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The summons pulled at my blood. It didn’t own my feet. I walked because Bryony was walking.

The other vampires followed for their own reasons.

Mara moved beside me. “Are we letting it arrange the room?”

“Until it speaks.”

“I hate that answer.”

“So do I.”

“Good. I’d worry if you sounded pleased.”

Elias stayed near Bryony’s other side without touching her. “The Crown is holding her, the doors and the summons at once.”

“It conserved its strength.”

“Can she fight that much control?”

“She has before.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

“It’s the only one I have.”

The grey-braided woman joined us. Her steps were uneven after the feeding attack, but she refused the arm offered by the man in brown.

“What does it want?” she asked.

“A court that obeys,” Mara said.

The woman looked towards Bryony. “She released us.”

“Bryony did,” I replied. “The thing moving her didn’t.”

“Then tell us what to do.”

Every vampire within earshot waited for my answer.

“Listen to its exact words,” I said. “If it doesn’t command you, your body is yours. If it does, fight the result it names and use every movement it forgets to control.”

She rubbed the leg the Crown had forced under her during the feeding attack. “And if it uses Bryony’s voice to offer us what we want?”

“Remember who asked you to kneel and who released you.”

“The Crown will look like her.”

“Look at her hands. Bryony fights with whatever it leaves her.”

The man in brown touched his torn coat. “That thing drove me into a table.”

“You hit me with your skull.”

“I was making a broader point.” He glanced at the people gathering behind us. “If the order catches one of us, do the rest hold them?”

Mara answered. “If you can do it without breaking them. If you can’t, move anything dangerous out of reach and let Elias swear about the injuries later.”

Her mouth tightened. “And if it orders us to hurt Bryony?”