Page 228 of Blood Curse

“It can close against someone forcing a way inside. It can’t stop anyone leaving.”

Mara pressed her palm to the old mark. A faint tremor moved through the floor and faded. The hall doors stayed open. Every person remained exactly where they chose to stand.

“Land and doors,” she said. “Nothing living.”

The court absorbed that in silence.

These decisions sounded practical because they were. Keys. Pay. Blood. Wards that protect walls instead of crawling into a person’s mind.

Together, they remade the court more thoroughly than another grand vow ever could.

Nessa looked at the covered throne. “We still need someone to lead.”

Attention shifted to Stellan.

He didn’t stand. His hand rested open on the table, beside mine, our little fingers touching.

A man near the windows shook his head. “I came here to escape one ruler. I don’t want another.”

“Then you won’t have one,” Stellan said. “My title doesn’t follow you through the gate. If you leave the court, you owe me nothing.”

The man watched him. “And if I stay?”

“You decide whether I lead you. You can change that decision.”

Murmurs moved around the hall. They weren’t magically uniform. Questions overlapped, then separated. People asked who settled disputes, who spoke for Harrowmere beyond its land and what happened if Stellan made a decision they rejected.

He answered aware that leadership always carried conflict.

“I’ll listen,” he said. “I’ll decide when delay puts people at risk. I’ll explain those decisions, and I’ll hear a challenge without treating it as treason. If that isn’t enough, you choose someone else.”

The man by the windows folded his arms. “You’d allow that?”

“It isn’t mine to allow.”

Silence followed.

Stellan had been a king for longer than anyone in this room had been free. Giving up ownership hadn’t stripped the authority from his voice. It had made space around it.

Nessa stepped away from the wall. “I choose Stellan as king of the Blood Court.”

The grey-braided woman beside her lifted one hand. “So do I.”

Others answered. Some spoke his name. Some raised a hand. The man by the windows remained still for several seconds, then gave one slow nod.

Two people near the doors didn’t join them. One planned to leave tomorrow. The other had said she needed time. Their silence was allowed to remain silence.

Mara stood near the open doors. “You have your answer.”

Stellan looked around the Night Hall.

His eyes found every person who chose him and each one who didn’t. Then he looked at me.

I didn’t nod for him. This choice was his.

He rose carefully. The room stayed standing with him rather than lowering to its knees.

“Then I accept,” he said. “I’m your king because you choose me. I’ll remember the difference.”