Page 53 of Blood Curse

She said it plainly, though the decision was difficult.

I looked at the woman in front of me and measured what waiting would mean. More vampires would arrive before the next sunset. Every new body gave the Crown another pulse to hear and another person to command. Rest might strengthen Bryony. It would also give the curse hours to practise what it had learned in the Night Hall.

Trying now was dangerous. Waiting had stopped being the safer choice.

“If the spring doesn’t silence the Crown, we stop,” I said. “If either of us hears an order, we stop.”

“If one of us withdraws consent, we stop,” she added.

“Immediately.”

“And if a few drops of your blood don’t work, we don’t keep cutting until you collapse.”

“The same applies to you.”

“A failed attempt doesn’t become permission for either of us to sacrifice ourselves.”

“Agreed.”

She held out her hand. I took it.

The Crown remained silent. Agreement gave it nothing.

I tightened my fingers around hers. The contact was ordinary and warm. After a night full of stolen movement, that made it feel intimate.

Elias closed his case. “I can monitor the blood loss. Mara can watch the entrance.”

“With one arm?” Mara asked.

“Watching rarely requires two.”

“You’d be surprised.”

Bryony ignored them. “How soon can we reach the spring?”

“The garden door near the chapel was sealed when we checked it yesterday,” I said. “I won’t ask Harrowmere to open it while the Crown is listening.”

“Then we use another door.”

“The public garden entrance crosses the lower court. We would have to move half the people who just arrived.”

“There used to be a third way,” Elias said. “A covered walk for the household staff.”

I remembered a narrow stone passage along the outside wall. Cecily had used it when she wanted the garden without an official escort.

“Does it still open?” Bryony asked.

“It will,” Mara said.

“You sound sure.”

“I locked the gate myself when the court fled. Adrian altered the royal doors. He never noticed the servants’ gate.”

“I thought Adrian had sealed every route,” I said.

“He sealed every route he knew about,” Mara replied.

Mara pushed herself out of the chair.