Page 196 of Blood Curse

Bodies buckled. The man by the fire hit one hand. The young vampire struck the wall with his shoulder. Stellan’s chains dragged him lower until his head nearly bowed.

He kept his eyes on me.

I forced my fingers tighter around the dagger.

The Crown pushed another word towards my mouth.

“Kneel.”

The single word didn’t open a separate command. The Crown drove it through the same channels it had already made, reinforcing the first order.

Mara dropped to one knee.

She swore and rose again.

Elias got both feet under him.

The grey-braided woman straightened beside the man in the coat. Others used tables, walls and each other without waiting for permission.

The Crown couldn’t force the whole room down and prepare the next attack at the same time.

I felt the choice move through it.

The pressure bands flickered.

Stellan saw it too.

His bloody king’s chair stood between us. The court was scattered across the hall. The doors remained locked, and Lenora was still striking something heavy against the other side.

The Crown needed bodies it could move more than it needed knees on stone.

It released the first command.

The effect was immediate.

Every pale band disappeared.

Stellan’s red chains broke into light.

The pressure vanished from my legs and chest. My body pitched forward before I caught myself on the silver arm.

For one clean heartbeat, every vampire in the Night Hall was free.

Stellan moved.

He didn’t come towards me.

He twisted away from the middle of the room, put the dais behind him and cleared the nearest table in one jump. He had read the Crown’s choice and created distance before it could turn the court into a weapon.

I lifted two fingers from the bloody wrapping.

Still here.

His eyes caught the signal as he landed.

The Crown took my jaw.

My mouth opened.