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The Crown made the cut deeper. It used the pain and tried to use the blood.

It didn’t get to decide what either meant now.

I opened my fingers and put my palm to the silver.

Blood unwound through the water in red ribbons. The carving caught it. Light ran across my skin and into the Crown.

The metal went cold.

The spring drew the blood already loose in the water without widening the cut. Each red thread touched a silver leaf and turned bright enough to see through the water. The light climbed the carving towards the points pressed into my scalp.

The Crown tried to turn relief into hunger. It sent the memory of Stellan’s blood across my tongue and the image of the dagger entering his chest.

I kept my teeth together and my palm against the silver.

For one clean breath, every part of my body belonged to me.

Then the Crown abandoned the command holding the court.

Pale bands broke into light across the garden and covered walk.

Stellan stayed still while the chain at his wrist loosened link by link. When the last one disappeared, his hand lowered to the basin rim.

He didn’t move towards the dagger.

The Crown took my mouth again.

“Every vampire in Harrowmere will take Stellan’s⁠—”

I bit down.

The last word broke against my teeth. What left my throat was a raw sound with no meaning.

The unfinished order reached nobody.

The Crown tried to rebuild it.

I pressed my bleeding palm harder against the silver and forced my own voice through the space the broken word left behind.

“This Crown used my blood and my voice to claim authority over the vampires of Harrowmere.”

The metal tightened around my head.

I kept speaking.

“I revoke that authority. Every command it has given through me ends now.”

The silver circle flared.

Something tore loose inside the Crown.

I felt every active command tear away from me along thin paths: into Stellan, Elias, the court behind us and every vampire elsewhere in Harrowmere. The force travelling through each path died when the light reached it, but the empty channels remained buried in their blood.

Mara staggered away from the gate. The vampires holding the slab lowered it together and stepped clear. Elias caught himself on the basin.

Only then did Stellan move.

He came to the edge of the spring. Rain ran through his silver hair. His torn shirt clung to his chest, and his pulse remained steady under it.