Page 64 of Blood Curse

My hand lifted.

The broken dagger came free of the cloth. Its edge had snapped halfway down, leaving a narrow point stained black by old magic.

Fuck. I fought to lower it. My shoulder shook. The point kept rising.

Mara gripped the gate with both hands, sling and all. Elias caught the basin rim. The order had reached them too. It pressed them to watch their king obey without commanding them to move.

“Bryony,” I said. “Stay out of reach.”

She tried to answer. The Crown shut her jaw.

The dagger touched my shirt.

My hand pressed. Cloth parted over my heart.

“Stellan,” Elias called. “Turn the blade flat if you can.”

“Trying.”

“Don’t pull against the point. You’ll drive it deeper.”

“Tell me what you can move,” Mara said.

“My wrist. Barely.”

“Your elbow?”

“Less.”

“Your shoulder?”

I forced it back until my whole arm shook. “Enough for that.”

“Keep doing it,” she said. “Make the Crown correct you every inch.”

I twisted my wrist. The chain flashed again and tightened until cold pain ran to my elbow. The dagger turned half an inch. Its point scraped my skin instead of entering it.

Bryony hit the water with her free hand.

Her mouth opened.

Nothing.

She struck the silver leaves, once, then again. Blood sprayed from her cut. The Crown shuddered with each impact.

“Don’t hurt yourself,” I said.

Her glare suggested the advice had arrived at a poor time.

The point turned back towards my heart.

I could hear the Crown now. Its voice used Bryony’s mouth, but the command filled the garden from every direction.

Give what is yours.

Her blood in the spring. My blood at the blade. It wanted the rite to look complete even if choice had left it.

The dagger pierced my skin.