
The floor rose under the woman and threw her sideways. Her blade missed my throat and struck the dais. The command around my arms weakened as Adrian lost his grip on Bryony.
She had let him drag her close enough to touch the throne. The bond carried her relief as I understood the move.
“Hold him,” Adrian shouted.
The swordsman caught my ankle from the floor. The woman grabbed my arm while Harrowmere tried to throw her away from the throne. Their marks burned through the white ward light.
I tore free and dived for the seal blade.
My fingers closed around the hilt.
Adrian shoved Bryony against the throne and raised the heartblood dagger. “Stop or I put this through her heart.”
I stopped with the black blade against the mark over the woman’s chest.
Bryony’s back pressed to the carved wood. The Crown hovered above her, close enough for its black points to brush her hair. She kept her hands flat against the throne instead of reaching up.
“He needs you alive,” I said. “He won’t kill you before you take it.”
Adrian turned the dagger and laid the edge across her throat.
“Would you like to test that?”
“No,” Bryony said. “I’d like both of you to stop discussing my murder as if I’m not here.”
Her voice stayed level. She looked at the dagger, then at the red line running from it into my restraints. Her attention moved to the seal blade in my hand.
She wanted the marks cut and Adrian weakened while the Crown remained our last choice.
The marked woman tightened her grip on my arm. Her fingers shook with the effort of resisting.
I drove the seal blade through the red light over her heart.
The mark burst under the seal blade. She collapsed against me as the order released her body.
I held her upright until her legs steadied. Blood ran through the cut in her armour, carrying the last of Adrian’s red light onto the floor.
“Don’t let him mark me again,” she said through her teeth.
“Get to Lenora. She’ll keep you behind the guard seal.”
The woman pushed away from me and ran for the service passage. Adrian watched her go without concern. He still had the dagger, the Crown and Bryony within reach.
Adrian drew the dagger across Bryony’s throat.
The cut was thin. Blood welled under the black edge.
I moved before he could deepen it.
The swordsman grabbed my injured side. His fingers entered the open wound and tore it wider. Pain dropped me to one hand.
Adrian pushed Bryony onto the throne and came for me.
I ripped the swordsman’s hand from my body and drove the seal blade into his mark. Red light exploded across the floor. He rolled away with a shout as the command broke.
The heartblood dagger struck my shoulder.
I turned before the point entered deeply, but the blade opened muscle and sent another command into the restraints. My right arm went numb. The seal blade fell from my hand.
Adrian kicked it away.
I caught his dagger wrist with my left hand and forced the point from my chest. He leaned his weight over it. The black blade came closer a fraction at a time.
Bryony rose from the throne behind him.
The Crown followed her.
“Stay seated,” Adrian ordered.
She picked up the broken piece of my sword from beside the dais and hit him across the back of the head.
Adrian staggered into the edge of the dais. I twisted his wrist until the dagger point turned towards him.
He drove his knee into my open side.
Pain made my grip fail. He tore free and struck my face with the dagger hilt. The floor hit my shoulder before I saw myself fall.
Adrian planted his boot on my wounded arm.
I seized his ankle. The blood cuffs contracted until every vein in my hands burned red. My fingers stopped working.
He kicked me towards the base of the throne.
Bryony swung the broken sword again. Adrian caught it and ripped it from her hand. She went for his eyes with her fingers.
He slapped her hard enough to turn her face.
Rage gave me enough strength to move against the command.
I surged up and caught him around the waist. We hit the dais together. My shoulder tore open when it struck stone, but I kept hold of him and reached for his throat.
Adrian buried the heartblood dagger in the floor beside my chest.
Red chains burst from the cut.
They wrapped around my wrists and dragged my arms wide. Another length closed over my throat, pinning me beside the throne.
Adrian knelt over me and pulled the dagger from the stone. He placed the point over my heart.
Bryony stood on the other side of the dais with blood running from the cut at her throat. The Crown floated behind her head, waiting for her hand.
“Don’t give him your heartblood,” she said.
“I won’t.”
Adrian pressed the point into my skin. “He won’t have a choice once you’re wearing it.”
Bryony looked at me.
Her fear remained in the bond, but it no longer controlled her breathing. She glanced at the broken doors, Lenora fighting towards us and the marked guards recovering on the floor.
Lenora had reached the middle of the throne room. The freed guards moved with her, using their bodies to hold back the last vampire still under Adrian’s command. They were close enough to help if Bryony gave them an opening.
Then she faced the Crown.
Adrian smiled and pushed the dagger closer to my heart.
“Take it, Bryony.”