Page 201 of Blood Curse

Elias joined us at the service door. Blood marked his sleeve, none of it his.

“Can she run?” he asked.

Bryony answered by running.

We entered the narrow passage with Elias at her other side. Mara dived through behind us. Lenora released the key as soon as she cleared the frame. The door slammed, cutting off the sight of the Night Hall without silencing it.

The lower court was already moving.

Vampires shoved benches away from the garden passage. Others wrenched open the inner doors and held them when Harrowmere tried to close them. On the upper landing, Lenora drove the waiting human staff farther from the path.

The Crown sent a shock through the floor.

Stone cracked. A cupboard tore away from the wall and crashed across the route behind us.

Mara landed on the other side of it. She looked at the blocked passage, then at the doors rattling ahead.

“Go,” she said. “The court will hold this end.”

She turned before I could answer and started moving people into position. Her voice cut through the lower court, direct and cold. Four vampires took the first door. Three shifted the fallen cupboard. The rest cleared anyone too injured to keep fighting.

They followed because she was right, not because blood made them.

Bryony’s hand closed tighter around the dagger.

I kept mine firm at her waist and ran with her towards the garden.

The covered walk opened ahead of us, pale with rain and moonlight.

Elias reached it first. Bryony and I crossed the threshold together.

Behind us, Mara held the lower court.

Above us, the stone began to groan.

37

BRYONY

The first stone came down where my head was.

Stellan turned me against his chest. The slab clipped his shoulder, exploded against the floor and covered us in pale dust.

The covered walk shook from roof to foundation.

“Keep moving,” Elias shouted.

We did.

Stellan’s hand stayed at my waist as we ran. My legs wobbled once. His grip kept me upright without breaking our pace.

The dagger dug into my cut palm. Blood made the wrapping slick. I kept my fingers closed around it and followed Elias through the narrow stone passage.

Rain blew through the arches on our right. The royal garden flickered beyond them in pieces: black roses, silver grass and the dead fountain we passed on our last attempt.

The spring was out there.

The Crown knew it.