46. Bryony
brYONY
The cold presence carried a will that wasn’t mine.
Stellan tore his mouth from mine. His hands stayed firm on my hips while his eyes searched my face.
“Bryony?”
I tried to answer.
The Crown tightened against my head. Its points pressed through my skin near my temples and at the base of my skull. Pain flashed behind my eyes, sharp enough to buckle my knees.
Stellan caught me and lowered us both to the floor.
“What do you feel?”
“There’s a…”
My throat closed around the rest.
The cold moved deeper. It slid down my neck, spread across my chest and reached for every place the Crown had touched while I used it. Harrowmere’s doors and wards remained open to me, yet another hand had settled over mine.
The woman inside the Crown had been quiet enough to let me mistake her silence for safety. She woke with a hunger aimed straight at Stellan.
White light burst from the metal and struck the floor. It spread around Stellan in a wide circle, then climbed his arms.
He released me and pushed to his feet. “Move away from the throne.”
My body refused.
My knees straightened without any choice from me. One foot moved, then the other, carrying me backwards towards the throne. I fought every step and failed to slow them.
I could see Stellan reach for me. I felt the air move when he stepped closer. My legs, arms and mouth belonged to the will pressing through the Crown.
The first step touched my heel. My body turned, climbed and lowered onto the throne. The cold presence settled me against the carved stone as if it had done this many times before.
Fear tore through the bond.
Stellan stopped because he had felt my panic, even if I couldn’t tell him why.
“You’re still there,” he said.
I forced my fingers to move. One small twitch dragged my nails over my thigh.
His gaze dropped to my hand and came back to my face. “I see you.”
The presence pushed harder. My fingers flattened against my leg, and my spine straightened against the throne.
Pale links formed around Stellan’s wrists.
He grabbed the first chain and pulled. It didn’t break. More links appeared between his hands and the Crown, made from white light with a dark red centre.
They looked nothing like the iron he had worn for a century.
They held him just as tightly.
Stellan braced one foot against the lowest step and dragged both arms apart. The chains stretched. A hard pressure closed around my heart.
I gasped.
He stopped at once.
The pressure eased as my heartbeat steadied. Each pulse travelled along the chains to his wrists, brightening the red light inside them.
“They’re tied to you,” he said.
I managed another twitch of my fingers.
Stellan lowered his hands. “I won’t pull again.”
He turned his head towards the side door. “Lenora!”
The door slammed shut. White light sealed its edges before he could call again.
I reached for Harrowmere and tried to open it. The Crown closed over the command, holding every lock in place. I could feel the court, but I couldn’t make it answer me.
Stellan looked back at my hand. “I know you’re still there.”
I forced the smallest movement from one finger. He saw it.
No. He had to fight.
I threw everything I had at my right arm. The Crown held it against my side. Pain drove down my neck as the points sank farther into my skin.
Blood slipped behind my ear.
Stellan’s fangs dropped when he saw it. Rage hit the bond, hot enough to burn through the cold for a second.
My hand jerked free.
I grabbed the Crown and pulled.
The points drove deeper. The woman’s will slammed through my head, and my vision went white. I stayed conscious while my body arched against the pain.
“Let go,” Stellan said. “You’ll tear it through your skull.”
My fingers wouldn’t release it. I couldn’t obey him or the presence controlling the rest of me. I was trapped between both commands with my own hand locked around the metal.
Stellan crossed the space the chains allowed. They tightened before he could reach me.
“Bryony.”
I fought for control of my eyes. The presence wanted the throne, Stellan and every order his blood could carry. It didn’t care where I looked.
My gaze found his.
His fear was clear. So was the trust he had given me when he knelt by choice.
“I know this isn’t you,” he said.
The Crown dragged my hand away from the metal and placed it in my lap. I tried to claw my palm, bite my tongue or use any pain that might break its control. My body sat still while blood ran down my neck.
Stellan tested one chain with a slow pull. Pressure touched my heart again, and he released it.
“The vault has records,” he said. “Lenora can reach them. We’ll find a way to get it off.”
I wanted to tell him the woman inside the Crown could feel every fear I had. She knew I would endure pain for him. She knew he would stop fighting the chains to protect me.
She had both of us.
I had put on the Crown to free him. Now my heartbeat kept him trapped. Every instinct in Stellan pushed him to protect me, and the woman could use that without giving another command. If he fought the chains, the pain reached my heart. If he stayed still, she controlled the space between us.
The presence reached through my memories. It found Adrian trying to force Stellan to surrender his heartblood. It found Cecily’s death, Edith’s chains and every promise Stellan had made to me.
Then it found the command he feared most.
My lips parted.
I tried to hold my jaw shut until the muscles shook. The Crown forced air into my lungs and shaped my tongue around his name.
“Stellan Varen.”
He went still.
I pushed against the presence with every thought I had. My voice continued without me.
“Kneel.”
The command struck through the chains.
Stellan’s body obeyed.
His knees hit the stone.