40. Bryony
brYONY
The Crown hung behind me, close enough for its points to catch in my hair. I kept my hands down.
Adrian’s smile disappeared as he repeated the order. “Take it.”
“I’m not taking it because you order me to.” Blood from my throat slid under the collar of my shirt.
The dagger point stayed pressed over Stellan’s heart. Red chains held his wrists apart against the floor, with another locked around his throat. His shoulder and side were soaked with blood, but his gaze remained fixed on me.
Anger burned through our bond over the control I trusted. He wasn’t offering himself or asking me to give in.
Lenora fought near the foot of the dais. The two freed guards held the last marked vampire between them while she tried to reach his chest with the seal blade. Every second they kept fighting gave Adrian another second with the dagger.
I looked at the Crown. “You said it has to accept me.”
“It will.”
“Then you wouldn’t need the dagger.”
The cut across Adrian’s head had opened again. Blood ran into his eyebrow, and his careful regent act had gone with it. He looked furious, sweaty and far less powerful than he’d ever wanted me to see.
He caught the Crown with his free hand and dragged it down. The black points turned towards my scalp.
I tried to move, but the throne slammed into my back hard enough to knock the breath from me. Adrian brought the Crown closer while keeping the dagger angled over Stellan. Cold rolled over my face as the lowest point caught in my hair.
White light tore up the carved wood and struck Adrian’s arm.
Adrian shouted and lost his grip. The Crown flew from his hand, spun once above the dais and stopped beyond his reach.
Harrowmere had allowed the Crown close, then attacked when Adrian tried to finish the act. The house would accept it only from my hand.
Stellan moved the instant the light hit Adrian. He dragged one wrist half an inch towards his body before the red chains tightened and pulled him flat again. The effort tore open his shoulder wound.
Adrian shoved the dagger through his shirt.
The point broke skin. Stellan’s breath caught, and pain punched through the bond.
“Try that again,” Adrian said, “and I’ll take enough blood to leave him dead even if the transfer fails.”
“You need him alive until I’m wearing it.”
“I need his heartblood fresh. His comfort is irrelevant.”
Stellan bared his fangs. “You always did need a woman and a weapon to make you feel like a king.”
Adrian drove the dagger a little deeper.
“Stellan.” His name left me before I could stop it.
His eyes found mine. The sharp pain in the bond eased into grim patience. He’d wanted Adrian’s attention on him, and the bastard had taken the bait.
The last mark broke in a burst of red light. The vampire dropped between the two guards, and Lenora pulled the black blade free and started towards us.
He twisted the heartblood dagger inside Stellan’s chest.
Stellan made a low sound and arched against the chains. Red light shot across the floor towards the freed guards. It hit them at the knees and threw all three backwards.
Lenora stayed upright and drove the seal blade into the floor, using it to hold her position while Adrian’s command pushed against her.
“I can’t reach him,” she shouted. “The dagger’s feeding from Stellan’s restraints.”
“Then stay back,” I said.
“Bryony, don’t.”
She knew what I was considering. Stellan did too, because we’d made this plan before the gate came down. The Crown might be the only thing powerful enough to turn Harrowmere against Adrian. I could use it long enough to free Stellan, and he would stop me if it began turning me into Cecily.
It had sounded dangerous in the royal rooms and looked bloody stupid from here, but it remained our only plan.
Edith had warned me never to let Adrian put the Crown on my head.
She had chosen those words because Harrowmere cared about the hand that lifted it, not the pressure behind the act.
Adrian could cut us, chain us and make every other choice lethal, but if I placed the metal myself, the court would call it willing.
That loophole wasn’t freedom.
Stellan said my name. I met his eyes while Adrian kept the blade near his heart.
“Don’t let him decide for you.”
“He isn’t. We planned this together.”
His jaw tightened as he gave me one hard nod. He didn’t like the risk, and that was all we had time for.
Adrian lifted the dagger out of Stellan’s chest. Blood welled through the torn shirt, dark and thick. The black blade had gone in above his heart, but there wasn’t much room left for another mistake.
Adrian rose without releasing the chains and reached for the Crown again. Harrowmere struck him before his fingers touched it.
The floor bucked as stone split between his boots and white fire raced over his hand. Adrian hit one knee. His skin smoked, but he laughed.
The Crown drifted back to my side.
“The house won’t let you do it,” I said.
“It won’t let me crown you.” He looked up at me. “That doesn’t mean you’re safe.”
He seized the chain around Stellan’s throat and pulled.
The red links contracted. Stellan’s head struck the floor as the chain crushed his windpipe. His hands closed into fists, but the restraints held his arms wide.
I went for Adrian.
He drew the dagger across my path. I stopped before I ran onto the blade.
“Choose,” he said. “Lift the Crown, or watch him choke while Lenora bleeds herself dry trying to cross my command.”
Lenora had dragged herself to the bottom step. Blood ran from her palm around the seal blade’s hilt. Behind her, the freed guards struggled to stand under the red pressure filling the room.
The Crown waited above my shoulder.
I could feel Stellan’s pain through the bond, along with the savage urge to fight. None of it formed words. None of it had to.
He’d trusted me with the dagger over his heart. Now I had to carry out my part.
I stepped away from Adrian and towards the Crown.
His grip loosened on Stellan’s chain. “Good.”
I let my shoulders drop. My shaking hands gave Adrian the frightened, obedient woman he expected for the next few seconds.
Stellan watched me cross the dais. His face had gone pale from the pressure on his throat, but his gaze moved from me to the Crown and back again. He didn’t struggle when I stopped below it.
He understood.
Adrian mistook his stillness for defeat. “Place it on your head.”
“Release his throat first.”
“When the Crown accepts you.”
“You want me conscious for this, don’t you? Ease the chain.”
Adrian studied me and must have decided the demand was proof I’d surrendered, because he let one red link loosen.
Stellan dragged in a breath.
Lenora reached the second step.
I raised my hand towards the Crown.
The black metal turned until its open centre faced me. Fine lines covered every point, packed together like scratches from desperate fingers.
Edith had hidden me from this. Stellan had spent a century chained to it, and Adrian had torn Harrowmere apart to possess it.
I didn’t want it, and wanting had stopped mattering when the dagger entered Stellan’s chest.
Cold rolled over my skin before I touched it.
Harrowmere went still as the broken doors stopped shaking. White ward light faded from the walls, and every open passage around the throne room fell dark. Even Adrian’s red commands weakened as the house waited for my hand.
My fingers closed around the Crown.
Pain bit into my palm. The metal felt too heavy for its size, and a hard pulse moved through it against my skin.
A smile returned to Adrian’s face. “Put it on.”
I lifted it above my head.
Stellan’s control broke for a second. Fear hit me through the bond, raw enough to steal my breath. I looked at him until he saw that I was still myself.
Then I lowered the Crown.
I expected it to resist. Instead, the black points opened around my hands and the Crown accepted me.
It began to descend towards my head.