Page 215 of Blood Curse

Its black hilt shone under the rain, the short blade red to its broken edge. Elias had both hands pressed over the wound in my chest. Mara knelt in the water beside him, feeding folded cloth under his palms as each layer darkened.

Bryony was at my head.

Her fingers shook against my jaw. A strip of linen circled her hair, already spotted red where the Crown tore free, and water ran down her face like she had been kneeling here long enough to become part of the storm.

Her mouth moved. I heard my name a second later.

My heart dragged itself through another beat.

“There you are,” she said.

The words broke halfway out. Her thumb pressed under my ear as if she needed proof that my skin was still warm.

I tried to answer. My first breath caught against Elias’s hands and became a rough sound that hurt more than speech should.

“Stay down,” Elias said. “The blade missed the heart. The wound is still open, but the metal’s hold is gone. Give your body time to close it.”

His voice reached me as advice. It touched neither my blood nor my bones.

I remained still because he was right.

The choice felt enormous.

Mara lifted the top cloth. Blood welled through the cut, slower than it had a moment earlier. Elias replaced the pressure.

“Again,” he said.

Mara passed him another folded square. Her hands were steady. A deep cut marked one cheek, and part of her sleeve had burned away, but the hard focus in her face belonged entirely to her.

They were helping me because they decided to.

I turned my head towards the basin. The movement pulled at the wound. Bryony’s hand followed, supporting my neck without trying to stop me.

Black fragments covered the silver carving. Water ran over them, clear now. One piece rocked when the spring spilled across it, light enough to be moved by the current. The marks inside the metal had vanished.

Only dead iron remained.

Beyond the garden gate, vampires lifted broken beams from the covered walk and guided the injured away from falling slate. Their voices overlapped in questions, warnings and offers of help. One woman refused an arm, changed her mind two steps later and took it. A man left the gate, then turned back to brace it for the people still crossing.

Choice looked untidy.

It was the finest thing I had ever seen.

“The court?” I managed.

Mara looked towards them. “Free.”

The single word moved through me more cleanly than blood.

Bryony bent until her forehead touched my temple. She gave one shuddering breath, then another. Her body was cold. Human skin should never stay in this water so long.

I lifted my hand towards her and made it halfway.

She caught it in both of hers. “Don’t you dare apologise. Just stay alive.”

“I intend to.”

Her wet laugh carried too much relief to be amused.