Page 4 of Blood Curse

“Off.” The word came out ragged. “Get me off.”

His jaw set. He lifted. The Crown’s points dragged free of the chair’s stone, not my skin. For one sickening moment, it felt as if the throne wanted to keep the metal and take my head with it. Then we were clear. Stellan dropped to one knee with me held against his chest. My boots touched the floor, but my legs refused to take my weight. He kept me upright easily.

The Crown still owned most of my body. It couldn’t make him kneel now. I clung to that victory. Lenora examined the points near my temple without touching them. “The metal has broken the skin, but it isn’t anchored to the throne.”

“Can you remove it?” Stellan asked.

“Perhaps. I’d rather not test that while it’s fighting her.”

“We agree.”

“We agree quite often. You’re usually bleeding too much to notice.”

His arm tightened around me. “Can you take back your legs?” I tried. My knees locked, then buckled.

“Not yet,” he said. “I’ve got you.”

My throat loosened enough for a whisper. “Don’t let go.” His head bowed towards mine. “I won’t.”

“Even if I order you?”

“Especially then.”

“Stellan.”

“You already gave the only order that matters. You released me. Anything else gets judged by whether it sounds like the woman who bites me when I’m annoying.”

“I bit you once.”

“It was memorable.”

Lenora cleared her throat. “Thrilled as I am that Bryony’s mouth is working, perhaps save the flirting until the ancient object is out of her skull.”

“That was medical history,” Stellan said.

“Of course.”

My laugh hurt, but this one escaped. The Crown heard the promise. Heat flashed at every point buried in my scalp. Red light ran along the metal and dived into the throne behind us. Harrowmere shuddered.

“What did it do?” Lenora asked.

I felt the answer before I could give one. A pulse rolled out of the throne room. It passed through the walls, raced along every ward and flooded the estate in a wash of royal blood magic.

Then it kept going.

Past the gates. Past the boundary stones. Out into the dark. The Crown had found an old road through Harrowmere, and something far beyond the estate had heard it. Stellan looked towards the open door. “Bryony?”

“Not me.” My voice was barely there. “It sent something.”

Lenora’s face sharpened. “A command?” I searched the fading pressure. It didn’t feel like an order. It felt like a door flung open and a hand beckoning from the other side.

“A summons.”

Stellan turned back to me. “For whom?”

“I don’t know.”

Lenora glanced towards the corridor. “Did it call one person?” I closed my eyes and followed the last trace of the pulse. It spread too wide for one mind. Dozens of distant sparks answered before the magic faded, each cold and old and unmistakably vampire.