Page 55 of Blood Curse

Mara kicked a stone block into the track.

“There. It opens once.”

“Will it close?” I asked.

“Not unless someone moves that stone.”

“Can the house move it?”

“Harrowmere has ignored this passage for a century. Let’s encourage the habit.”

She returned the crowbar to its hooks as if her arm wasn’t trembling.

Elias noticed. He always noticed.

“You’re staying here,” he said.

“I’m watching the entrance.”

“From a chair.”

“Find me one and I’ll consider it.”

Stellan looked into the garden. “The path is clear.”

It was.

Wild grass had swallowed the edges, and black roses covered the old beds, but the narrow stone path still ran from the gate to the spring. Nothing blocked it. We didn’t need to cut roots, break branches or ask Harrowmere to move anything for us.

The simplicity made the Crown angry.

Pressure tightened around my scalp as I stepped past the gate. Stellan came beside me. Mara and Elias remained under the covered walk, ready to reach us if the ritual went wrong, but leaving the choice ours.

“One practical question,” Mara said. “How do we know when you want help and when the Crown wants an audience?”

“If I call either of you by name twice, come to the spring,” I said. “If I order you to leave, fight it and stay where you are.”

Elias frowned. “A direct order may not leave us much choice.”

“Then keep one hand on the gate. If your body starts moving without you, use it to hold yourself back.”

“And if the Crown makes you attack Stellan?” Mara asked.

“He stops me. You don’t rush in unless he asks.”

Stellan glanced at me. “We agreed that either of us can stop the attempt.”

“We did. This tells them what to do if one of us can’t speak for ourselves.”

Mara nodded. “Two names for help. Anything royal and dramatic gets ignored.”

“That covers most things Stellan says.”

“I heard that,” he said, falling into step beside me.

The Crown suggested I command him to carry me. I ignored it and kept walking.

The path curved around a dead fountain and opened onto the middle of the garden. The spring sat inside a low circle of white stone. Water rose from a crack in the rock, filled the basin and slipped over one side into a narrow channel.