Page 134 of Blood Curse

“And then Adrian drove me out.” She pushed herself upright. “He isn’t doing it twice.”

Her choice settled into the room with more weight than a vow.

A young vampire lifted the sealed blood bottle and looked at the hungry man beside him. “You still need this?”

“Yes.”

He passed it over.

The metal didn’t react.

Another vampire righted the table knocked crooked during the attack. Somebody gathered the broken pieces of the kettle. Elias announced that his medical supplies needed sorting. Every person within reach found somewhere else to look.

“Cowards,” he said.

“Physician,” Mara corrected. “You enjoy labelling things. Start with the bottles.”

That earned a few tired laughs.

The court didn’t rebuild itself in a grand declaration. It returned to work.

Stellan watched it happen from the floor rather than the dais. The rigid line of his shoulders eased. He had spent over a century believing everyone was gone because he had failed them. Now some were leaving because they could, and the sight hurt him without breaking him.

I wanted to go to him.

My legs chose that moment to remind me they were attached to an unreliable human heart.

I gripped the chair and waited until the room steadied.

Stellan noticed anyway.

He came to me, stopping within reach of my hand without assuming I wanted help.

I took it.

“How fast?” he asked under the noise.

“My pulse?”

“Yes.”

“Slow. Still present.”

His thumb traced the side of my hand. “Elias should check it.”

“He will. First I want to enjoy the part where the Crown got nothing.”

The metal at my scalp gave one resentful pulse.

“It heard that,” Stellan said.

“Good.”

He watched my mouth. Heat rose through me that belonged entirely to my own body.

My heart sped up.

Stellan’s expression changed.