Page 204 of Blood Curse

We reached the basin.

The Crown made my mouth open.

“Every vampire in Harrowmere will hold their place.”

The command landed.

Stellan stopped with one hand above the basin rim.

Elias froze two steps behind him. Beyond the iron gate, pale bands flashed across the covered walk and locked around every vampire I could see.

Mara’s shoulder was braced against the gate. The command kept it there while the house pushed from the other side. The young vampire remained bent over the broken chair leg. Two others stood under the cracked roof with the fallen slab held between them.

The Crown had turned their defence into a trap.

The service door strained against the people holding it. The curtain tie began to split. A line of dust poured from the roof onto the vampires trapped under the slab.

They couldn’t release anything. They couldn’t step away or change their grip. The command had taken a dozen useful choices and fixed them in place until the house could make them lethal.

Mara’s eyes found mine through the iron bars.

She didn’t ask me to hurry.

She didn’t need to.

Stellan’s eyes stayed on me.

He couldn’t reach for the dagger. He couldn’t lift me into the water or keep the house from pulling me away.

Good.

This part never belonged to him.

I set the wrapped blade on the rim.

The Crown tried to close my fingers around it again. I dragged my hand away and climbed into the spring, boots and all.

Cold water surged to my waist.

My ankle screamed. The cut in my palm burned. My soaked clothes pulled at every movement, but the water was clear and the silver stayed bright under it.

I turned my back to the carved wall.

The Crown jerked my head forwards.

I pushed back.

One of the black points touched a silver leaf.

The voice in my skull screamed.

Pressure tore away from my jaw. My knees nearly folded as the Crown lost its grip on them. I stayed upright and pressed the metal harder against the carving.

The spring woke.

White light moved through the silver leaf. It travelled along the stems, reached the circle near the bottom and rose around me in thin bright threads.

My right hand was still bleeding.