Page 202 of Blood Curse

A service door flew open from the inner wall. Its edge cut across the passage at throat height.

Elias dropped. I threw myself after him. Stellan caught the door with one hand before it could reverse and crush us against the outer wall.

Red light ran over the hinges.

The wood fought him.

Mara reached us from behind with three members of the court. They hit the door together and drove it back into the wall. One vampire tore a curtain tie from a hook, looped it through the iron handle and wound it around a pillar.

The knot held.

For now.

“Go,” Mara said.

There was nothing clever in her voice. She planted both feet and put her weight against the shaking door.

We ran again.

The last time I crossed this passage, I complained about wet shoes and a spring that didn’t look dramatic enough.

I missed being that annoyed.

The floor bucked. A crack tore between my boots and raced ahead of us. Harrowmere tried to split the path before we reached the iron gate.

Elias cleared it in one stride. I jumped. My right foot landed badly on the far side, and pain snapped through my ankle.

Stellan’s arm locked around me before I fell.

“Can you put weight on it?”

I tested the next step. “Yes.”

He nodded once and moved with me.

Behind us, the court spread along the covered walk. Two vampires held the service door. Four lifted the fallen slab far enough for the others to pass. The young man from the Night Hall limped into place beside Mara and wedged a broken chair leg under the nearest hinge.

They weren’t following us to the spring. They were keeping the route alive.

Another door tore open farther back. The man caught it with his shoulder. The woman drove a stone block under the edge before Harrowmere could slam it shut again.

Nobody waited for Mara to assign the next task. They saw a gap and filled it. They saw someone losing ground and added their weight.

Stellan looked back once.

Mara met his gaze across the broken passage. She jerked her chin towards the garden.

He turned forwards.

The movement was small, but I knew what it cost him. He spent a hundred and twelve years unable to reach this court. Now they were behind him, standing under a roof that wanted to crush them, and he kept moving because stopping would waste what they had chosen to do.

The Crown drove another shock through the stone.

The iron gate slammed towards us.

Elias got through. Stellan shoved me after him, then turned sideways as the gap closed. Metal caught his coat and pinned him against the frame.

I grabbed the gate with my uninjured hand.