Page 46 of Blood Curse

I pressed my tongue against the back of my teeth.

Stellan offered me a clean cloth instead of taking my wrist. “For your hand.”

I wiped the blood away until I couldn’t smell it on my skin.

“The king’s rooms are empty,” he said quietly. “We can leave.”

Every face in the hall remained turned towards me.

The Crown purred inside my head.

“Not yet.”

“Why?”

“Because it wants me to sweep out of here while they’re frightened. It wants the last thing they remember to be their queen staring at blood like she wanted to drink it.”

“What do you want?”

“For them to stop staring.”

“I can clear the hall.”

“That would give it another royal exit.” I looked at Mara. “Would you ask everyone to get settled?”

Mara rose, tested her bandaged arm and faced the room.

“You heard the queen,” she said. “Stop gawping. Find a room, wash the road off yourselves and try not to break anything Harrowmere has kept intact for a century.”

The guard raised her hand. “Does that include the wine cellar?”

“Especially the wine cellar.”

“Then Stellan should walk ahead of us.”

The tension cracked. A few vampires laughed. Others began collecting coats and bags.

They didn’t rush. Some approached to ask Mara about her arm. One woman squeezed my shoulder as she passed, then seemed surprised by her own courage. The young vampire who had been compelled waited until the hall had almost emptied.

Elias checked him while he waited. His pulse had slowed, but his hands still shook. The red mark on his neck had already faded to a thin line.

“Any pain?” Elias asked.

“Only where Stellan caught my shoulders.”

“He’ll apologise when he learns how.”

Stellan folded his arms. “I prevented him from reaching Bryony’s teeth.”

“That explains the bruises. It doesn’t make them pleasant.” Elias pressed two fingers against the young man’s wrist. “The compulsion has left your blood. The shaking should pass.”

“How can you tell?” I asked.

“His pulse responds to fear again. During the command it responded only to you.”

The answer landed harder than I expected. The Crown hadn’t simply moved his body. It had made every ordinary warning inside him less important than my voice.

“May I come closer?” I asked him.