Page 11 of Blood Curse

3

BRYONY

Stellan said her name as if it belonged to another life.

“Mara Voss.”

The familiar blood signature waited at Harrowmere’s outer gate. I couldn’t feel it as he could, but the certainty on his face left little room for doubt.

Lenora set the wooden case on the table. “Friend or enemy?”

“Friend,” Stellan said. “Unless the last century changed her opinion of me.”

“Did you give her a reason?”

“Several.”

“Choose the worst one,” I said.

His jaw shifted. “I ordered her away from Harrowmere on the night Cecily died.”

“To save her?”

“That was my intention. Mara called it cowardice dressed as sacrifice.”

“Was she wrong?” Lenora asked.

“She usually asked that question while holding a sword, so I learned not to answer quickly.”

I tightened my grip on the chair. “You make such reassuring introductions.”

His grey-blue eyes returned to me. “Mara was loyal when loyalty became dangerous. If she’s at the gate, she came because she chose to.”

“Then why hasn’t she knocked?”

“She’s deciding whether Harrowmere is about to eat her.”

Lenora opened the case. “Sensible woman.”

The Crown throbbed against my scalp, objecting to being discussed as part of the house’s appetite.

“We should let her in,” I said.

“After I check the metal that’s bleeding into your hair.” Lenora took out clean cloths, a small mirror and a narrow silver spoon. “Mara has survived a century. She can survive five more minutes.”

Stellan listened to something I couldn’t hear. “She’s still there.”

I sat again because my legs had begun trembling, not because either of them told me to. Stellan stayed within reach and let me pretend I didn’t need him.

Lenora came behind the chair. “Tell me before anything hurts.”

“I will.”

She separated my blood-matted hair with the handle of the spoon. Every careful touch reached the Crown. Cold followed the silver across my scalp.

“There’s no clasp,” she said.

“There wasn’t one when Adrian put it on me.”